Conflict is recognised as an inevitable aspect of every workplace, yet the impact it has on the workplace is measured. As conflict is not systematically measured like absenteeism, sick leave, performance etc., the impact it has on the organizational productivity and bottom line is often overlooked or underestimated.

Over the past 15 years‘, numerous studies have been conducted that measure the impact of functional and dysfunctional conflict on the personnel, the team and the organization. 65% of performance problems. 30% of their time managing conflict and doing so.

Notably, not all conflict is unproductive. Effectively managed conflict encourages; creating solutions, clarification and perspective taking. According to Daniel Dana, unmanaged employee conflict is perhaps the largest reducible cost in organizations today- and probably the least recognised „. In his study on the Financial Cost of Conflict he measures eight conflict costs did affect the organizations productivity:

Wasted time
Reduced decision quality
Loss of skilled employees
Restructuring
sabotage / theft / damage
Lowered job motivation
Lost worktime
Health costs 

Remarkably, time wasted by the person (s) affected by unproductive or poorly handled conflict accounts for over 50% of lost productivity time. Examples of ‚time wasted‘ include; absenteeism, worrying about the conflict, avoiding the other person, complaining to other colleagues. Using Dana’s online ‚calculator‘ tool clients can quantify the cost of unproductive time spent on their organization.

The Online Conflict Cost Calculator is the Online Conflict Cost Calculator . Developed by Oliver Ahern and a team of experts in Stuttgart, this tool successfully measures the impact of conflict and gives a breakdown of its costs.

Both Dana and Ahern’s online tools can be used to improve organizational training and management systems. Firstly to identify the benchmark and get a snapshot of existing conflicts and again during or after the change and impact. We encourage our clients to implement these conflict assessments into existing HR systems.

If you can not do it, you can not improve it.

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Lisa