Dealing with bullying and workplace conflict: a guide for line managers

The quality of our working environment and relationships has a significant impact on our wellbeing. In any workplace there will be many different experiences and perspectives: we each see the world in a different way. This diversity of experience and thinking is a good thing, but it can sometimes lead to misunderstanding and disputes.

Some workplace conflict can be positive, such as a healthy amount of competition between team members to reach goals. But negative workplace conflict, like bullying or personality clashes, can harm individuals and undermine teamworking.

Workplace conflict between can occur in many different ways. It can occur across a wide spectrum of behaviour (often broadly referred to as workplace incivility), ranging from a personality clash to more serious types of unfair treatment – like bullying and harassment.

As a manager, you need to be at the forefront when workplace conflict occurs between team members. If you don’t tackle this workplace conflict head on at an early stage, it’s likely to escalate. Our report, Managing conflict in the modern workplace, also reveals that managers themselves can often be the cause of conflict. It is therefore essential you reflect on your own management style and the impact your behaviour has on others.

Drawing on key behaviours that our research has shown are vital in determining the health, wellbeing and engagement of a team, line managers can download our guide to help proactively identify and manage conflict at work. It focuses on how to handle conflict at an early, informal stage – before issues escalate into serious disputes that require the use of formal procedures.

Download the guide