Why Trust Is Falling While Conflict Is Rising at Work

Workplace trust is declining while conflict is increasing—and most organizations are unprepared. New research reveals why leaders must stop avoiding tension and start building conflict capability.

For many organizations, workplace conflict no longer feels occasional. It feels constant.

Difficult conversations, competing priorities, misaligned expectations, and interpersonal tension have become part of the daily operating environment. At the same time, trust in managers is declining, even as leaders are being asked to navigate more complexity, change, and pressure than ever before.

That combination creates a dangerous leadership gap.

Our recent Trust & Conflict at Work study found that employees spend nearly 35% of their workday dealing with conflict, with the top contributors being misalignment, unclear expectations, and interpersonal friction.

The problem isn’t that organizations have too much conflict.

It’s that most leaders were never taught how to use conflict well.

Workplace Trust Is Declining Faster Than Leaders Realize

The challenge extends far beyond one study.

According to DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2025, trust in leadership has fallen dramatically in recent years, while leadership stress and burnout continue to rise. The report highlights growing pressure from AI disruption, workforce uncertainty, and accelerating organizational change.

At the same time, SHRM’s 2024 Civility Research found that nearly two-thirds of workers experienced or witnessed workplace incivility within the past month, and one-third expect workplace conflict to increase over the next year.

These trends are converging in ways many organizations underestimate.

As workplaces become faster, more polarized, and more demanding, trust becomes more fragile while tension becomes more frequent.

Why Conflict Feels Worse at Work Today

Most people think conflict is the problem.

The research suggests otherwise.

In our study, most respondents actually defined conflict neutrally—as differences in perspectives or expectations. But they experienced conflict negatively as a result of inappropriate behavioral responses and emotional dysregulation.

That distinction matters.

Conflict itself is natural. Drama is not.

Yet many organizations still approach conflict as something to minimize, delay, or suppress in order to “protect trust.” Ironically, this often creates the opposite outcome: more frustration, more disengagement, and less trust over time.

Avoided conflict compounds.

The Real Leadership Challenge Is Conflict Capability

Today’s leadership challenge is no longer simply about communication or emotional intelligence.

It’s about conflict capability.

Leaders are now expected to:

• Navigate increasing tension, stress, and change
• Address performance and interpersonal issues directly
• Build trust while maintaining accountability

But many lack practical frameworks for doing all three simultaneously.

The most effective leaders are not the ones who eliminate conflict.

They are the ones who know how to engage it early, directly, and constructively—without creating unnecessary drama.

That requires a different mindset:

Conflict is not a threat to trust.

It is one of the primary ways trust is tested and built.

The Organizations That Thrive Will Handle Conflict Differently

The future of leadership will not belong to organizations with the least conflict.

It will belong to organizations with the greatest capacity to navigate conflict productively.

Companies that build conflict capability create:

• Faster alignment
• Stronger accountability
• More resilient trust
• Better decision-making
• Healthier team dynamics

The organizations that avoid this work will continue to pay the hidden costs of unresolved tension: burnout, disengagement, turnover, and declining performance.

Conflict isn’t disappearing.

The question is whether leaders are prepared for it.

Download the Full Research Report

Our 2025 Trust & Conflict at Work study explores how trust and conflict are defined, experienced, and managed across organizations—and what leaders must do differently moving forward.

Download the full report to explore:

• The two dimensions of trust that leaders often confuse
• Why conflict escalates unnecessarily
• The hidden cost of poor conflict leadership
• The leadership capability gap
• Practical shifts organizations can make immediately

Copyright Next Element Consulting, LLC 2026