(Cette page était traduit du français à l'anglais en mars 2011. Voir: RésolutionDeConflit)

Good conflict resolution must be based on four fundamental objectives:

• preserving shared values
• planning ahead and efficient use of resources
• integrating personal development
• adequately supporting those involved

(Solange Cormier, 2004 Conflict Management, PUQ)

The Vie Associative Committee has proposed a five step process for addressing conflicts among workers.

1. Notification: Once a conflict has reached the perceived conflict phase (at least one of the parties is conscious of an incompatibility of interests and goals, and this begins to affect the performance of the individual or the collective), the party concerned should communicate the situation to the Vie Associative Committee.

2. Choosing a facilitator: The Vie Associative committee will choose a facilitator (a member of the committee) to manage the collaborative resolution of the conflict. The designated person must be perceived as objective by the parties concerned.

3. Discussions with each party: The facilitator meets individually with each of parties concerned, in order to understand their perspectives and to how each defines the problem.

4. Meeting of the parties: Next, the facilitator and the parties concerned meet to discuss the problem. In this meeting, they collaboratively define the problem and its possible solutions. (The focus here is on "mutual definition of the problem," "depersonalization of the problem," "emphasizing the points on which the parties agree," and "explore positive aspects of the relationship between the two parties that is outside of their definition of the conflict"). The parties concerned then choose one of the solutions discussed and decide how to it will be put into practice, identifying a date or milestone for the communication of results.

5. Communicaiton of the results: The parties concerned inform the Vie Associative committee of progress on the solutions undertaken.

The idea is to avoid the escalation of conflict, which makes resolution more difficult and can render conflict increasingly personal. The approach empowers the parties concerned to reconcile their differences with the help of a neutral facilitator, rather than creating a "boss" or other external authority.

The facilitator must help the parties to work together on the resolution of the conflict. Here are some strategies for defining and contextualizing conflictual issues in ways that facilitate their resolution:

• empathetic definition of the conflictual issue
• broad context given to the issue
• practical definition of the issue, conflict, and/or problem to solve
• exploring a broad range of possible solutions

---Comment by StéphaneCouture: The development of a mechanism for conflict resolution is an important initiative. However, I believe that it is also important to put in place a mechanism for "arbitration" for cases where, despite the efforts of the facilitator, the parties still do not manage to agree. For example, one could imagine a step 4.5 where, in cases of non-resolution, the facilitator brings the problem to the Comité de travail which forms an arbitration committee of three members (workers or otherwise) who are removed from the conflict. The decision of this comittee would be considered as final, even if it did not please the parties concerned. We could maybe go as far as having a process for appeal to the Board of Directors, for cases where the parties do not agree with the composition of the arbitration committee.

Example case (Winter 2011)

• various workers indicated a problem with an individual
• an ad-hoc committee was formed to deal with the situation
• the committee solicted both positive and negative feedback from the collective
• this feedback was summarized and presented to the individual
• the individual was asked to propose a plan for their re-integration into the collective which took this into account
• a plan was agreed upon to allow the individual to return to do a limited amount of work with clearly defined responsibilities under the supervision of project leads
• after two months, a second evaluation will be done based on feedback from the individual and any member of the collective who has worked with them
• a decision regarding whether to invite the individual to remain within the collective will be made following that evaluation

Documents attached

See also VieAssociative for posters that were in the office (but which print poorly).