3 hours a week in Germany and Ireland and the Brazil

Employees of company spend too much time to fight in the Office: 1.8 hours per week in France, the Denmark, Great Britain, 2.8 in the US, 1.9 up to 3.3 hours a week in Germany and Ireland and the Brazil. In total, average time spent in managing conflict at work moved to 2.1 hours per week, equivalent to one day per month, according to OPP (), specialist European firm of the psychology of work and psychometric tests. Verbal skirmish, internal rivalries, personalities shocks, egos, disagreements about the Division of responsibilities, managerial failures or leadership, stress, work overload, all these elements come to feed the matrix of conflict situations. The latter, in Great Britain alone would cause even an annual loss of 370 million days of work. And it would be much worse in Germany, Ireland and the Brazil!

"The challenge of business is to find the right balance between the limits in performance caused by the conflict and the change that they driving," warns Antony Erb, Director of OPP France. A challenge, if one considers that 85 of the employees, all hierarchical levels alike, are concerned by the subject. Conflict equally opposed to performers or members of teams of management between employees to their superiors. "And it is not uncommon to see worse rather that soothe themselves," notes the study of OPP.

In fact, one out of six underlines the aggravation of disputes, in terms of time and duration, and points with concern their consequences: insults, personal attacks, diseases, work stoppages, conflicts between services, moral harassment, resignations, dismissals, failure of a project. Do not neglect the impact of cultural factors: indeed, 17 of the employees in the United States and Britain consider the clash of values as a source of conflict. Significant French employees characteristics: are they the most ready to avoid conflicts (36) and less likely to seek "win-win" (via dialogue including) solutions, to seek advice to colleagues or to consult literature (14).

The responsibility of each

"More big risk is a risk of cooperation and team spirit", says the study. In the salaried population, its lot of motivation, of receipts anger, insomnia or depressive States for some, or even of excitement for others. But which company can best reduce tensions 62 Of the employees interviewed by OPP, the resolution of conflict is more than the responsibility of each than exclusive human resources departments.

From the investigation, premium appears however given in this area, seniority and the higher hierarchical levels. However, although essential jurisdiction of the "leadership", the ability to manage conflict lack number of managers (this is at least 43 of the surveyed employees belief). Failure French executives, with the Danes, are also the first to recognize, in contrast to their British and American counterparts. Time or courage so obsessed by their career concerns, few of them pay attention to the "sticking points" (hours and workspaces, situation of patronage, problems repeated communication, etc.), generators of tensions in their team. Discharge, it should be recalled that the France is characterized by its poor efforts on training in the techniques of conflict management (technical remaining have not proven their effectiveness): 73 of hexagonal managers have never trained so (against a world average of 56). On the few broken to these techniques, they are 50 to estimate "does nothing in shooting. Consequence: many are depleted in lost fighting in advance either spend their time to avoid conflict or even to mine to ignore. An attitude which is detrimental to productivity, promotes aggression and maintains defence tooth and nail for quantities meadows square.