Resolving Workplace Conflicts: Employee Relations - Refusal to Work with Diverse Employees (PDF)

This conflict is set up as a scenario where an experienced project leader and a working supervisor resents the fact that there are fewer and more qualified employees while there are an increasing number of less qualified and inexperienced employees on her team. Her employer has even brought in employees from India and the Philippines to ensure adequate staffing. While she realizes these are necessary "evils" given the economic and employment climate, she is impatient with the inexperienced employees and the "foreigners," and in fact, she often withholds information and believes she's too busy to coach or mentor them. She's been observed on several occasions coaching other project leaders she supervises. This supervisor also treats Caucasian male managers with the utmost respect while having little patience and respect for female managers. Because all parties are involved with customers, these behaviors and attitude ultimately negatively impact the level of service customers receive.

With this tool you get the following:

•  The effects of not supporting diverse team members to succeed.
•  Considerations for why an unwillingness to be supportive exists.
•  Numerous solutions for addressing the unwillingness to be supportive.
•  Ideas for negotiating/adjusting solutions.
•  Potential barriers and ways to overcome them to achieve resolution.
•  Implementation timeframe.
•  Follow-up review commitments.

Additionally, we provide a blank, editable Conflict Resolution Worksheet and the Worksheet Guidelines providing a step-by-step process for addressing your own workplace conflicts.