ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to understand patterns of conflict behaviour, to recognise the issue of consistent junior management behaviour and explores how a grievance procedure is designed. Managers find it all too easy to attribute grumbles to troublemakers or disputes to the 'six of one, half a dozen of the other' category, before investigation. The key elements in prevention are knowing the patterns of conflict; the behaviour of supervisors and junior managers; and the organisation's operating policies, particularly human resource management policies. The key element in resolution of conflict is the operation of an authentic dispute and grievance procedure. Managers see it as a slight on their authority and workers do not trust the system, because it always supports management authority. Give guidelines to departmental managers on distributing effort and rewards. The problem facing management is not simply a matter of the complexity of grievances but that they exist at numerous levels.
