The Manager’s Role in Reducing Workplace Drama Response to Colleague

Description

Respond to colleagues’ posts in one or more of the following ways:

· Identify a specific prevention strategy the manager could have used in the situation described that might have helped prevent the drama from occurring;

· Suggest a strategy your colleague did not mention that you believe might be effective in handling similar situations in the future; and/or

· Discuss how a strategy your colleague mentioned might also be of benefit in the situation you described in your initial post.

Colleague’s Post

Workplace drama has a detrimental impact on both the short-term and long-term objectives of an organization. Today, the pressures of both the workplaces and homes have created an overworked, tired, and stressed out workforce, which requires optimal human resources management to ensure that their short fuses do not blow (Overton & Lowry, 2013). I recently witnessed a tense instance of workplace drama that I found particularly interesting.

My colleagues are women who had not worked together for a very long. However, they had developed a close working relationship. In the few months they had been working together, they had become friends. I was in my cubicle one Monday morning when I heard a commotion in the hallway area. When I walked out of my office to investigate, I found them shouting at each other in anger, and some of my other colleagues had gathered around to watch. I did not immediately find the cause behind all the shouting but there was a lot of tension. Within a few seconds, they started pushing each other and it was evident that the incident would blow into a physical fight. However, our supervisor walked in and intervened. She approached the two ladies and calmly asked them to follow her into her office. They hesitated and continued shouting at each other. Yet, she gently put her hand on the arm of one and requested them again, in a conversational tone to follow her. When they got into her office, the first thing she did was offer each a bottle of water, and they started to calm down. It seemed that they recognized how shamefully they had acted by losing control. The boss told them that regardless of the cause of the spat, there were better ways to handle the issue in ways that did not affect those that worked with them and the organization as well. It was established later that the cause of the drama was gossip; one of the ladies had talked about the other one negatively behind her back. I heard that the two women apologized to each other at that point and later apologized to us via a memo through management.

I believe that the response of the supervisor was effective because she managed to diffuse a very tense situation. She calmed them down sufficiently enough to make them see the problems of their behavior. Apart from distracting the office for a while, the incident had a detrimental effect on teamwork. For instance, the rest of us had to shift their responsibilities for the time it took them to cool down to start working again (Sofield & Salmond, 2003). The incident also created tension in the office since nobody wanted it to seem as if they were taking sides. Gossiping affects the feelings of others and erodes trust (Quinn et al., 2010). The people in the office have started becoming more cautious and some of the more talkative colleagues are being avoided, which affects teamwork.

If I were the manager, I would have ensured I am a model of showing my subordinates that creating drama is a poor way of handling issues. Mainly, I would have remained calm and invited the two antagonists into a private area where I would correct the rowdy behavior. I would also be very clear about how workers are expected to communicate and maintain professionalism when dealing with each other at the workplace (Rosanne, 2019). I would also refer to this instance when reinforcing preferred interpersonal behaviors during employee training sessions. This would ensure know the organizational policies regarding workplace conflicts (Chism, 2011).