Polarisation, Civility, and Healthy Dialogue

By Dr Mike Talbot

More than ever, it seems that political and social issues have entered inside office walls. Organisations throughout the EU are coming to be defined by their ethics and sense of propriety, putting their Disability, Equality and Diversity (EDI) policies, and their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategies in a much more prominent position. Companies are being increasingly judged on their values, and a company’s market position, reputation, and even its bottom line are all affected by what the company believes to be right and wrong.

Added to that, employees now hold increasingly stronger opinions of their employer’s ideas about how they should treat people and how they should be doing business. People feel increasingly entitled to hold and express a view on whether their employers, and even their suppliers and collaborators, should or should not have certain recruitment policies, attitudes to sustainability, or norms around employee relations.

What we at EU Mediation have seen is that, within workplaces, political, ethical, and social issues are now discussed much more frequently. Employee interactions are affected by their employer’s ethical positions: where the employer and its adherents stand on various rights and wrongs. And given the polarising nature of such topics, people are disagreeing all the more.

Disagreement is, of course, not a bad thing. If workers’ conversations are indeed turning more passionate, more informed by differing values, and more opinionated, all we need to ensure is that conversations remain civil, and do not become impolite or inconsiderate. Our mediators know from experience that any conversations that do turn into ill-mannered arguments might then turn into something bigger. If anyone discussing a polarising topic perceives incivility or, even worse, discriminatory behaviour, then we might expect a knock on the door of HR, and maybe even something that grows into a formal complaint or a whistleblower report.

So, what can be done? It wouldn’t surprise you to hear that we believe mediation can resolve nearly all disputes that begin this way. But for most situations, it doesn’t even need to get as far as a dispute.

First, workers need to know how to confidently navigate conversations around polarising and value-laden topics: how to get your own point across while expressing understanding and empathy for another and accepting that neither party may ultimately be absolutely in the right.

Secondly, managers and team leaders can help: learning how to facilitate others’ conversations if they do go off the tracks or turn improper, but also by modelling: not just telling others how they should communicate and argue, but themselves demonstrating how a challenging conversation should go: with proper, active listening, empathic responding, perspective-taking, and exchanging opposing views without feeling the need to win.

And thirdly, the undercurrent to any attempts at maintaining a safe and healthy working environment has to be an appreciation that we need to promote and value healthy dialogue, even when it is contentious. We are in an era where people want to express differing values and opinions about topics that used to be kept out of the office. Now that such value-laden topics are part of the fabric of most workplaces, and that companies face so much scrutiny from within, if we can ensure that such dialogue is respectful and inclusive, we have a far greater chance of maintaining a harmonious workplace.