In 2013, Richard Saundry coined the phrase ‘resolution gap’ when arguing the need for informal conflict resolution as an intervention to mitigate the rise in Employment Tribunals. Following Ury et al.’s (1998) argument that conflict is best resolved locally, informal resolution interventions such mediation or facilitated discussions should always be an organisation’s primary approach to conflict.
However, what happens when informal resolution fails? To me, there are two stages of Saundry’s ‘Resolution Gap’ – the informal resolution stage and the formal resolution through the disciplinary and grievance procedure. When informal resolution fails, individuals and organisations have recourse to utilise the disciplinary or grievance procedures.
Currently academics take a mixed view on how formal resolution impacts on the levels of workplace conflict: Williams (2020) argues that disciplinary and grievances help “contain and accommodate” (p321) workplace conflict, to the extent that managers rely on them as a default option when they are unable to resolve the issue informally (Saundry 2020). Nurse and Devonish (2007) argue that such procedures ‘institutionalises’ the conflict. Containment and institutionalising the conflict does not necessarily lead to the conflict being resolved.
I agree with Saundry and Dix’s (2014) research that invoking such procedures is an escalation of conflict. Not that this should be perceived negatively. Sometimes an issue can only be resolved if it is escalated. However, mismanagement of the procedure has been known to lead to further escalation in the conflict (Bennett et al., 2020, Cappelli and Chuvin, 1991).
Currently I do not feel that there has been sufficient attention to what needs to happen to ensure that conflict is appropriately managed during formal procedures. What we do know is that conflict escalates when employees feel dissatisfied in how their issue has been managed (Abbot, 2007). We also know that on occasion, parties become entrenched in their positions and as such find it difficult to reach an mutually agreeable resolution (Gibbons, 2007).
Certainly, the formality of disciplinary and grievances has an impact – not just on the employee. Ainsworth (2017:80) describes the process as “a kind of contest”, where individuals are “striving to prevail” which suggests an underlying sense of competition. The enactment of procedures has also been found to impact on relationships between HR professionals and operational managers (Fisher et al.’, 2017), arising from mis-managed expectations (Gennard and Judge, 2005).
Amanda Oates of Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust describes the situation quite nicely:“it is ironic that the very people processes that are designed to keep staff safe and legally protected are often the vehicle with which we do the most harm to our own people” (2022: 146).
From a research perspective it suggests that further work is required to be able to say that formal procedures can offer effective conflict resolution. From a practitioner perspective, this is a real need. My team and I hear first hand accounts from individuals who are embroiled in conflict, talking about the impact that it has had on them professional and personally. There is a need to understand how organisations can manage this better - or does there a need for a fundamental policy shift? I don’t have the answer, but I do know that there is no silver bullet.
References
Abbot, B. (2007) ‘Workplace and employment characteristics of the Citizens Advice Bureau client’. Employee Relations. Vol 29 (3) pp. 262-79.
Ainsworth, J. (2017) ‘Procedural Justice and the Discursive Construction of Narratives at Trial’, Languages Cultures Mediation. Vol 4.
Cappelli, P., Chauvin, K. (1991) ‘A test of an efficiency model of grievance activity’, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 45, pp. 3–14.
Fisher, V., Kinsey, S., Saundry, R. (2017) ‘The myth of devolution? The role of HR practitioners in the management of workplace conflict’. Paper presented at the CIPD Applied Research Conference, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
Gennard, J., Judge, G. (2005) “Employee Relations”, London, England: CIPD, 4th edition.
Gibbons, M. (2007) “A review of employment dispute resolution in Great Britain”. London: DTI.
Nurse, L. Devonish, D. (2007), ‘Grievance management and its links to workplace justice’. Employee Relations, Vol. 29(1), pp.89-109.
Saundry, R. (2013) Plugging the Resolution Gap? ESRC Seminar: Reframing Resolution. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde.
Saundry, R. (2020) The Impact of Covid-19 on Employment Relations in the NHS. Available at: www.socialpartnershipforum.org/sites/default/files/2021-09/NHS-Covid-ER-Report.pdf
Saundry, R., Dix, G. (2014) ‘Conflict resolution in the UK’. In Roche, W., Teague, P., Colvin, A. (Eds.), “The Oxford Handbook on Conflict Management”. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Ury, W.L., Brett, J.M., Goldberg, S.B. (1988) “Getting Disputes Resolved: Designing Systems to Cut the Costs of Conflict”. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Williams, S. (2020) “Introducing employment relations: a critical approach”. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 5th edition.
Karen Wise 