Establishing Roles and Responsibilities and Setting Boundaries: Avoiding “Turf War” Conflicts at Work

Many workplace conflicts are avoidable, and there is no better example than the turf war. Turf war conflicts arise when there is confusion or misunderstanding about each individual’s duties and responsibilities in the workplace.  If who is doing what is not clear, that leads to unnecessary overlap, competition, and conflict.

While some managers condone this style of workplace warfare, misguidedly believing that increased competition will lead to better work product, the wiser managers understand that turf wars are counterproductive.  Like all forms of workplace conflict, turf wars lead to a decrease in employee engagement.  Furthermore, turf wars create collateral conflicts far beyond the workers involved as discontent spreads throughout the workplace.  Finally, overlap is inefficient, creating needless redundancies and hampering productivity.

I was called in to mediate a conflict between two front line coworkers.  The conflict had become seemingly intractable, and I was the second outside mediator brought in after their manager, their union rep, and another mediator had all failed to resolve their conflict.  After some initial probing, it became clear that these two workers had been engaged in a turf war for years.  Left unchecked, this confusion over who was supposed to do what had led to deep resentment between them, as well as causing frustration for everyone in their work unit.

Fortunately, once we established that the heart of their problem was a turf war, we were able to resolve their issues.  Working with their management, we were able to clearly outline who was responsible for what duties and responsibilities in the workplace.  Then we were able to develop a plan to help ensure that each person was held accountable for performing their own specific duties.  While these two workers may never see eye to eye, at least they could each go about their duties and stay out of the way – and out of conflict –with each other.  With their mutual threats of lawsuits resolved, the members of this workplace were able to go back to focusing on getting things done.

Employers should take the time to ensure that all employees, both managers and non-supervisors, have a clear understanding of what their individual roles and responsibilities are, and that those duties are clearly and effectively communicated and understood.  And if you do suspect a turf war, bringing in a trained workplace mediator is an excellent way to help resolve the issue in a time effective and cost effective manner.