presently I work as an IT Tech for a medium size university, I have been the president of the local union for 3 terms, I have dealt with some silly grievances and some severe grievances. I have learned that IT people are largely independent thinkers, forever getting themselves into conflict with fellow employees. With a lot of work and consultation with the university's human resources department, we have developed a specialized team (the team leader is a professonal)that works on conflict resolution. We have several people trained in various departments (including ITS) that have taken specialized training in negoiating, mediation and conflict resolution. issues resolved have been between employees, managers/employee, faculty/employees, students/faculty and they have covered everything from personality clashes to harrassment. while not always successful in avoiding grievances the process has been extremely beneficial to the university as a whole.
a byproduct of the conflict resolution has been the slight decline in employees exiting the universitys' employment (the process has been in use for about 15 months). As a union leader and IT technician, I have become a firm believer in the conflict resolution process. Human nature being what it is (IT people seem to find it easier to deal with software/hardware), conflict becomes a part of that nature. the best that can be done is to try to reduce the issues and problems to a workable level.