Performance Evaluation & Interpersonal Conflict

During a performance evaluation, a manager typically reviews a subordinate’s behavior and actions on the job over the previous year. She solicits input from peers, superiors and business partners to get an accurate portrayal of the employee's work, as this feedback may reveal interpersonal conflict or other workplace concerns such as disrespectful treatment, ethical issues, abuses of power or harassment. Failing to address these problems during a performance evaluation could lead to continued dysfunction in the following year.

Conflict Resolution

  1. When evaluating performance, a manager typically cites specific examples that demonstrate how the employee responded appropriately or inappropriately to interpersonal situations, such as conflict resolution. This can lead to improved awareness, mutual respect and enhanced effectiveness. According to management experts Kenneth Thomas and Ralph Kilmann, people use five main styles of dealing with conflict: competitive, collaborative, compromising, accommodating or avoiding. Using a competitive style, an employee works from a position of power. Using a collaborative style, a person tries to meet the needs of everyone on the team. A person can use a compromising style to find a solution that meets some of the people’s needs or an accommodating style to acquiesce when necessary. In general, avoiding is not recommended, as it perpetuates conflict. A manager can work with the employee to refine his approach to conflict management so it is more effective.

Skills Assessment

  1. Conversations held during performance evaluations allow a manager to conduct a needs assessment. This formal identification of development needs helps improve performance by evaluating current behavior, identifying performance gaps and establishing strategic priorities. A manager can use free survey tools, such as SurveyMonkey, Zoomerang or SurveyGizmo, to generate questionnaires that allow subordinates to demonstrate their knowledge of conflict resolution techniques. Depending on the results, the manager can direct an employee to take a course, workshop or self-paced alternative to learn about these techniques.

Effective Communication

  1. Having difficult conversations, such as can come up during a performance evaluation, helps ensure workplace issues such as interpersonal conflict don’t fester and impact productivity. A manager should remind an employee that good communication ensures that meetings, email, reports and presentations achieve their desired effect. The concept of the 7 C's of Communication states that communication should be clear, concise, concrete, correct, coherent, complete and courteous.

Timing

  1. Don’t wait for an annual performance evaluation to address serious violations of policies and procedures related to interpersonal conflict. Unresolved stress results when people try to deal with complex interpersonal problems on their own. Resolve disputes as they occur because disagreements that involve someone’s professional future and income can distract workers and cause dissatisfaction, low morale, absenteeism and other workplace problems.