How To Reduce Workplace Conflicts and Stress
By Anna Maravelas
Career Press (NYP)

Many, if not most, corporate cultures are blame cultures. Instead of looking for what went wrong, the objective is to find out who did wrong. In other words, finger-pointing. Listening to politicians during this election cycle suggests it’s even more pervasive in government than in private industry. Indeed, pointing the finger of blame is on the rise. US News and World Report recently reported 88% of Americans felt incivility is a serious problem at work and getting worse. Forty-two percent of respondents in a recent survey stated that "desk rage" occurred in their workplaces.

The cause and the effect of the blame game is frustration. When events at work frustrate us, we look for someone to blame. When someone points the finger of blame at us, we turn it around and blame the accuser or a subordinate, colleague, superior, customer, etc. Since blaming someone rarely solves the underlying problem, frustrations mount for us and throughout the organization in an endless cycle. Yet, in almost all workplaces, blaming others is tolerated, excused, and even admired. The costs of self-righteous finger-pointing include chronic conflict, enormous fiscal waste, loss of good will, cynicism, depression, turf wars, and the erosion of trust, productivity, and morale. Once blame becomes entrenched in the workplace, individuals learn to protect their status by exploiting others’ errors. This kind of finger-pointing turns unified teams into malicious factions fixated on a "search for stupidity" to solve systemic problems.

Applying the lessons found in How To Reduce Workplace Conflicts and Stress can help companies save millions of dollars by shifting the search for a problem’s source from people and personalities to systems, processes and workflow, just as the author, Anna Maravelas, has done for her consulting clients, including some of America’s and England’s largest companies. The book uses practical language to make clear the choice is between being effective or self-righteous. Loaded with techniques for reflective reactions even under stress, memorable stories from clients, case studies, and strategies for responding to hostile peers, this 60,000-word book will appeal to executives, professional groups, unions, and managers, as well as organizational development professionals and their clients.

Maravelas is the founder of TheraRising, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in executive coaching, training seminars, conflict resolution, team-building and restoring trust and commitment to mission. A licensed psychologist, she is an adjunct professor at the Universities of Minnesota and St. Thomas. With 20 years of experience in teaching conflict-resolution skills and de-escalating workplace conflict, she has successfully intervened in over 110 workplace conflicts for companies such as Wells Fargo Bank, American Express, Honeywell, 3M, and General Mills. She speaks approximately 125 days per year and in 2004 will begin offering seminars for TEC’s national network, which exclusively targets CEOs. The book will be distributed as part of her seminars and included in the fee. She will to buy 2,000 high-discount copies from the first press run to use for promotional purposes and to resell at conferences and speaking engagements.

E-Mail us at nepa@nepa.com if you are interested in obtaining the rights for this book. Please let us know which rights you are seeking.

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