Understand Different Forms Of Conflict Behaviour And Dispute Resolution

About this package

Workplace conflict can involve coordinated action over pay or conditions, but it can also appear as individual behaviour that undermines trust and performance. This package examines those differences in a UK employment-relations context, helping learners diagnose a dispute before deciding how to respond. It explains why treating collective action as individual misconduct, or overlooking wrongdoing as part of a wider dispute, can escalate tensions and create legal risk.

The first part explores organised conflict, including strikes, work-to-rule, go-slow, overtime bans, protests and deliberate disruptive behaviour. It contrasts these with unorganised misbehaviour such as sabotage, fraud, absenteeism and walking out. The content connects these distinctions to HR investigations, management decisions and organisational policies. It also considers technical and customer-facing workplaces, where disruption may first become visible through system performance, data quality or service delivery.

The package then examines changing patterns of industrial conflict. Learners consider shorter, strategically timed strikes and interpret indicators such as strike frequency, working days lost and numbers of workers involved. Qualitative drivers, the use of injunctions and the individualisation of conflict through grievances, disciplinary processes and tribunal claims are also covered. These topics lead into sanctions frameworks, including internal policies, external principles and legislation, with emphasis on evidence, proportionality, consistency and procedural fairness rather than an automatic punitive response.

The final part compares conciliation, mediation and arbitration in individual and collective employment disputes. It distinguishes approaches that help parties reach voluntary agreement from arbitration, which produces a binding decision. Coverage includes conciliation in employment tribunal claims, mediation to restore working relationships and ethical management of disputes. The stated learning outcomes ask learners to apply these distinctions to workplace scenarios, assess settlement or mediated outcomes, and design a conflict-management plan with an appropriate third-party intervention and measurable indicators of success.

Who it’s for

This package suits HR practitioners, people managers and learners studying employment relations who need to analyse workplace conflict and make reasoned decisions about sanctions and dispute resolution. It is particularly relevant to those handling grievances, disciplinary matters or collective disputes.

What’s covered

1. Defining conflict and recognising organised action

   Introduces the distinction between organisational conflict and misbehaviour. Examines coordinated forms of conflict, including strikes, work-to-rule, go-slow and overtime bans, and their implications for negotiation and employment relationships.

2. Unorganised misbehaviour

   Explores individual or uncoordinated behaviour such as sabotage, fraud, absenteeism and walking out. Considers how these actions may signal damaged trust, unresolved grievances or weaknesses in management and organisational controls.

3. Practical responses in HR and operational settings

   Connects the classification of conflict to investigation, policy and proportionate management responses. Covers detection and risk in technical and customer-facing work, including effects on systems, data quality and customer experience.

4. Changing strike patterns and their drivers

   Examines shorter, strategically timed strikes and the reasons behind more targeted industrial action. Explains how strike frequency, working days lost and worker involvement can help learners interpret the scale and impact of disputes.

5. Injunctions and the individualisation of conflict

   Explains injunctions and their use in preventing or reshaping industrial action. Considers the shift towards individual grievances, disciplinary cases and tribunal claims, and how this changes the evidence, risks and responses involved.

6. Sanctions, policies and legal principles

   Examines internal disciplinary policies alongside external principles and legislation. Emphasises evidence, proportionality, consistency and procedural fairness when deciding on sanctions.

7. Third-party resolution and individual disputes

   Defines conciliation, mediation and arbitration, comparing their processes and intended outcomes. Explores their use in individual employment disputes, including disagreements about treatment, conduct and contractual terms.

8. Third-party intervention in collective disputes

   Considers how independent assistance can support communication and settlement between employers, unions and employee representatives. Distinguishes negotiated agreement from arbitration and its binding decision.

9. Conciliation and employment tribunal claims

   Explores conciliation as a route to voluntary settlement in employment tribunal disputes, including the role associated with ACAS. Considers practical outcomes, proportionality and fair decision-making under pressure.

10. Relationship repair and ethical conflict management

    Examines mediation as a way to restore or maintain employment relationships and contrasts this with arbitration. Considers how to match an intervention to the dispute’s purpose while managing conflict legally and ethically.

Learning outcomes

By completing this package, learners can:

• Define organisational conflict and misbehaviour, identifying at least five organised and five unorganised forms, with a real or hypothetical workplace example for each.
• Classify and summarise emerging trends in industrial conflict by interpreting quantitative or qualitative indicators from supplied case data, including strategic strikes, working days lost, injunction use and individualisation.
• Apply relevant internal policies and applicable legislation to determine appropriate sanctions in three workplace scenarios, justifying decisions with reference to procedural fairness and current legal principles.
• Analyse and compare the roles, processes and intended outcomes of conciliation, mediation and arbitration in individual and collective employment disputes, using at least two case studies to illustrate the differences.
• Assess how effectively conciliation and mediation restore employment relationships by evaluating evidence from tribunal settlements or mediated outcomes and recommending legally and ethically grounded improvements.
• Design a conflict-management plan for a supplied workplace dispute, selecting an appropriate third-party intervention, setting out implementation steps and predicting measurable indicators of success.

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