Understand different forms of conflict behaviour and dispute resolution.

About this package

Workplace conflict can take the form of coordinated employee action, individual complaints or disruptive behaviour. This package examines how to distinguish these forms and choose an appropriate response. It focuses on the evidence behind a classification: whether employees share a workplace purpose, how their actions are coordinated and whether individual conduct is connected to a grievance. This helps learners avoid judging an incident solely by the disruption it causes. The content covers strikes, work-to-rule, go-slows, overtime bans and protests alongside unorganised behaviour such as sabotage, fraud, absenteeism and walking out. It then examines the shift from prolonged strikes towards shorter, strategically timed action. Learners consider strike frequency, working days lost and worker participation together, recognising that a small number of strike days can still cause significant disruption and that no single measure explains a pattern of industrial conflict. The package also explores employers’ use of injunctions, the increasing expression of conflict through individual grievances and legal claims, and the sanctions available to employers and employees. It connects these issues with relevant legislation, workplace policies and lawful decision-making. An important distinction is that restricting industrial action does not necessarily resolve the disagreement behind it, while fewer collective disputes do not necessarily mean that workplace concerns have disappeared. The final part compares conciliation, mediation and arbitration in individual and collective disputes. Learners examine who controls the outcome, how conciliation supports settlement of employment tribunal claims, and how mediation can help restore working relationships. They consider when an agreed referral to arbitration is appropriate and what a binding decision means. The package brings these distinctions together in planning lawful and ethical resolution, including checking risks, required investigations, procedures and legal deadlines before seeking consensus.

Who it’s for

This package suits HR and people professionals, managers, employee representatives and learners studying employment relations. It is particularly relevant to those who need to assess workplace disputes and understand the choice between internal responses and independent third-party resolution.

What’s covered

1. Recognising employee-organised conflict

   Distinguish coordinated action with a shared workplace purpose from unrelated expressions of dissatisfaction. Examples include strikes, work-to-rule, go-slows, overtime bans and protests.

2. Recognising unorganised conflict and misbehaviour

   Examine individual conduct such as sabotage, fraud, absenteeism and walking out. Consider evidence of motive, collective intent and coordination rather than assuming that all disruptive behaviour is organised conflict.

3. Shorter, strategically planned strikes

   Compare prolonged withdrawal of labour with intermittent action timed to create concentrated pressure. Explore the implications for disruption, employees’ lost earnings and the sustainability of participation.

4. Interpreting industrial conflict data

   Examine strike frequency, working days lost and the number of workers involved as distinct measures. Learn why these indicators must be read together and why a dispute is not the same as a recorded stoppage.

5. Industrial action injunctions

   Explore how employers use court orders to restrain industrial action, including the role of interim injunctions. Consider the distinction between preventing disruption and resolving the underlying dispute.

6. Individualised conflict and lawful sanctions

   Assess the expression of workplace disagreement through personal grievances and employment tribunal claims rather than collective action. Examine lawful sanctions alongside relevant legislation, policies and principles.

7. Defining conciliation, mediation and arbitration

   Compare the purposes, roles and outcomes of three independent third-party approaches. The central distinction is whether the parties retain control of an agreement or an arbitrator determines the result.

8. Applying third-party processes

   Match resolution methods to the unresolved issue in an individual or collective dispute. Distinguish help with negotiating terms or repairing relationships from referral of a defined question for a binding arbitration decision.

9. Tribunal conciliation and relationship mediation

   Examine ACAS early conciliation before most employment tribunal claims in Great Britain. Contrast settling a legal claim with improving communication and trust in an ongoing employment relationship.

10. Planning lawful and ethical resolution

    Consider how to build freely accepted consensus while respecting legal duties and workplace procedures. Identify immediate risks, necessary investigations and deadlines before deciding whether discussion or third-party involvement is appropriate.

Learning outcomes

By completing this package, learners can:

• Distinguish between employee-organised conflict and unorganised misbehaviour by classifying strikes, work-to-rule, go-slows, overtime bans, protests, deliberate disruptive behaviour, sabotage, fraud, absenteeism and walking out in workplace scenarios.
• Analyse changes in strike frequency, working days lost and numbers of workers involved using industrial conflict data from a specified period.
• Assess the shift from prolonged strikes towards shorter, strategically planned action, explaining its implications for employees and organisations.
• Evaluate the increasing use of injunctions and the individualisation of workplace conflict, considering their effects on how disputes are expressed and managed.
• Assess the industrial sanctions available to employers and employees in given disputes, with reference to current practice, relevant legislation, internal and external policies, and applicable principles.
• Compare third-party conciliation, mediation and arbitration in terms of their purposes, processes, practitioner roles and outcomes in individual and collective disputes.
• Explain how conciliation supports the settlement of employment tribunal claims and how mediation helps restore and maintain employment relationships.
• Justify the selection of conciliation, mediation or arbitration for workplace dispute scenarios, distinguishing facilitated agreement from an arbitrator’s binding decision.
• Develop a legally compliant and ethical plan for managing a potential workplace conflict, specifying steps to build consensus and criteria for involving an appropriate third party.

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