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Ilm Managing Stress and Conflict in the Organisation Essay example

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Assignment 2
Managing Stress and Conflict in the Organisation

Task 1
Understand the effectiveness of own organisation in dealing with workplace stress and conflict
Stress is a part of everyday life and as such is a part of all organisations. Cole in his 2004 book ‘Management Theory and Practice’ describes stress as:
The adverse psychological and physical reactions that occurs in individuals as a result of their being unable to cope with the demands being made of them. (p.382)
It is estimated that stress causes the UK economy around £7 billion a year, of which £4 billion is as a result of the 180 million working days lost due to staff taking time off work. As such the importance, if not purely on a financial basis, can be seen to …show more content…

In relation to the management of conflict the College has several inter-related procedures. The first and most important to this area is the Anti-Harassment procedure. This procedure deals with the steps, first informal and then formal, that a member of staff who feels they are being harassed can go down to resolve this conflict. Linked to this is the Disciplinary procedure under which action may be taken upon a successful Anti-Harassment complaint. For managers there is also the Poor Performance procedure should the conflict be in relation to the performance of a staff member. For conflicts in relation to employment matters, pay and grading issues the College has a Grievance procedure.
The above discussed procedures are those for the whole of the College and so should be equally applied across all departments. However with my directorate, conflict is to be avoided at all costs and rather than rely on the College procedures the expectation is that it will be dealt with internally within the directorate. Generally this results in compromise with no clear, long term resolution, instead ensuring that everything is seen to be running smoothly and thus not requiring the involvement of HR. This view is explained that is it better not to give HR an opportunity to point score

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