Delivering Bad News

When an employee is causing a conflict within a workplace, it is important for a manager to take certain steps on the issue that has occurred. First, create a list of conflicts that have occurred so to have evidence of the issue at hand. Secondly, it is important to deliver the information in the utmost professional manner.
One must exercise every effort on trying to come to a determination before having a meeting with a less than satisfactory performing employee. In a situation when an employee must be confronted on his/her performance it is important to present evidence for the purpose of the meeting. As the person in a supervisory role, it is important to observe the interaction so not to disturb the person that is being confronted. A mild disturbance may cause the meeting to turn sour.
Several steps can be taken in order to move forward with an interaction such as this. The situation at hand can be compared to that of the manifest conflict process, also known as MCP (Sandole, 1993). MCP is characterized by phases of initiation, escalation, controlled maintenance, and management, perhaps leading to some kind of termination reflective of settlement, resolution, or transformation (Sandole, 1993). Ultimately, in a situation where a manager must confront an employee on a conflict that has occurred between customers or co-workers a decision must be determined on how to pursue the relationship between customers and coworkers with the difficult employee. In this conflict, a secondary decision must take place regarding the future at a company with a prospective employee.
Personally speaking, I have had the unfortunate experience of being a part of a situation where a coworker was being combative to customers, fellow employees, and even clients. It was at a point where a decision had to be made. The decision was simple. The employee was given the opportunity to redeem himself in order to continue his employment with the company. Eventually, in this conflict, the issue escalated and the employee had to resign. Observing this employee's behavior led me to believe that the conflict was not only occurring in the workplace, but the employee also has issues with internal conflicts.
When an employee is facing conflicts not only within an organization, but internally, an employer has the option to recommend the employee take courses that could improve his or her work performance. Sometimes, people need to be reached out to in order to take such courses.
It is always important to exercise all possible routes when determining the demise of an employee by analyzing possibilities to make a work environment functional for all. If an employee is experiencing an issue with accepting his/her errors that are being discussed in such a conflict, then it is up to the manager and/or employer to decide if the person in question should have their employment terminated.

 
References:
Sandole, D. (December 1998). Comprehensive mapping of conflict and conflict resolution: a three pillar approach, a. Retrieved July 11, 2010 from: http://www.gmu.edu/academic/pcs/sandole.htm.