Conflict costs

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Conflict costs are costs that are caused by conflicts . There are quantitative and qualitative conflict costs. Qualitative costs include, for example, the loss of quality of life , the reduction in respect or fairness , but also a lack of co-creation options. Quantitative costs are, for example, 'lost' life time, legal enforcement costs or costs for health restrictions caused by conflicts. Micro, meso or macroeconomic conflict costs differ depending on the scope.

Business conflict costs

The American Daniel Dana was one of the first to grapple with the financial consequences of conflict. He essentially attributed it to eight factors: wasted time, wrong decisions, lost employees, unnecessary restructuring, sabotage and theft, reduced motivation, lost working hours and health care costs. The biggest cost factor - with almost 50% - he saw in the wrongly used time. According to his calculations, a 'conflicted' team costs just under $ 400,000 a year.

The first publications on the topic were published in German-speaking countries in 2006. A working group of the 'Experts Group Business Mediation' of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce asked companies about 'avoidable' conflict costs in the areas of personnel, customers, suppliers and legal costs. According to the interviewee, an average of EUR 650 per employee per year can be saved.

In 2009 KPMG carried out a conflict cost study for German industrial companies. They developed a formula in which they contrasted functional and dysfunctional costs. Assuming that these can be determined a priori, estimates of the effort and benefits of individual conflicts can be estimated. KPMG placed a special focus on project-related conflict costs. Depending on the size of the project, they were between 50,000 and 500,000 euros per project.

Siegbert Bregenhorn from the European Institute for Conflict Management eV compared costs based on the value of the dispute that arise from business mediation, arbitration and court proceedings. The result is that the costs of mediation, regardless of the value of the dispute, are significantly lower than those of arbitration or ordinary court proceedings.

Since 2011, the business forum for executives has been carrying out the manager monitoring “Teamgeist Barometer” in cooperation with “inCoop”. Anselm Eder and Elvira Hauska developed the survey instrument. Once a year, Austrian executives are interviewed about conflicts and their consequences. As part of the survey, there is also a classification according to team players, team neutral and team frustrated. The basis of the conflict cost assessment in the study series is the proportional working hours that are spent with conflicts. Valued with the respective salary, they give the costs. In 2012, an average of € 1,560 per manager and month was incurred, which corresponds to an increase of 8% compared to 2011, although there are proportionally more team players. The increase results primarily from the very significant increase in costs for managers who are frustrated by a team.

Follow-up costs

Conflict cost is called such costs in the long run economically from the end of the (legal) relationship conflict opponents that a conflict have fought contest and / or the courts, give. After a contentious decision by a court or a court settlement, the "opponents" can no longer look each other in the eye. Companies that have previously cooperated will not have any contractual relationships with each other, the mutual circle of friends is splitting, the "team" needs new members. For example, new cooperation partners have to be found and new employees trained. This costs money. These follow-up costs are usually wrongly not included in the calculation of what a dispute will cost.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Study_Konfliktkosten Exenberger et al .: Study Conflict Costs - New Ways to Improve Results WKO 2006 ( Memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ KPMG study: Conflicts in companies cause high costs (2009)
  3. ↑ Cost overview based on the amount in dispute ( Memento from July 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

literature

Web links