INTHEBLACK November 2026 - Magazine - Page 50
PODCAST
Workplace
conflict
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Workplace conflict is not necessarily a bad
thing. Differences of opinion can encourage
diverse thinking, creativity and better ways
of approaching problems. However, it can
also get out of hand.
In a recent episode of the INTHEBLACK podcast,
leadership and workplace consultant Tammy Tansley
and director at the Centre for Work, Organisation and
Wellbeing at Griffith University, Paula Brough, sat down
to discuss healthy and unhealthy workplace conflict.
IS TENSION AT WORK HEALTHY?
Both tension and conflict can be very healthy,
Tansley says.
“You think about what difference can create in terms
of difference of opinion, diversity of thought, different
ways of doing things or different ways of approaching
a project.
“It is where it spills into something that is less about
the issue and less about the system that it gets into the
kind of personal behaviours that can become tricky.”
WHEN TENSION BECOMES PERSONAL
Healthy tension becomes problematic when it starts
affecting a professional’s wellbeing and sense of
psychological safety, Tansley says.
“When people start to feel that knot in their
stomach when you do not want to go to work
or see the person you are in conflict with … At that
point, it is not a structural systemic issue anymore,
but it is actually something personal and it is
potentially becoming unhealthy.”
Brough agrees. “If [the conflict] is too serious,
it is going on too long or it is making the employee
feel more uncomfortable than they need to, then that
is where it should be attended to.”
INTHEBLACK: How to handle difficult workplace relationships
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50 INTHEBLACK November 2026
