Political conversations—about guns, climate change, abortion, and religious expression—in the workplace often tend to be avoided in the name of collegial harmony.
When they do arise, managers may feel unprepared for dealing with political-based employee conflict. Morela Hernandez, the Ligia Ramirez de Reynolds Collegiate Professor of Public Policy at the Ford School and Michael Pratt (Boston College) lay out steps that employers can take to work through political disagreements in an article for MIT’s Sloan School of Management.
Hernandez and Pratt outline why political discussions are so polarizing: political issues are commonly viewed as moral identifiers, and are therefore often seen as defining features of others’ character. When people view themselves as part of a morally “correct” collective, they seek out others who share their beliefs and push away those who don’t.
While there’s no one size fits all approach to resolving workplace disputes, Hernandez and Pratt encourage managers to create a plan, as discussions about politics at work are here to stay.
“The goal for managers should be to put in motion a process that employees can use to work through moralized disagreements when they arise,” the authors wrote. “After all, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to resolve the moral certitude individuals experience in their conviction regarding a specific dispute.”
Hernandez and Pratt suggest managers build understanding by:
- Gathering information and understanding what topics are particularly polarizing in their organizations. For example, managers can track the number of politics-related workplace complaints, or ask employees to voluntarily share their thoughts on certain issues.
- Helping employees develop civil discourse skills to promote constructive dialogue. Hernandez and Pratt specifically point to The Better Arguments Project and The Civil Conversations Project—two platforms that provide behavioral training for difficult conversations.
- Encouraging employees to reflect on their experiences and to be open to continually updating their understanding of hot-button topics. Hernandez and Pratt recommend using frameworks, such as the after action report template, that help employees evaluate how an event went, what went well, and how it could be improved.
In an increasingly polarized climate, Hernandez and Pratt provide strong guidance for workplace leaders to deal with future conflict.
“Discussions about politics at work are not going away, nor are their effects,” they write. “Although organizations cannot change how their employees think, they can provide structured processes to influence how their employees act.”
Read the full article here.
