Review the following information. Boutique Civil Construction Design has decided to employ a Human Resource Support Officer due to expected growth in the company over the next few months, including setting up another office in Melbourne and more staff and contractors. It is considered that HR support will be very beneficial. The Human Resource Support Officer appointed to the position has recently returned to the workforce after staying at home to raise her four young children for the past nine years. She has Iranian heritage and is a Muslim.

The Human Resource Support Officer requested that she perform some of the work from home to make school drop-off and pick-ups simpler. This has been agreed to as part of her terms and conditions. Essentially the Human Resources Support Officer will be able to have flexible work hours to limit the time she is at the office to school hours only. All other work may be completed at home.

Six months after the HR Support Officer was employed, the Operations Manager sought further feedback from all employees about their HR experience, in particular how they are able to relate to and interact with the officer. The survey results included:

	Recruitment process rating (out of 5)	Induction process rating (out of 5)	Overall impression of the HR team (out of 5)	Comments on workplace relationships with individual team members
Employee 1	4	3	3	The HR team is great, I loved working with the HR Support officer.
Employee 2	5	4	4	Great recruitment process, induction was fun.
Employee 3	4	3	3	Happy with the overall HR Support Officer performance. She went out of her way to get to know me personally. However, I sometimes struggle to understand what she is saying as she has an accent and speaks quite quickly.

The Operations Manager also had an informal catch-up discussion with the HR Support Officer to find out she was getting along and whether any workplace relationship difficulties were evident.

At the meeting, the HR Support Officer complained that the Administration Officer often made remarks about her clothing (burka) and would use negative facial expressions when referring to her working from home arrangements. The Operations Manager was surprised by the HR Support Officer's feelings of discrimination as all the feedback about the HR Support Officer's performance had been very positive.

Problem solving

1. Regarding the above activity, identify your own values and principles around conflict. Write down at least two values/principle that you have.
2. Consider different values/principles that another person may have around conflict and that contrast with yours. Write these down.
3. Explain how these contrasting points of view/beliefs/assumption could impact on a decision on conflict.