The role of empowerment in the transformation of business conflicts

Abstract

Settling disputes in the professional environment is extremely difficult because the parties to the conflict are forced to cooperate in the long term due to joint work, which causes a possible increase in conflict during the implementation of subsequent tasks. The problem becomes more serious when employees participate in a joint project, or their tasks are related to each other. On the one hand, the injured is the employer whose performance of tasks may become at risk, and on the other hand, the growing pressure on employees who need to continue cooperation and, despite problems, have to contact each other. The greater the pressure on the parties to the conflict, the greater the problem, and the employees involved in the dispute and their environment become less and less rational. In the literature on the subject you can meet many tools that, on the one hand, reduce the likelihood of a possible conflict, and on the other hand, make it possible to solve the resulting crisis situation. One of the ways out of this difficult situation is the transformation of the conflict, and the tool that can be used for this purpose is empowerment understood as support and strengthening of employees. It can help them change their way of thinking and rationally re-evaluate their situation in such a direction that they assess it again and independently work out a solution to their situation resulting from the conflict. The article shows the role that empowerment can play in the transformation of business conflicts. The work is an attempt to present empowerment as a management style that plays an important role in transforming conflicts into the optimization of company processes and demonstrating the importance of empowering employees in their daily work. The analysis of the literature allows us to define empowerment and present definitions, as well as to show which of its elements are identical with the elements of transformative mediation.