Unmanaged conflict is never free: it costs teams time, trust and productivity long before anyone calls it a "problem." Managers who are expected to build a healthy institutional environment need more than good intentions — they need a structured way to recognise conflict early and deal with it before it escalates.

This course from the Arab British Fellowship Training Academy is built for exactly that responsibility. It covers the definition, causes and forms of conflict, then moves into grievance and discipline policies, mediation as a resolution tool, and the practical skills managers need to manage and settle disputes effectively.

Participants leave with real strategies for handling both internal and external conflicts, the ability to recognise early warning signs before a dispute escalates, and a concrete action plan for turning conflict into stronger working relationships and higher team productivity.

• Individuals who want to learn effective methods for resolving disputes with stakeholders, work groups, colleagues or managers.
• Managers responsible for creating a positive, productive work environment and therefore for handling conflict.
• Any manager who wants to understand the causes of conflict and build the skills to manage and settle disputes effectively.

Target Audience

By the end of the programme, participants will be able to:

• Understand the nature and causes of conflict, and weigh its positive and negative sides.
• Recognise the different forms of conflict and the five stages it typically moves through.
• Apply a seven-step process for resolving disputes, supported by stronger questioning, listening and facilitation skills.
• Use mediation as a practical tool for settling disagreements.
• Build the conflict management skills required to resolve disputes, and use different sources of influence appropriately for each situation.

Module 1: What Conflict Really Costs

• The direct and indirect costs of unresolved conflict on teams and productivity.
• How organisational culture and change programmes can trigger conflict.
• Acknowledging the positive side of conflict, not just its downsides.

Module 2: Understanding Conflict and the Manager's Role

• Defining conflict, its management and settlement, including institutional and interpersonal conflict.
• Approaches to conflict management and the role of executive managers in resolving it.
• The five stages conflict typically moves through, and the forms it can take.

Module 3: Grievance, Discipline and the Legal Framework

• Models for resolving disputes and the legal framework, including labour courts.
• Using discipline and grievance policies in practice.
• Handling conflict arising from poor performance, attendance issues or employee complaints.

Module 4: Mediation as a Resolution Tool

• The mediation model: its definition, phases and characteristics.
• Practising core mediation skills.
• Knowing when mediation is appropriate — and when it is not — and the benefits it brings.

Module 5: Core Conflict Management Skills

• Identifying the causes of conflict between colleagues and groups.
• Building the communication and interpersonal skills needed to avoid, manage and settle conflict.
• Managing conflict as it arises in meetings and in day-to-day dialogue.

Module 6: Building a Personal and Institutional Action Plan

• Aligning the organisation's communication strategy and culture with dispute resolution.
• Establishing mediation practice within the organisation and developing further skills.
• The win-win approach versus a win-win outcome, and giving a meaningful response when conflict arises.
• Listening, empathy and the difference between empathy and sympathy.
• Understanding values, rules, beliefs and requirements and how they relate to conflict, before analysing and settling it.