In wide-ranging web-interviews using many open-ended questions, CEOs were asked about the current and future character of employee conflict. They view current employee conflicts as mainly about ethics including criminal conduct in some cases and also about personality conflicts. They do not see gender, sexual harassment, and ethnicity as major factors.

As for whom to hold accountable, panelists point their fingers at incompetent senior and middle managers for causing or failing to moderate employee conflict. They also point to union leaders in some circumstances. They tend not to see age-old English-French conflicts, much mediated gender and sex-related conflicts, and ethno-religious conflicts as major factors in workforce conflict today.

Looking to the future, the CEOs and business leaders on the COMPAS panel expect an increase in

• performance-related conflicts arising from a declining work ethic and rising expectations among the young along with pressure from government to assume new mandates, and
  
  
• Skill- and wage-related conflicts arising from a dirth of skilled employees in some industries and wage conflicts between unskilled employees, who have low wage competitors overseas, and highly skilled employees, who tend not to face the same downward pressure on wages from foreign competitors.
  

These are the principal findings from the weekly business web-survey conducted by COMPAS for the Financial Post under sponsorship of BDO Dunwoody LLP.

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