Freestyle

Another post about a reading that I've done in one of my nursing texts!

This week I read a chapter about how best to manage and deal with problem employees from a manager's point of view. The text listed various theories and strategies behind different problem solving methods that I was completely unaware of.
I think we are all taught basic problem solving techniques (don't kick your brother, hitting is bad, don't take what isn't yours, etc.) but I had no idea that there were theories and research behind those basic principles.
Obviously the work setting can be a bit more complicated than those problems I mentioned above, but really the bottom line usually is that one employee dislikes another and they aren't being productive at work due to this conflict. It seems like a manager could simply work off common sense or intuition, but this wouldn't always result in a fair, ethical decision.
We all have our own bias when it comes to situations, so I would suppose that theory and research certainly does have a place in managing workplace conflict so that managers don't have to rely solely on their personal feelings when dealing with conflict. I would wonder though how often managers employ these strategies instead of going with their gut feeling.