BBA102 Report - Grade: 71% PDF

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BBA 102 Report 2...

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Essay word count is 1089 words Reflection word count is 464 words

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Introduction “Conflict in the workplace can be incredibly destructive to good teamwork” (Pathak, 2010, p. 2). If incorrectly handled it can quickly spiral out of control, resulting in a lack of group cohesiveness and threatening the team’s main objective (Pathak, 2010). It is necessary to understand problems, their causes and their solutions to prevent future team conflict. Paying special attention to the Rift between Alison and Penny we can analyse what Craig can do as a manager to resolve this situation. The focus in this report is to first extract problems and relate them to specific causes. This is so that we may use conflict resolution methods to solve these issues and resolve the conflict between Alison and Penny.

Identifying problems: Virtual communication, hierarchy and a lack of action There are intergroup and personality conflicts that have begun to transpire in the group between Penny and Alison, and possibly between other group members as well. In the case study there are three main problems that can be identified. The first and most obvious of these is the presence of a highly flexible virtual team. Although a virtual team has many advantages such as, the accessibility of knowledge regardless of time and place and a cut down in travel and costs for employees. Its disadvantages pose a serious threat to cohesive teamwork, as team members are unable to observe non-verbal cues. First, interpersonal communication is limited as using technology to communicate restricts nonverbal self-expression can lead to incorrect implications of verbal or written communication (Kick et al., 2015). Second, according to Alison, there are personality and intergroup conflicts between her and Penny, reducing the amount of trust and cooperation between them. Penny is said to be using a competitive and dominating style of management in the group as Alison states that she has not been made aware of many last-minute decisions taken and is threatened about her performance review and bonus. This problem at its core is one of group dynamic and challenging hierarchy between Alison and Penelope. Penny’s dominating personality seems to be taking charge however Alison feels that as she has worked in the company for longer she deserves to take the lead (Maruca, 1998, p. 3). The last problem presents itself as Craig’s lack of pre-emptive conflict management action in response to Alison’s first e-mail which sounded very serious. This was a result of him assuming her character based on how she has reacted to conflict in the past and can also be seen as an avoidance conflict handling style. Evidence if this is present in his statement: “I thought fine, she’s past the explosion, we’ll leave it at that.” (Maruca, 1998, p. 3).

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Explaining causes: Flexibility, punctuated equilibrium, role ambiguity and future staff needs Problems and their causes are highly intertwined entities, and therefore several causes can lead to the same problem and vice versa. In response to the first two problem’s above, Craig mentions that in the past during face to face conversation, he could accurately assess his employee’s nonverbal communication and point out what was wrong (Maruca, 1998, p. 3). In this case Craig’s flexibility with his team doing offsite work is a clear and strong factor in the conflict between Alison and Penny. More specifically, Penny starting to do more offsite work only in the last 2 months is a form of an abrupt change which has disturbed group equilibrium and caused a shift in dynamics between people in the group, taking them back to the storming phase of the fivestage group development model. In addition, Craig’s choice to meet more often with Penny for briefings about the Pnobscott account could have given her an impression of leadership over the case. Further leading to her dominating actions such as threatening Alison about her bonus and performance review if she didn’t follow her instructions. As a result, causing role ambiguity in the team and causing Alison excessive stress (Pathak, 2010, p. 3). In response to the third problem, although based on the majority of Craig’s actions and response times he appears to be quick to take action. However, Craig as a manager needs to be able to predict the future needs of his staff accurately (Stevenson, 2004). After Alison’s first e-mail however, he did not attempt to investigate by asking the other members of the group strategic questions, but instead assumed that her was over her “explosive stage”.

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Articulating Solutions: Counselling, mediation and motivation All the above problems are part of dysfunctional conflict. However, as well as being detrimental, conflict can also be beneficial (Eisenhardt and Schoonhoven, 1990). The following are ways in which to resolve the conflict between Alison and Penny and prevent future dysfunctional conflict. Firstly, the company could take measures to provide free counselling for its employees. With attention to Alison going through her diverse and now having to take care of her father causing her additional stress on top of the conflict with Penny. The next step would be it engage in a non-adjudicatory process such as mediation, encouraging both participants to be vulnerable and honest through the process. This process allows the participants to be in control of the decision-making process and come to the solution themselves (Westfield, 2002, p. 1225). To create lasting change however we must look at the needs i.e. motivations of employees by looking at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Ramlall, 2004). With special respect to psychological and affiliative human needs (Ramlall, 2004). Psychologically training is provided on how to selfstimulate constructive conflict within the team and then some to solutions increasing the cohesiveness of the team. This also furthers affiliation needs as it creates team spirit. Furthermore, periodic praise needs to be given to team members to increase esteem and morale thereby increasing productivity.

Conclusion Functional team conflict in can always be a means to learning experiences that will in the end help an organisation grow in how it handles teamwork. And in the case of Penny and Alison can be a big learning experience bringing them insight into their own behaviour and how they relate to the world around them. The conflict between the two can be mended if they choose to “lay all their cards on the table”. That is become vulnerable in the mediation process and come to a mutually beneficial decision. Management also has a huge role to play as part of this conflict, as their decisions on their solution approach will play a big role in how the situation is handled.

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Reference list 1.

Eisenhardt, Kathleen M. & Schoonhoven, Claudia Bird, 1990. Organizational Growth:

Linking Founding Team, Strategy, Environment, and Growth among U.S. Semiconductor Ventures, 19781988. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35(3), pp.504–29.

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Kick, A.L., Contacos-Sawyer, J. & Thomas, B., 2015. How generation Z's reliance on digital

communication can affect future workplace relationships. Competition Forum, 13(2), p.214.

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Maruca, RF 1998, ‘How do you manage an off-site team?’, Harvard Business

Review*, July – August, pp. 1 – 7.

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Pathak, M., 2010. Managing Organizational Conflict. Oeconomics of Knowledge, 2(4),

pp.2–12.

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Ramlall, S. (2004). A Review of Employee Motivation Theories and their Implications for

Employee Retention within Organizations. The Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge, 5(1/2), pp.52-64.

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Stevenson, Paul B., 2004. Five simple tools for managing labor costs: you don't need a

crystal ball to predict your future staffing needs. All you need are a few simple financial tools. Healthcare Financial Management, 58(1), p.64.

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Westfield, Elisa, 2002. Resolving conflict in the 21st century global workplace: the role

for alternative dispute resolution. Rutgers Law Review, 54(4), pp.1221–1247.

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Through the first 2 weeks of the reflection exercise it was a challenging process getting to know everyone as group dynamics and roles were still forming and tend to have minor anxiety when first introducing myself to new people as I fear how they will perceive me. Despite this however, I decided to volunteer as team leader and was chosen after a scissors paper rock battle with another team member. During the second week we really failed to work as a team. I had had an amazing idea for the presentation, it however required precise execution. This was not what happened as I and one other team mate was the only one that participated to precise execution. I felt general anxiety about being part of this team as I felt that my team were younger then I am although by a couple of years, they will think I’m old and not want to be my friends outside of this unit. Furthermore, my past experiences of not being listened to as part of groups in high school is what lead me to volunteering as team leader. These are my personal biases which have led to my choices of being loud and expressive as a team leader as the team progressed through the first few weeks. I identify the challenge here to be one of personal relationship with the world and how I’m relating to my surroundings, by living in my past experiences of high school rather than in the present whit new possibilities. Week 5 onwards the group norms were truly set in place and for the better, we were now working more collaboratively as a team. I felt a subtle loss of power as now everyone was contributing an equal and appropriate amount. So, the group dynamic shifted from me being the leader to all of us listening to each other’s ideas and challenging each other to come up with the best possible answer. There were not many negative feeling associated with this outcome as when we had a challenge that we could not address it would be avoided and forgotten as they were very small things. This in retrospect could have been handled better by a collaborating and discussing pros and cons. In saying this time was also a limiting factor in our approach to problem solving. My personal bias to this method was let it go it’s small and we don’t want to cause unnecessary hurt to other people’s feelings. I similarly sensed this in other people’s perspectives as well. Given the points above, I feel writing reflective statements as part of BBA102 aids us in perusing pre-emptive reflective thinking and engaging in appropriate action such as confrontation when faced with a challenge in teams socially or as part of a workplace.

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