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Eight Causes of Workplace Conflict in a Law Firm Part-1 Workplaces have workplace conflict. Their presence is not abnormal, but failing to recognize signs of conflict, failing to identify the causes of conflict and failing to remedy them properly can have devastating effects on your work and career. It is easy to hold that you can focus on your work and turn the presence of the world on and off at will, but it really does not work so easily without training and practice.
Creating Toffler’s zones to create pockets of emotional
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Conflicts in objectives or goals
stability can help to focus. However, identifying and
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Conflicts of work pressure
getting rid of workplace conflicts is one of the greatest
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Conflicts arising from work roles
services that you can do to yourself and to others who
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Conflicts arising from differences in personal val-
depend upon you. Every attorney working in a law firm or solo has to practice workplace conflict resolution,
ues (culture conditioning) •
because every attorney has to play the role of a
Conflicts arising from lack of predictability in workplace policies
manager within the confines of their workspaces. That’s because they are expected to take care of their own
Conflicts over resources:
affairs and effectively manage them as independent professionals.
Every working person requires access to workplace
The Eight Causes of Conflict Proposed by Bell and
other workers, lawyers, associates of legal staff.
Hart
This has to do with our abilities to do our jobs well.
resources be it a copier or a phone or the skills of
Shared resources without metered and dedicated or Law firms are large workplaces filled with emotionally
personalized access can lead to conflicts in the absence
stressed people used to critical thinking. Workplace
of proper load balancing mechanisms or absence of
conflicts and subtle undercurrents of tensions are all
personnel who can effectively juggle the conflicting
too common. To chart one’s career successfully, besides
workloads. When war ensues over the sharing of
work, workplace management calls for enhancing the
a copier or the time of an associate or staff, the
productive environment by identifying and removing
reasonable way is not to stand one’s ground but to
possible causes of conflict. Bell an Hart’s propositions
negotiate empathetically and resolve the conflict.
on identifying reasons of workplace conflicts have withstood the test of time and research and considered
Conflicts over styles of work:
to be one of the best tools in the arsenal of those who want to be in control of their workplace surroundings.
Individuals vary greatly in their personal styles of work, habits and needs. Conflicting personalities manifest
Here are the principal causes of workplace conflict
themselves in a conflict of styles that can lead to
according to Bell and Hart.
disaster. Some people believe everything should be scheduled, structured, and evenly spaced. There are
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Conflicts over resources
others who revel in crisis-management and wait till
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Conflicts in styles
the last moment to act while devoting the rest of the
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Conflicts in perceptions
time upon work that to them have higher priorities.
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