Internal guidelines for conflict management

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• To increase awareness and understanding of the handling of conflicts.
• Provide managers, employees, and their representatives with actionable guidance for identifying, preventing, and managing conflicts.
• To provide managers and employees with tools to be able to prevent and manage conflicts as early as possible.
• That conflicts should be handled in a good and predictable way.

The guidelines apply to all units and all employees at OsloMet.

The guidelines describe the university's case processing in conflict cases. See Appendix 1 for definitions of conflict and other key terms in this guideline.

Handling of whistleblowing cases pursuant to the provisions of the Working Environment Act in Section 2 A-1 (2) (lovdata.no) is not covered by these guidelines. When an attempt has been made to report without any action being taken, the case can be submitted as a formal notification in OsloMet's whistleblowing channel. Reference is made to the university's whistleblowing guidelines. 

Institutionalised conflicts with their own rules of the game, such as industrial action/strikes, are not covered by these guidelines.

The term "manager" here always refers to managers with personnel responsibility. The manager is responsible for ensuring that these guidelines are followed. The manager can delegate specific tasks, but cannot delegate the responsibility for preventing and managing conflicts. It is also the manager's responsibility to restore a fully satisfactory working environment.

Managers must themselves assess their own role and any disqualification in the handling of cases, including whether the case should be handled by a manager at a higher level. The manager must request assistance from the local HR unit if necessary.

Even if the manager is not disqualified pursuant to Section 6 (lovdata.no of the Public Administration Act), ties may affect confidence in the case processing. Such ties must therefore also be part of the basis for assessment here.

Employees who experience conflict must have information about conflict management options readily available. Situations will be experienced differently from person to person, and the person experiencing conflict has several alternative choices at any given time. The text below sheds light on these alternatives, and the further course of the handling of conflict cases at OsloMet.

Regardless of the procedure, OsloMet shall treat all cases with respect, confidentiality and protection of privacy.

No action from the employee

Although OsloMet wants employees to report difficult situations in the workplace, those who experience conflict or negative behaviour can choose not to take any action. There must be room to use discretion so that an employee can discuss the matter in confidence with others, such as employee representatives, in order to seek advice. At the same time, all employees have a responsibility to avoid spreading rumours and to contribute to a good working environment. Even if you initially choose not to act, you can take up the matter at a later date.

Informal handling by the employee himself

Anyone who experiences conflict-filled situations can try to resolve the situation through informal conversations and actions. The person who experiences the conflict-filled situation must choose to make direct contact with others involved, and give feedback about their experience. The manager cannot order employees to do this.

Formal handling from the manager

The formal handling describes three different types of cases:

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• Handling situations where there is not yet a conflict between two or more people
• Handling conflict situations between two or more involved parties
• Handling of third-party conflict reports

Handling before conflict arises

In situations where there is not yet a conflict between two or more people, but where the case is based on a person's subjective perceptions of challenging conditions, the manager can, in consultation with the employee, make a decision on practical changes that can remedy the situation.

This is particularly relevant in situations where there is either no clearly defined counterpart or where one considers that the problem is one's own experience and reactions more than a counterparty's behavior. This can be a good alternative for early management of challenges that may result in conflicts in the long run. At the same time, the manager must assess whether the situation in question has an impact on larger parts of the working environment, and possibly consider further measures.

Conflict situation between two or more known people involved

If anyone experiences conflict situations, this should be brought up with their immediate manager. When a manager has received such a notification, the manager cannot fail to do something about it. If the employee feels that the manager is part of the conflict, the manager's manager must be contacted.  If in doubt as to whether this is a matter that should be reported, or about how to proceed, the employee representative, safety delegate or local HR unit can be contacted for advice. A report of a perceived conflict situation can be communicated both orally and in writing. The following should be stated in the white paper:

Handling of third-party conflict reports

There are no formal requirements for a report of a perceived conflict situation, but a description of the case should be given as precisely as possible:

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• Who the conflict concerns
• The sequence of events
• Time and place of the events in question
• Names of any witnesses

The more detailed the description, the easier it will be for the manager to follow up on the case.

​​​​​Employees can speak up

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• in the line - to their immediate manager or manager at the level above,
• to the safety representative,
• to union representatives or
• to others who can help resolve the conflict.

If an attempt has been made to report the matter without any action being taken, the case can be submitted as a formal notification in OsloMet's whistleblowing channel. Reference is then made to the Whistleblowing guide. Whistleblowing should not replace ordinary conflict resolution and communication with responsible managers, but should be an additional channel for serious cases. Whistleblowing cases, like conflict cases, should normally be handled in the line. Particularly serious cases can be handled by OsloMet's whistleblowing committee.

The manager has a duty to safeguard the working environment also while the handling of the conflict case is ongoing. Depending on the situation and needs, the manager must make an assessment in relation to whether it is necessary to implement short-term measures while the case is ongoing. Examples of measures are:

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• Temporary solutions that improve the individual's working day
• Support conversations with the occupational health service
• Follow-up of the individual employee
• If necessary, physical location of those involved

To ensure good handling, correct procedure is important. When the employer is notified of a conflict situation, the manager must investigate what has happened in the case. Managers should pay particular attention to clear frameworks, information and predictability, so that those involved have an understanding of what will happen.

Achieving good communication in conflict cases can be difficult, and it is recommended that the manager sets up a plan to try to ensure good dialogue in and between meetings.

The manager should first talk to those who are directly involved. By not involving more people than is strictly necessary, one can ensure that the conflict does not escalate further and/or that the conflict picture becomes unnecessarily complicated. Those involved must be given reasonable information about progress and conclusions. In the conclusion, it should be stated that the case has been handled. The manager must consider how much information can be released, while at the same time safeguarding the privacy of those involved.

In conversations, the manager should focus on what has actually happened, with the aim of gaining an understanding of what the conflict is based on. It may be appropriate to ask about:

• Specification of events
• How many times the incident has occurred

Information that is irrelevant to the case, or that has little relevance to the case, must be disregarded by the manager.

All employees have the right to bring someone they trust, such as a union representative, to such meetings, and must be given information about this.

Contradiction

Contradiction is the right of those involved to counter accusations about themselves. Conflict management must also ensure that the person who is accused is given the opportunity to contradict - that he or she is allowed to present his or her version, and that measures are not taken until those involved have been sufficiently heard. The person who reports the conflict must expect to have to explain themselves about the case, and those who are accused have the right to receive information about the report and to comment on the case.

If significant discrepancies are revealed in explanations, or between explanations and other information in the case, this should be followed up in an adversarial manner.

Duty to take action

Those involved have the right to a proper working environment throughout the handling process. This means that the manager must continuously assess whether temporary measures are necessary.

Once the manager has drawn a picture of what has happened, an assessment is made of what measures are appropriate to resolve the conflict and to safeguard the working environment. The manager has a responsibility to ensure that the procedure does not entail an increased risk to the psychosocial working environment, and must implement the necessary measures if the working environment subsequently develops in an unfortunate direction.

At the same time, both as a manager and an employee, it is important to be aware that some strain is a natural part of working life. Examples of such a burden may be a conflict of opinion or that an employee has received factual criticism. In the event of foreseeable stress, it may be appropriate to conduct a conversation to clarify the role, expectations for deliveries, motivation, management, as well as collegial and organizational conditions. Such conversations will often be able to shed light on issues and provide further focus.

Relevant measures to restore the working environment will depend on what the conflict is about. Examples of measures are:

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• Involvement of the safety delegate service
• Involvement of the occupational health service
• The goal and starting point is that employees should be able to continue in the same position and at the same workplace. In deadlocked cases where measures have not proven to work, the manager can assess whether a change in work tasks or physical or organisational relocation of employees is necessary. In such cases, the local HR unit should be contacted to ensure correct processes.
• In some cases, it may turn out that one or more of the people involved have behaved in a way that may indicate reactions in the employment relationship. The case must then be handled further in a personnel case track, where measures such as warnings or sanctions pursuant to Chapter 5 of the Personnel Regulations may be relevant. In such cases, the manager must contact local HR for assistance.

HR at OsloMet has professional expertise in conflict management, and assists when needed. If the conflict is deadlocked, the manager, in collaboration with the HR section manager locally or with the HR director, must make an assessment and decide how the process is to be carried out.

OsloMet has an employer responsibility in cases of harassment and other improper conduct in working life, even when only one party is employed by the university. Examples of this may be that an employee is publicly harassed in the media in connection with the dissemination of academic topics, students exhibit improper behavior towards employees or employees who exhibit improper behavior towards students. OsloMet also has a responsibility to prevent and stop harassment when this happens to students.

In cases where an employee feels violated by a party outside OsloMet, the employer has a protective and restorative task if he or she wants such assistance.

Conflict management, which contains documentation about the parties involved's views on the conflict and the employer's follow-up of the case, is archival worthy in accordance with Section 7-11 of the National Archivist's Regulations.

In principle, all activity can form the basis for documentation. In the early phases of a conflict, writing can escalate the conflict unnecessarily, and the manager must therefore continuously assess whether it is appropriate to document the activity.

Case documents that exist on paper are scanned into P360 and shredded as soon as they are available electronically. The names of those involved in the conflict must not appear in the case or document title. The default internal title used is Conflict management - [keywords].

Documentation in connection with case processing in conflict cases must not be stored on the contact card. The manager is responsible for ensuring that, with the assistance of SDI, a separate case is created with the correct shielding and access group in P360. The access group "Particularly sensitive" must always be used. The case is exempt from public disclosure pursuant to Section 13 of the Freedom of Information Act, cf. Section 13.1 of the Public Administration Act.

For information about students' rights in connection with the learning environment, see Guidelines for handling complaints about teaching (only in norwegian) and supervision and Health, safety and the environment for students

• Appendix 1: Key terms
• Appendix 2: Roles, responsibilities and tasks

 

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