Types of Social Challenges

As mentioned before, social and communication skills are a priority in the workplace as teamwork is highly advocated. Communication is an excellent tool meant for expediting productivity to achieve and meet standards that management has set. Dependance should be viewed as a beneficial function and should be encouraged within professional means because people need to learn. We are discussing social changes. HRMatrix wants to bring its challenges to light so that we may tackle them efficiently and continue to reap its rewards. 

Dependency is a key instance. A workplace must exhibit a balance regarding dependency. Inefficiency should not necessarily breed reliance on others in order to continuously alleviate themselves from responsibilities. To depend on one another should be a learning experience. To observe a skill that someone can perform better as they complete your specific task is encouraged as opposed to loading someone with the responsibilities of your job without having any intent to learn something from it. 

That is an example of a social challenge. While there are many of those that we will soon get into, let’s begin with a few preparational tips. Social challenges may vary when a workplace is open to department flexibility and communication. It is very important that you, as management, prepare yourself with a few fundamentals before handling potential conflict.  People and their personalities vary. Their opinions might clash or their workplace attitudes might not always gel. Not only that, but social challenges also encompass political topics and while that is tangential in the workplace, the conversation might still occur let alone erupt. 

Preparational Tips:

  • Listen to both parties

  • Be level headed

  • Be open-minded 

  • Contribute without bias

  • Provide just resolutions

Some social challenges are interpersonal conflict, social gap, gossip, and bullying/harassment. Let’s analyze these in-depth so that you can create a thorough understanding of social challenges. This will help you also understand your workplace’s dynamic too. 

 

Interpersonal Conflict

Interpersonal conflicts are a serious matter and must be nipped in the bud before it elaborates into something more severe. You want to understand both parties and why they are feuding. It is important to remain level-headed as advised above so that you are able to come to a helpful consensus and provide a resolution that is unbiased. 

 

Social Gap

When one party is not properly communicating information that is essential, it creates a social/communication gap, causing progress to slow down. It is important to step in and have a discussion with the employee to inform them about their lacking. You need to express how critical it is that they communicate the factors of a task that keep the specific productivity consistent. 

 

Gossip

Gossiping may appear to be this harmless, lighthearted expression of opinions about one another, but it essentially breeds information that is seldom true. Gossiping turns employees against each other and the communication that derives from gossiping usually includes hurtful lies and derogatory terms. 

 

Bullying and Harassment

Bullying and harassment are one of the worst social challenges a workplace might experience. It is a key symptom of an unhealthy workplace as employees become confrontational with their negative feelings without the intention of being productive about it. Harassment can cause lawsuits and it can result in serious company damage.