Indigenous Employees’ Preferred Conflict Management Approaches
The Indigenous Workways project asked Indigenous employees how they preferred to manage conflict at work. They were asked about preferences for the five commonly used North American approaches as well as preferences for holistic conflict management. Holistic approaches embody Indigenous worldviews for relationality, holism, collectivism and egalitarianism, flexible time, and future orientation. They include communal, egalitarian, reflective, and unrushed approaches to managing conflict. Together this cluster of Indigenous preferences is called holistic conflict management.
Consider the following example:
Restorative Justice
What Did The Results Say?
Results revealed that Indigenous employees equally preferred integration, compromise, and holistic conflict management approaches. They preferred avoidance, accommodation, and competition significantly less.
What Do These Results Mean?
Recall that integration and compromise involve caring about both yourself and others, reflecting the communal values and relationships found in Indigenous cultures. These approaches also capture Indigenous worldviews for mutual exchange.
Mutual exchange means that managers and employees work together equally and learn from each other. Indigenous ways of caring for the land demonstrate mutual exchange, where relationships with all living things are guided by taking only what is needed and giving back by caring for the land, animals, and the natural world.
Compromise is a process of give-and-take, wherein each party in a conflict commits to giving something up for the good of the future relationship.
Holistic conflict management introduces community, context, relationship repair, a long-term perspective, and flexibility. Instead of weighing only relative concern for self and concern for other, Indigenous employees also weigh concern for work unit, organization, and community.
Take some time to reflect on the information you have just learned.
Reflection
What do you notice about these results? Do you think they show any key differences with how Indigenous employees may approach conflict in contrast to non-Indigenous employees?
The Indigenous Workways team further discussed and collaboratively interpreted the survey study findings with a different group of Indigenous employees who defined five principle factors in effective workplace conflict management. Read examples of what Indigenous employees said about these 5 factors in the panels below:
The Role of Third Parties in Conflict Resolution
Sometimes when emotions are high or employees don’t feel safe to speak freely, a third party will help manage conflict. Managers often act as third parties in resolving everyday conflict at work. One Indigenous employee told the Indigenous Workways team that when a conflict involves an abuse of power or employees of different status, involving an external third party is essential.
Did You Know: Trust as a Cornerstone for Conflict Management for Indigenous Employees
In some cases, Indigenous employees may be prone to avoiding conflict to preserve harmony in the work group. Additionally, avoidance may be the preferred approach when there is a power difference between individuals involved in the conflict, making it more difficult to establish a ‘safe space’ to co-construct an equitable solution.
For Indigenous employees, trust is identified as a central component of conflict management.
