Understanding Misbehaviour and Unorganised Conflict

Workplace conflict does not always take the form of strikes or collective industrial action. This video addresses AC 2.1 of 5HR01 by examining the category of unorganised conflict — more commonly termed misbehaviour — and drawing clear distinctions between it and the organised forms of employee conflict. Central to the discussion are the academic contributions of Paul Thompson and Stephen Ackroyd, whose work positioned workplace misbehaviour as a meaningful form of resistance rather than simple misconduct or poor performance. The video treats misbehaviour as individual, covert, and uncoordinated activity, contrasting those characteristics directly with the collective, visible, and formally structured nature of organised conflict such as strikes, work-to-rule action, and overtime bans.

The video works through several specific forms that unorganised conflict can take in practice, covering sabotage, workplace fraud, absenteeism, and walking out. Each is examined in terms of the employment relationship conditions that tend to accompany it, including the role of perceived fairness, managerial control, limited autonomy, and the availability — or absence — of legitimate grievance channels. Absenteeism is considered not only as a welfare issue but as withdrawal behaviour connected to job dissatisfaction and supervisor relationships, while fraud is discussed alongside employee perceptions of organisational ethics and equity rather than purely as a disciplinary matter.

The video also covers the substitution effect identified in research on collective voice: the proposed inverse relationship between effective union representation and rates of individual misbehaviour. This connection between voice mechanisms and unorganised conflict sits at the heart of the AC 2.1 distinction the video is designed to address, reinforcing why recognising the difference between organised and unorganised conflict matters when analysing patterns of behaviour across a workforce and identifying their underlying causes.