Abstract
Conflicts in the workplace are common and team leaders and management need to have the necessary knowledge of causes, indicators and skills to manage them. The conflicts can either be positive contributing towards realization of better results or negative deterring productivity and output.The passing of the FMLA led to many organizations re drafting their labor policies in order to be in line with the government requirements.
Conflict in teams is a common occurrence and team leaders need to possess the necessary knowledge on conflict management. Conflicts are caused by various issues such as, members having different goals, using different work methods, having different personalities and having different viewpoints or perspective towards issues. It is also known that when the is a lot of stress in the workplace it contributes to conflicts. Conflicts can be positive promoting creativity and innovation or negative causing decline in productivity and should be managed.
When tasks and assignments requiring cooperation and input from different employees falls behind schedule, is incomplete or is below expected starndards is a clear signs of conflict.Another sign of conflict is when team members ignore, exclude,alienate or avoid one another in meetings,breaks and generally in the wokplace.When there is tension in meetings, members refuse to talk,refuse to be grouped together or directly attack other members ideas and actions.Conflict can be identified more clearly when as a leader is told that there are issues between some of his team members or when one of them addimits that he is having problems with other employees.
There are a number of models used to resolve conflicts,McDowell et al (2007) describes the Circle of conflict model which focuses on assesing the drivers of the conflict as the means to manage the conflict.He explains that when conflict resolution focuses on external moods,relationships and values the will be no success because these are matters on which they do not possess control over.However they should focus on interests such as fears and concerns,data,lack of or too much information and structure to solve conflict.This model is preferred because it seeks to resolve the deep causes of the conflict this would remove the problem completely.
According to the U.S Department of Labour (2013),the Family Medical leave Act is an act of the government that allows eligible employees to a job-protected unpaid leave.In one year,this leave can be up to 3 months in which the employee has a new born child or to take care of a newly placed child in the family through forster care or adoption.The employees can also be taking care of a seriously sick spouse,child or parent,also in the case where the employee themselves are sick to the extent they are unable to carry on with work.The eligible employees are entitled to a Military Caregiver Leave.This leave can last up to 26 weeks in a period of 1 year, where the employee takes care of a seriously sick or injured spouse,child,parent or next of kin who is a covered service member.
Policies in most organizations have had to change from what they were before the passage of FMLA. Example before the act it was within the legal limits that an employee who got sick was only allowed to have a 10 days of leave and in some cases less.The employee could request for extended leaves which could be declined with no legal consequences.The employee had no guarantee of getting the job back after taking the leave he was at the mercy of the employer.However since the passage of the act an eligible employee who gets sick is legally entitled to up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave in a period of one year.The employee is also entitled to get his job back in the same capacity he was in or if not,he has to be given another job of equivalent level.
Another example is a woman employee who cannot come to work due to pregnancy and childbirth,before the FMLA there was no legal obligation to take her back into the company after the leave. However with the passing of the act if she is eligible, she is entitled to get her job back or a similar one and the organization would have to draft its policies to fit this.
Work cited.
- McDowell, M., Coleman, K., Rains, A., Seay, W., Steve, S., (2007) Management Models for Resolving Conflict in the Workplace.
- U.S Labor(2013) Family Medical Leave Act.
