Unpicking conflict resolution – informal process and formal

procedure

Richard Saundry Reader in International Employment Relations

iROWE, University of Central Lancashire

iROWE/Acas Research Programme

• Accompaniment and Representation in Discipline and Grievance

• Conflict Management Case Studies – Workplace mediation

– Resolution officers

– Conflict management in retail

– Mediation and dispute resolution in private sector

• Over 100 interviews with managers, HR practitioners and employee representatives

Background and context

• Voluntarism to juridification • Development of legal framework of unfair dismissal • Extension of written (‘formal’) workplace procedures

for discipline and grievance • Representation gap – disappearance of ‘social’

(‘informal’) resolution processes • Increased use of external advice • Centrality of employment tribunals and perceptions of

threat of litigation • ‘Formality’ associated with delay, deadlock and

inefficiency

Dynamics of ‘informal’ resolution

• Perceived benefits of informal resolution – speed, cost, maintenance of employment relationship

• Potential drawbacks – lack of fairness and equity, inconsistency, increased risks re: compliance and litigation

• Evidence of more informal approaches – Revised Acas code of practice – More emphasis on informal resolution and early

mediation – Stripping out of procedural layers

• Tension between efficiency and equity

Informal resolution in practice

• Discussion between individual and line manager • Role of employee representatives

– Representatives able to negotiate on behalf of employee and ‘mediate’ between employee and employer

– More likely to be able to undercover underlying issues – Self-discipline and management of expectations

• Informal processes shadow formal procedure • Importance of high-trust relations • HR practitioners

– Key conduit between employee representatives and line management – Line manager confidence and capability – coaching role

• Workplace mediation - informal resolution? – Seen as a formal process of last resort by line managers

Barriers to informal resolution

• Responsibility for conflict management increasingly devolved to line management – Lack of confidence and capability – Fear of failure and litigation – Rigid application of formal procedure used as ‘safety blanket’

• Trend to remote HR services may leave operational managers isolated

• Erosion of employee representation – disappearance of informal channels of resolution

• Informal resolution processes squeezed out by operational imperatives

• Creation of a ‘resolution gap’

Concluding thoughts

• Policy shift has seen ‘unduly’ formal approaches characterised as obstacle to dispute resolution

• Consequent emphasis on loosening regulatory framework

• Policy debate overlooks the central role of relationships between key organisational actors

• Informal processes of resolution dependent on access to representational voice

• Weakening of legal regulation threatens to remove incentives for employers to resolve disputes