Peter Urwin is Professor of Applied Economics and Director of the Centre for Employment Research. Peter has led large-scale research studies for over 20 years and is Principal Investigator for the ESRC-funded Skilled Managers project.
Richard Saundry is a leading academic authority on the management of discipline, grievance and workplace conflict. Richard’s current work focuses on developing managerial capability and he spearheaded the development of the training for the Skilled Managers Productive Workplaces project.
The importance of good management in solving the UK's productivity puzzle has been debated for many years. Nonetheless, most employees know that their manager has a 'deep impact on…their motivation, satisfaction, and likelihood of leaving the job' (CMI Better Management report 2023).
Unfortunately, many UK managers do not receive effective training and often lack the skills to create workplaces that work:
- a recent survey for the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) found that 4 in 5 of those moving into management positions have no formal management or leadership training
- our own research for Acas on managing working conflict suggests that once in post, line manager training is often patchy, non-existent or focuses on policy and procedure – Acas research consistently finds many managers lack the confidence to address and resolve problems at an early stage, which is key to maintaining good relationships
- every year conflict costs UK organisations close to £30 bn and impacts over one-third of the UK workforce – nearly 60% of workers who experience conflict suffer from poor mental health, and conflict is often triggered by line manager behaviour
A cutting-edge online conflict management training course
The Skilled Managers Productive Workplaces research study investigates the impact on managers and employees of an online training intervention designed to help managers prevent, contain and resolve workplace conflict.
This Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded study was led by researchers at the Universities of Westminster and Sheffield, in partnership with Acas. The first stage involved working with 150 managers and five organisations to develop and beta test the intervention.
Even at this early stage, the research uncovered interesting findings. The main barrier to training was time and space – there was clear demand from managers for a more flexible, accessible and interactive approach to training.
Therefore, the research team refined and distilled the content to the core components we felt were needed to:
- have good quality conversations
- address poor performance and misconduct
- decide how to respond to potential conflict
- resolve team-based conflict
We created a light-touch online training intervention using bite-size videos, scenarios and simulations that can be completed in around 3 hours at a pace and time to suit the manager. This design has been particularly well received by managers who are often hard to reach through conventional training approaches, for example in sectors such as construction and transport.
Research-proven positive impacts on managers
We know from existing Acas research on workplace conflict that the early resolution of conflict has substantial benefits for workers and organisations. However, managers who lack confidence tend to avoid conflict, and tackle problems by applying procedures rigidly, rather than developing solutions based on the mutual interests of all parties. To assess if the training addressed these challenges, managers completed questionnaires at the start and end of the course. These showed that the training significantly boosted managers' conflict confidence and competence in both respects. As a result of the training:
- 47% of managers in the main ESRC-funded study, and 64% in an Acas sub-study of just small businesses, were less likely to avoid conflict.
- 71% of managers in the main study and 69% in the sub-study of small businesses adopted a more problem-solving approach to conflict.
Evidence from the Acas sub-study of smaller organisations suggested that 80% of these managers intended to change the way they managed their team following the training. However, the million-dollar question is whether managers actually put these lessons into practice.
In the main ESRC project, we used a randomised controlled-trial (RCT), which is the most rigorous way for evaluating the effectiveness of an intervention – some managers received the training, but we also had a control group who didn't. In the Acas sub-study of smaller organisations, we trained all managers and surveyed staff before and after. We ran 'people surveys' as part of the research – the results show that a significant number of managers did change their practice after using the training, and this was reflected in responses from their staff in both studies.
For instance, in the main RCT:
- Across the majority of organisations, staff of trained managers reported a relative improvement in their managers' willingness to intervene in a timely way to tackle conflict – and this was significantly better than any change seen among staff of managers who did not receive training.
- Similarly, staff of trained managers reported a reduction in their level of work-related stress – and this fall was not observed among the staff of managers who did not receive the training.
- Meanwhile, for staff in the control group – whose managers didn't receive the training – we observe a significant fall in the 'net promoter score' (a measure of company loyalty that looks at people's likelihood of recommending their company) and also a drop in staff agreement that their organisation "respects individual differences (for example, cultures, working styles, backgrounds etc)" over the period of the study. Crucially, we see no such falls against these two measures for the staff of trained managers.
If we take these findings and scale-up to the UK using the Cost of Conflict study we previously did for Acas, interventions that promote conflict confidence and competence could help save employers in aggregate billions of pounds annually.
Where next?
Working with over 70 different organisations and training over 1,000 managers, we've found that an online, flexible and light touch intervention can boost conflict confidence and shape the way conflict is managed, particularly for managers who find training hard to access.
That's why we're now collaborating with Acas to release the conflict management skills training to employers more widely, as a flexible online learning and toolkit. Watch a video about our training collaboration on YouTube.
The training isn't a single 'silver bullet' solution to workplace conflict - our research also shows that organisational context is key, and in some settings face-to-face and more holistic offers may be more appropriate. Our research reinforces the work being done by organisations such as Acas, CMI and the Civil Mediation Council to highlight the importance of investing in managerial capability. By giving managers the confidence to intervene earlier and resolve conflict, we can help create healthy employment relationships and more productive workplaces.