The Effects of Conflict at the Workplace

All call center agents who work in a Philippine call center have one common goal. These employees usually come from different backgrounds, have a diverse set of skills and more often than not, approach every task at their own pace and capability. Because of such dissimilarity, conflicts and other issues could arise when call center outsourcing employees are not managed properly. Common factors for such arguments are values and character, power, social factors and even attitude towards work.

The most important factor in achieving a common goal is communication. If you have a barrier which includes poor listening skills, insufficient information, misleading interpretation and perception of nonverbal communication, it will be very difficult for the team to succeed.

The size of the organization, attrition and retention rate, employee engagement, reward systems and level of work focus among employees are all part of the structural disagreements. Whereas personal factors are the employee’s self esteem issues, personal goals, value, needs and respect for oneself.

For these aspects to be dealt with accordingly and successfully – managers, team leaders and call center agents alike must understand its instability and impact on the team as an one unit.

However, not all conflicts have a negative effect. It also gives the opportunity for each employee to express their feelings and speak what’s on their mind that they believe is best for the team. Arising conflicts also enables the team’s problem solving and decision making skills to be put into use by motivating people to solve and analyze the situation. Call center employees follow a script while taking calls and encouraging them to express themselves and their ideas outside those calls is energizing as they try to seek the best solution. The most important thing when handling conflicts is your ability to handle it properly and constructively.

Having a productive and hardworking Philippine call center outsourcing team is every manager’s dream. But working together in peace is also a very important common goal. Team work is bounded by good leadership, cooperative team, effective communication and respect towards others and space.

Conflicts are normal, it’s just how you deal with it that makes it better or worst.