Type of dispute: Workplace conflict due to promotion.
Time from mediation to result: Two half day sessions.
Background: Both Jessica and Alan have been working alongside one another for many years at the local newspaper. As their existing manager leaves the company, Alan is promoted, but still shares an office with the team, of which he used to be a member. Tensions arise when Alan decides to introduce a new policy, which makes little sense to the rest of the team and is likely to increase their already heavy workload.
The challenge: Alan and Jessica have been close friends and professional work colleagues for many years. For this reason the biggest challenge was to identify the “spark” that ignited the disagreement and decipher the most appropriate way of resolving the conflict, so that they could regain their previous friendship.
Objectives:
- Allow each individual to express what is troubling them in a safe manner
- Find a common ground which they can both agree on
- Make a future agreement, rather than dwelling on the past
- Get them working together as a team again
Reason for conflict:
Jessica’s position: Working at the newspaper for the longest period of time, Jessica has seen what initiatives worked well and what tended to cause problems. She was convinced that the new policy would fail, as well as increasing everybody’s individual workload. It was clear that the policy was set by senior management, but Jessica felt that Alan could have demonstrated a firmer opposition to the proposal, as he also believes it would make everybody’s working day more strenuous.
Jessica believes that as a person Alan lacks in confidence and has overcompensated for this by becoming overly strict with a couple of the team members, in an attempt to demonstrate that he is the boss. Aside to this Jessica, also believes that the team meetings are a waste of time, as Alan