Unpicking conflict resolution –
informal process and formal
procedure
Richard Saundry
Reader in International Employment Relations
iROWE, University of Central Lancashire
iROWE/Acas Research Programme
• Accompaniment and Representation in
Discipline and Grievance
• Conflict Management Case Studies
– Workplace mediation
– Resolution officers
– Conflict management in retail
– Mediation and dispute resolution in private sector
• Over 100 interviews with managers, HR
practitioners and employee representatives
Background and context
• Voluntarism to juridification
• Development of legal framework of unfair dismissal
• Extension of written (‘formal’) workplace procedures
for discipline and grievance
• Representation gap – disappearance of ‘social’
(‘informal’) resolution processes
• Increased use of external advice
• Centrality of employment tribunals and perceptions of
threat of litigation
• ‘Formality’ associated with delay, deadlock and
inefficiency
Dynamics of ‘informal’ resolution
• Perceived benefits of informal resolution – speed,
cost, maintenance of employment relationship
• Potential drawbacks – lack of fairness and equity,
inconsistency, increased risks re: compliance and
litigation
• Evidence of more informal approaches
– Revised Acas code of practice
– More emphasis on informal resolution and early
mediation
– Stripping out of procedural layers
• Tension between efficiency and equity
Informal resolution in practice
• Discussion between individual and line manager
• Role of employee representatives
– Representatives able to negotiate on behalf of employee and
‘mediate’ between employee and employer
– More likely to be able to undercover underlying issues
– Self-discipline and management of expectations
• Informal processes shadow formal procedure
• Importance of high-trust relations
• HR practitioners
– Key conduit between employee representatives and line management
– Line manager confidence and capability – coaching role
• Workplace mediation - informal resolution?
– Seen as a formal process of last resort by line managers
Barriers to informal resolution
• Responsibility for conflict management increasingly
devolved to line management
– Lack of confidence and capability
– Fear of failure and litigation
– Rigid application of formal procedure used as ‘safety blanket’
• Trend to remote HR services may leave operational
managers isolated
• Erosion of employee representation – disappearance of
informal channels of resolution
• Informal resolution processes squeezed out by operational
imperatives
• Creation of a ‘resolution gap’
Concluding thoughts
• Policy shift has seen ‘unduly’ formal approaches
characterised as obstacle to dispute resolution
• Consequent emphasis on loosening regulatory
framework
• Policy debate overlooks the central role of
relationships between key organisational actors
• Informal processes of resolution dependent on
access to representational voice
• Weakening of legal regulation threatens to
remove incentives for employers to resolve
disputes