Conflict in the workplace isn’t always necessarily a bad thing. In fact, according to some Valley area business professionals, conflict can help grow a company and bring about more innovative and creative results for a client. At his information technology company SADA Systems, Tony Safoian said that two employees working on, say, a web page design can disagree on the look of the page but when channeled right that disagreement can result in a better product. “Conflict raises discussion,” added Bob Davis, COO with Davis Research LCC, in Calabasas. When it comes to the bad types of conflict clashing personalities, the non-team player, the jealous or combative co-worker no single answer exists on handling those situations. Larry Krutchik, principal with Encino public relations firm the Edison Group, compared managing workplace conflict with parenting. Just as parents cannot interject themselves into every disagreement between children, so managers and executives can’t do the same with their workers. Sometimes the employees just need to work out problems on their own. “You like to think that your peers can work out things among themselves at the level appropriate for that,” Krutchik said. But employees need to know there are proper ways to do that. Agoura Hills City Manager Greg Ramirez tells of two city employees who had a heated argument over a technical problem. It wasn’t that the pair disagreed that bothered him but that they argued in front of other employees, Ramirez said. The advice of these professionals is that disagreements should be done in private. Safoian, of SADA Systems, would add that employees should have facts to back up their position in any argument. How conflict is handled can distinguish an executive as a leader rather than just as a manager. A workplace leader will give professional advice and guidance when facing a conflict, said Brian Koegle, an employment law attorney in the Valencia office of Poole & Shaffery, LLP. Those leadership skills, however, cannot be taught but only learned in a process in which mistakes will be made, Koegle said. A positive outcome of a divisive situation occurred at a former firm where a partner held back the progress of the firm and preferred taking it in another direction. Rather than being confrontational with the partner an approach was taken that eventually had them come around and “see the light,” Koegle said. “The firm thrived,” Koegle added.
