How to manage a conflict in a company?

Definition and challenges of conflict management in companies

Conflict management in companies refers to all managerial methods and postures aimed at identifying, defusing and resolving oppositions between employees, in order to restore a healthy working climate and preserve the collective performance of the organization.

Let us be clear: an unresolved conflict never resolves itself. He mutates. It contaminates neighboring teams, fuels disengagement and ends up weighing on the financial results. A study published by Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) estimates that the annual cost of workplace conflict in the UK is £28.5 billion, taking into account absenteeism, turnover and loss of productivity (Acas, Estimating the costs of workplace conflict, 2025). Compared to the French context, the order of magnitude remains comparable.

The problem? This is because most managers are not trained in conflict resolution. According to the Cegos barometer on the social climate, only 30% of managers feel sufficiently equipped to manage a conflict situation in their team (Cegos, Social Climate Barometer, 2025).

1 – Identify the causes and types of conflicts in the company

If a conflict arises between employees, the manager will first have to identify the cause of the dispute, because the sources of tension at work are multiple and rarely unequivocal.

Typology of conflicts in companies

Here are the main examples of corporate conflicts that are encountered in organizations:

• Task conflicts: disagreements over work methods, objectives, or operational priorities.
• Relationship conflicts: interpersonal tensions related to personality incompatibilities, rivalries or a history of friction.
• Process conflicts: Differences in the distribution of roles, responsibilities, or resources.
• Value conflicts: cultural, ethical, or generational oppositions — including intercultural and intergenerational conflicts.
• Context-related conflicts: pressures arising from a crisis situation in the company, chronic stress, frustration with difficult customers or tense negotiations.
• Conflicts of authority: abuse of power, authoritarian management, systematic devaluation.
• Social conflicts: collective movements related to working conditions, remuneration or restructuring.

React quickly and qualify the conflict

Regardless of the cause of the conflict, the team leader must react quickly to prevent the situation from escalating. This implies precisely qualifying the dispute:

• Who are the employees involved?
• Is it a simple difference of opinion or a structural dispute?
• Is the conflict one-off or recurrent?
• What is its degree of intensity — latent, declared, open?

To better understand the origin of the conflict situation, the local manager will start by talking to each party individually. Each employee will be able to share his or her vision of the facts freely, and the manager will have an overview before bringing the protagonists together.

But make no mistake: the best time to intervene is before the explosion. You have to be attentive to weak signals — systematic avoidance, palpable tensions in meetings, exacerbated competitive spirit, derogatory remarks, sideways looks. These micro-signals are the beginnings of a declared conflict.

2 – Bringing the parties together and restoring communication

Once the cause of the conflict has been identified, all stakeholders should be brought together in a structured framework.

Conducting the mediation interview

The manager must conduct this exchange with rigor and method. In concrete terms, this means:

• Announce the course of the interview and its estimated duration at the beginning.
• Remind people of the rules of courtesy: do not interrupt speech, listen actively, express yourself on the facts rather than on the people.
• Encourage each protagonist to reformulate the other’s position — a technique from Nonviolent Communication (NVC) that forces empathy.
• Synthesize and reformulate the words of each person to check the good mutual understanding.
• At the end of the exchange, take stock of the areas of agreement and the remaining sticking points.

The goal is to restore benevolent communication to allow employees to express their point of view and find common ground. Every employee must feel listened to, understood and free to express themselves without fear of judgment.

Formalize commitments

Once consensus is reached, the commitments must be put in writing and signed by each party. This formalization transforms a verbal agreement — fragile by nature — into a concrete and verifiable commitment. It is also a point of reference in the event of a repeat offence.

3 – Adopting a mediator’s posture: concrete techniques

In a conflict situation, the manager’s role is that of mediator : he or she does not take sides, does not express his or her personal opinion, and sticks to the facts. Nor should he ignore the situation — managerial silence is perceived as a tacit validation of the conflict.

The manager must express his or her desire to defuse the situation and express his or her understanding of each other’s feelings, without judgment or complacency.

Five mediation techniques that can be applied immediately

Here are proven techniques that any manager can use when faced with conflict:

1. Structured active listening: systematically reformulate what each party is saying (“If I understand correctly, you feel…”) before moving on to the next interlocutor.
2. The reframing technique: transforming a complaint into a need. “He never listens to me” becomes “You need to feel that your expertise is recognized”.
3. Circular questioning: asking each party what they think the other feels. This technique, derived from systemic therapy, defuses rigid postures.
4. The separation of facts / interpretations / emotions: inviting each protagonist to distinguish what objectively happened, what he deduced from it, and what he felt. This grid clarifies misunderstandings.
5. Agreement on disagreement: when consensus is impossible, formalize points of divergence and agree on operating rules despite disagreement. Not all mediations lead to reconciliation — and that is acceptable.

Managing conflicts in a company requires a number of qualities : empathy, emotional intelligence, patience, open-mindedness, and active listening. These skills can be worked on — they are not innate.

It will also be relevant to value each individual, to recall the successes achieved and to congratulate each one for his or her efforts, in order to restore a positive climate after the resolution of the conflict.

4 – Anticipating conflicts: prevention and warning signs

As a line manager, the most profitable posture remains prevention. Dealing with a conflict is always more expensive than preventing it.

Building a culture of prevention

To prevent conflicts in the company, several levers are available to the manager:

• Regular listening to employees: monthly individual interviews, anonymous team barometers, open-door policy. The team leader must be attentive to signs of unhappiness and silent frustrations.
• Active team cohesion: teambuilding activities, team rituals (stand-ups, retrospectives), informal moments. The objective is to create a relational capital that cushions tensions.
• Non-violent communication training: According to the Harvard Business Review, teams trained in constructive feedback techniques significantly reduce the frequency of destructive conflict (HBR, The Right Way to Manage Conflict on Your Team, 2025).
• Fair Recognition of Achievements: Recognizing each person’s accomplishments, without favouritism, maintains a friendly spirit and reduces rivalry.
• Exemplary managerialism: to encourage respectful dialogue, the manager must set an example through his or her own mode of communication and his or her ability to calmly manage stressful situations.

Know your employees to anticipate risks

Getting to know your employees during individual interviews allows you to identify possible difficult personalities, to identify emerging discomforts and to understand the relational dynamics within the team. This in-depth knowledge is the best prevention tool a manager has.

5 – Practical case: when the conflict goes beyond internal competences

Let’s take a concrete example. A French industrial mid-sized company is facing an open conflict between its sales director and its director of operations. The disagreement is over delivery times: the salesperson promises tight deadlines to win contracts, and operations fail to keep up. Tensions have contaminated both teams. Coordination meetings systematically turn into confrontations. The general manager, historically close to the sales director, has lost his credibility as a mediator.

This type of situation illustrates the limits of internal mediation. When the conflict involves members of the management committee, when the natural mediator (the N+1) is perceived as biased, or when the crisis has taken hold, the use of an external third party becomes the only credible option.

6 – Call on an interim manager to resolve conflicts

If they take place over time, conflicts can be particularly harmful for all employees. They degrade relationships, disrupt work, impact the morale and motivation of teams, and undermine self-confidence.

In the long term, they can have a considerable impact on the company’s performance and lead to burnout. They also reflect a very negative image to customers and partners.

It is therefore necessary to resolve conflicts in a responsive and effective manner. The intervention of a third party, such as an interim manager, can be beneficial — precisely because he or she has no relationship history with the parties involved.

What a Wayden interim manager brings

At Wayden, our managers and interim leaders are equipped with the human qualities necessary for managing conflicts at work: relational ease, empathetic listening, charisma, relational and emotional intelligence, active listening, diplomacy, assertiveness.

With 15 to 25 years of experience in leading positions in complex environments, they are able to defuse all types of conflicts in companies with agility. Their intervention follows a proven methodology:

1. Rapid diagnosis — mapping of stakeholders, identification of root causes, assessment of the degree of urgency.
2. Structured mediation — individual and then group interviews, with a formalized discussion framework.
3. Action plan — written commitments, monitoring indicators, regular progress reports.
4. Skills transfer – training of internal managers in conflict resolution techniques to ensure autonomy after the assignment.

True operational leaders, they will be able to rebuild a climate of trust, restore team spirit and ease tensions — all while preserving the performance dynamic.