Managers (and observers) often do not know when to get involved in workplace

conflicts. How does one distinguish between a situation that constitutes violence or
aggression and one that is just normal workplace violence? Provide an example from
your experience of where you were involved in (or witnessed) a workplace
conflict. When do you believe a manager (or witness) should intervene in a situation
between coworkers? What would you expect human resources to do in situations of
workplace conflict?

Violence is an aggressive behaviour with the potential to cause harm. There are three forms of
workplace violence: Non-physical violence (intimidation, abuse, threats, bullying, harassment,
etc.), Physical violence, and Aggravated physical violence (use of weapons).

Managers are not sure when to involve in organizational conflicts. They feel it difficult to
realize which is the time to enter and get involved in the conflict. It is difficult to differentiate
between a situation that constitutes violence or aggression and one that is just normal
workplace violence, because violence in any form is not good and lead to bigger problems in
the organizations.

I have witnessed so many workplace conflicts in my 5 years work career, but I am sharing a
workplace conflict in which I was involved. It is the most recent incident, between me and
shift-runner. I reached late at work, and I told her the situation and tell her that, it will no t
happen in near future. But next day, I got a call from my manager and he was angry at me
because she (shift-runner) told him that, I argued with her on the situation of getting late and
tell her that I can’t come at time. Then, next day me and my shift-runner had a heated
argument and then she realize that she was wrong and she explain it to the manager, but even
after that we both had some grudges against each other in our minds.

I think managers should intervene when;

 The conflict cannot be resolved amongst the people involved and is affecting
others. For example, Conflict spread outside those directly responsible. As a
result organization people take sides, what distracts them from doing work.
 When there is a serious disagreement and seems like it is converting into violence.
  When conflicts impact the business operations. As a result it might
impact your customers.

Human resources professionals are responsible for mediating staff issues and make sure that

everything in the organisation is running smoothly. HR should be creative and strategic to

resolve employee conflicts that are beneficial not only to the worker but also your

organization. It is important to get all sides of the story. Ask each person involved questions

about their experience and listen to how they perceive the issue at hand. Talk to each person

individually and then hold a meeting with all parties involved to come to a solution or general

understanding. This helps each person feel heard and in turn, makes them more open to

resolution. Employees are threatening to quit over the problem. Recruiting and training

are expensive; it’s often cheaper to work out a solution.

are often tasked with mediating staff issues, and working to provide a solution that everyone is

happy with can be quite a challenge.

https://study.com/academy/lesson/when-managers-should-intervene-in-workplace-
conflict.html

A manager or an eye witness should intervene between coworkers when things are getting
heated or when their voices are getting louder.
I do not think human resources need to intervene in a workplace conflict unless it is brought
to them by the manager or the parties involved, and in that case, they need to get to the bottom
of it and issue warnings as needed.

According to the CCOHS (Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety), it is a
situation that constitutes violence and aggression when a person is abused, threatened,
intimidated or assaulted at his place of work or out of work but resulting from work.

I believe there is no distinction between a situation of violence or aggression for just normal
violence. All are forms of violence, from rumors, swearing or vandalism to even assaults and
murders.

Unfortunately, I witnessed a violent conflict between a teacher and the principal at the school
where I worked in Brazil. The teacher questioned a principal's decision and she did not accept
the interventions and questions well. The principal of the school acted shaking her fists and
banging on the table in a very loud voice. As a result, the teacher left the room crying and
walked away for the rest of the week. Then the principal apologized and really took the
blame.

I believe that as witnesses we should always intervene when violence offers physical and
psychological damages. In the case I witnessed, I tried my best to calm down the teacher and
reported what had happened to the superiors of the School Division.

Managers should interfere and try their best to prevent this situation. They should contact
legislative authorities to determine whether what has occurred is characterized as violence or
to follow what is recommended in company policies.

The HR department should follow company policy, provide prompt medical evaluation and
treatment. if necessary, report them to local police. It must also inform the victims of their
legal rights to sue those involved.

After a situation of violence or aggression in the workplace, the HR department should

discuss the incident with its staff, encourage improvements in behavior and the work
environment, provide counseling and recovery services to employees.

References:

https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/psychosocial/violence.html
https://www.arbill.com/arbill-safety-blog/bid/180160/How-To-Handle-Workplace-Violence-
And-Protect-Your-Employees
Most people think of violence as a physical assault. However, workplace violence is a much
broader problem. It is any act in which a person is abused, threatened, intimidated or assaulted
in his or her employment.In accordance with the Canadian Centre Occupational Health |And
Safetty, the definitions may vary in legislation, generally speaking workplace violence
includes:

"Threatening behaviour – such as shaking fists, destroying property or throwing objects.

Verbal or written threats – any expression of an intent to inflict harm.
Harassment – any behaviour that demeans, embarrasses, humiliates, annoys, alarms or
verbally abuses a person and that is known or would be expected to be unwelcome. This
includes words, gestures, intimidation, bullying, or other inappropriate activities.
Verbal abuse – swearing, insults or condescending language.
Physical attacks – hitting, shoving, pushing or kicking.
Rumours, swearing, verbal abuse, pranks, arguments, property damage, vandalism, sabotage,
pushing, theft, physical assaults, psychological trauma, anger-related incidents, rape, arson
and murder are all examples of workplace violence."
For me in particular, violence in the workplace is not limited to incidents within a tradi tional
workplace. Work-related violence may occur at outside events (conferences, fairs), at work-
related social events, at guest's or out of work, but resulting from work (a threatening
telephone call to your client's home).

In my experience in Brazil, I experienced a case of insults and condescending language

related to my workplace. I discovered that one of our Dental Assistants was stealing from
others (stealing money and personal belongings from the employees purses). We filmed
everything and discovered that these robberies happened more than once. As a H R manager, I
tried to solve this conflict, called the each of the employees to talk and after many meetings
and conversations, showed the videos for the accused employee who stole the colleagues. As
a work team we had combined that, if she asked for forgiveness, our company would give her
one more chance (she was going through financial difficulties).

The reaction of this officer was a shock to me, she accused me of lies and we had to fire her.
A few days after the occurrence, the father of this ex-employee came to my house to make
threats. We had to file a police report and hire a security for a period in our Dental Office.

It was a horrible situation, in 25 years of operation of this Dental Office was the only situation
of violence of this type.
. It provides useful information which can be applied in statistical approach to draw conclusions,

hypothesis, and models and also help companies in their recruiting, performance measurement,

compensation and retention efforts.

People analytics, also known as HR analytics and talent analytics, is analysis used to make better

decisions about all aspects of HR strategy with the goal of improving business performance

People analytics can help organizations to understand which candidates to hire, which employees

are doing well, who's receiving adequate compensation and how employee retention can be

improved.

It is very clear and legal that, People data should not be available to anyone other than HR to

protect the employees’ identity. But, sometimes people other than HR needs to access

employees’ information to draw conclusions, hypothesis, and models and to also help companies

in their recruiting, performance measurement, compensation and retention efforts. Therefore, it is

the obligation of HR people to make a balance in between.

According to the article 7(1) of The Personal Information Protection and Identity Theft

Prevention Act, HR department is not allowed to share any personal detail of an employee

without his/her consent. Organization is responsible for the information that is under its control.

Companies are not allowed to share information of employee related to Health and medical
conditions, investigation records on complaints of harassment, discrimination and violation,

Social Insurance Number, credit records and marital status.

As I said there are many reasons for which HR should provide employee information with other

business leaders that could help them to make crucial decisions. This information could be

employee performance results, instead of providing information about an individual it is better to

provide compiled data. For example, data in the form of analysis. Contribution of an employee in

a particular project, contact information such as an employee’s name, title, business address,

telephone number or email addresses that will be used for contacting employees.

Retrieved from https://www.analyticsinhr.com/blog/what-is-hr-analytics/

Retrieved Feb 5, 2019, from https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/privacy-topics/privacy-at-

work/02_05_d_17/

Other employee information may be shared with people under a certain procedure, such as name.
In most of the circumstances, it is better to share employee information as a whole rather than
individually. For example, for workforce analysis purpose, HR can provide information about
what percentage of employees are above 50 years old and what is the number of people at ’40s.

Reference:

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. (2004). Privacy in the workplace. Retrieved Dec
5, 2019, from https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/privacy-topics/privacy-at-work/02_05_d_17/
ERC. (Dec 2, 2013). What HR Needs to keep Confidential. Retrieved Dec 5, 2019,
from https://www.yourerc.com/blog/post/what-hr-needs-to-keep-confidential
People analytics is also known as HR analytics. It deals with obtaining and managing

employees’ data on the workplace. Analytical team has to manage large amount of data and it

is their duty to maintain employees’ confidentiality

It is must for all organizations to protect employees from identity theft. They are not supposed

to share personal data of employees with anyone else without employees consent. The HR

department should keep confidential and personal information of employees for example

Social Security Numbers (SIN), reference checks, income, ethnic origin ,health related

information, criminal record, family status, social status, or disciplinary actions, and

employee files, credit records, medical records etc. This type of information is not supposed

to share with others for business decisions.

It is the job of the HR department to strike a balance between preserving the confidentiality of

staff and disseminating information to others. Maintaining confidentiality can be particularly

challenging when certain information needs to be disclosed to others so that all parties

involved can be heard and all relevant information can be evaluated.

I do agree that people data should be confidential, Human Resource department is required to

keep all of the personal information secure and confidential. Breach of employees data

confidentiality does happen. In 2017, UK retailer Sports Direct revealed that 30,000

unencrypted employee data files were stolen – but didn’t tell employees until it was published in
the news. The reasons why individuals outside of HR need access to this data to make business

decisions are:

1- legal obligation: Article 5 (1) of The Personal Information Protection And Identity Theft

Prevention Act says that "An organization is responsible for personal information that is in its

custody or under its control". The organization can not discloses that information unless the

individual consents to the disclosure of that information . (article 7 (1)).

2- Protect employees from identity theft and financial fraud by not sharing any of their personal

data, in addition, to protect their lives from being ruined if any of their confidential info find

their way to the public.

There are some of the people data must not be shared with anybody in or outside the company

without the acceptance of the employee except people who are supposed to work on these data to

complete their job. examples of this type of data are Social insurance numbers, workplace injury

information, criminal record checks, health-related information, pay levels, etc.

But some other data can be shared leaders within the organization in order to help them planning

and making the right decisions, like employees performance appraisal results, and workplace

injury information.

Resources

Bill 211, The Personal Information Protection And Identity Theft Prevention Act, 2013, 2nd

Session, 40th Legislature, Manitoba, 2013.

 Society for human resource management. (n.d), Why is confidentiality critical to human

resources?.Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/hr-

qa/pages/cms_017789.aspx

In my opinion, anyone from the workforce will not agree to a full data disclosure to partnered

companies of their organization. This situation where an outside party needs to work with the

company in planning better strategies, I think it is best to only share relevant business

information, with proper and documented consent from all employees of the organization. As a

nurse who believes on a person's right to informed consent, I think this too will be applicable in

other industries and business matters. I expect these information will be:

 Department performance

 Department specialization or scope

 Employees assigned in each area

 Each employee's academic and professional history

 Employee's special contributions to a project or team (if any)

I presume these aspects are crucial to objectively assess the current processes and structure of the

organization; what composes them, how they work, and how will each area affect the current and

future status and objectives of the company. It is simply not a matter of sharing or not sharing the

workforce information; it is about, what are the necessary and relevant information that should

be disclosed. All information that will be used must align or show its pertinence in building the

company's business plan and how it will affect or contribute to the company's need for

continuous organizational progress.

 There is no doubt that employees’ personal information should be protected, and among them,
some sensitive data must be kept private and confidential. On the other hand, people outside the
HR departments do have needs to access employees’ information to serve the business.
Therefore, it is the obligation of HR people to make a balance in between.

Good news is, there are many laws, regulations, and practical experiences teaching HR persons
what kind of employee information can be shared with certain people under within certain
limitation, while others are more sensitive to be shared.

The Privacy Act applies to employee information in federal government institutions and the
Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act applies to employee information
in federal works, undertakings, and businesses. (Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada,
2004)

Besides, respecting privacy and confidentiality is an important business practice in the

workplace, which is expected by employees. To make it clear, a multi-agreement is necessary.
The organization should have a clear policy about employee information collection, using, and
disclosure.

In my understanding, there are some certain types of employee information that should not be
shared.

 The prohibited grounds of discrimination.

HR person should never share employee information that may lead to discrimination which is
prohibited by the Human Right Act.

 Employee personal sensitive information includes social insurance number, social security
number, and marital status.
 Employee performance information, such as warnings and disciplinary notices.
 Health and medical information.
 Investigation records on complaints of harassment, discrimination, violation and so on.
Other employee information may be shared with people under a certain procedure, such as name.
In most of the circumstances, it is better to share employee information as a whole rather than
individually. For example, for workforce analysis purpose, HR can provide information about
what percentage of employees are above 50 years old and what is the number of people at ’40s.

Reference:

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. (2004). Privacy in the workplace. Retrieved Dec
5, 2019, from https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/privacy-topics/privacy-at-work/02_05_d_17/
ERC. (Dec 2, 2013). What HR Needs to keep Confidential. Retrieved Dec 5, 2019,
from https://www.yourerc.com/blog/post/what-hr-needs-to-keep-confidential