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Many teams are simmering in "artificial harmony" because their leaders don't know how to address "healthy disagreements", a workplace expert says.

Thriving workplace cultures embrace conflict, and they acknowledge "good tensions", workplace expert Amy Gallo has told the recent World Business Forum.

In most workplaces, though, "[conflict] feels like a threat," Gallo tells HR Daily. "It feels like a threat to our resources, to our identity, to a sense of harmony – perhaps even to our career."

When people feel under threat, they go into a stress response of "fight, flight or freeze", otherwise known as an "amygdala hijack", she says...