How do Employees Know When to Involve their Manager or HR?

How do employees know when they should involve their manager or HR, instead of working issues out between themselves?.
First, let’s get a few definitions and ground rules down so that we are singing from the same hymn book. The framework I am using separates disagreements from conflicts:

• If it is a content issue within a discussion, then it is disagreement.
  
• If it is a misbehavior issue, then it is a micro-conflict or conflict.

I suggest team members address them differently:

DISAGREEMENTS are generally simpler to manage because they concern the content: reasoning, evidence, assumptions, interpretations or competing judgements can be examined without requiring behavioural escalation. Then seeking other opinions possibly using a blind test (so that no personalities influence the listener). The manager could also be included if they have come to loggerheads. The thing to be aware of during a disagreement is the tendency for one or both participants to use unfair challenges, like raising their tone or volume to get their point across. Or “play the man and not the ball”, as it were: name calling and getting personal. And that is when we get into the territory of micro-conflicts or eventually conflict.

CONFLICTS or micro-conflicts are a different kettle of fish. When misbehavior occurs, — often during a disagreement — team members are going to need a self-managing process for addressing this misbehavior and that is where a toolkit like Spatz.ai comes in.
Spatz is a pre-grievance behavioural framework and platform that helps teams to self-manage and address micro-conflicts before they escalate into formal grievances.

It allows team members to attempt to resolve the issue without immediately involving their manager or HR. Through a three-step process, with a final team and AI review, Spatz enables team members to KNOW when they have exhausted all avenues to resolve the behavioural issue, and only then is the conflict escalated to either the manager or HR, as per the company policy.