Assignment 5: Conflict, Decision Making, and Organizational Design
BUS 520 – Leadership and Organizational Behavior

A potential conflict that could arise for Strayer University is the need to improve the graduation rate. From a report in 2011, Strayer University had an average graduation rate of fourteen percent. There are a few factors that cause the graduation rate to be low. Strayer University is in the category of a for-profit institution. For-profit institutions usually do not offer electives to students. "For-profits offer highly structured programs, with no electives. You're on a clear path." (Clark, 2011) For-profit institutions have a higher tuition than other schools. Many of the students borrow in the form of federal loans or receive federal grants to attend these schools, thus created a large amount of debt for students. This does, however, increase the profits of the school. For-profit schools do not make money the way other schools make money off of state grants and scholarships. Some of the students that attend for-profit institutions are not prepared for the type of courses that are offered there. Some of the students are not disciplined enough to sign onto the school’s website for the course material and follow the lesson plan, if the student is enrolled in an online course. There are also students that are attending nontraditional schools because they are the first in their family to attend school. Many of these students tend to drop out of school and default on their loans. The decision makers for the university should began negotiations to manage any conflicts surrounding the success of their students completion of the degree program they enroll in. “Negotiation is the process in which two or more interdependent individuals or groups who perceive that they have both common and conflicting goals state and discuss proposals and preferences for specific terms of a possible agreement.” (Hellriegel & Slocum Jr., 2011) The decision makers for the school need to be able to collaborate on how to improve the graduation rate for the school. A better graduation rate will improve the reputation of the school. For the decision makers at Strayer University, the integrative negotiations strategy would work best. “Integrative negotiations involve joint problem solving to achieve results that benefit both parties.” (Hellriegel & Slocum Jr., 2011) All parties must identify the problems with the graduation rate that may be mutual. The parties also need to identify what alternative actions they will take on this issue. It would be in the best interest of the parties to communicate their preferences in a solution to each other and reach a mutual solution to the issue. The solution should be advantageous to both parties. To have a successful integrated negotiation strategy, the parties involved need to have a variety of principles and actions. “Principled negotiations refer to the prescribed ways in which the parties should negotiate to resolve disputes.” (Hellriegel & Slocum Jr., 2011) To reach a mutual solution on higher graduation rates at Strayer University, the decision makers need to know that how the negotiation is conducted is as important as what they are negotiating. For a higher chance of having a successful integrative negotiation, there are four principles that need to be integrated. The first principle in reaching a mutually agreeable solution is for the parties involved to separate their association with one another from the issue being negotiated. They should view themselves as working side by side on the issue instead of trying to attack each other. The second principle in reaching a mutually agreeable solution is for the parties to focus on their interest and put their egos aside. The parties involved need to make sure that they are focused with the reason that they are negotiating on the graduation rate. Becoming consumed with the person position rather than worrying about the issue will cause the parties to not fully understand the reasons they want higher graduation rates. The third principle in reaching a mutually agreeable solution is for the parties come up with options that will promote the best results in this issue. It is ideal for the options to create mutual gains. Coming up with a single solution will cause the parties to be creative in their thinking. “These blinders can be removed by establishing a forum in which various possibilities are generated before decisions are made about which action to take.” (Hellriegel & Slocum Jr., 2011) The fourth and final principle in reaching a mutually agreeable solution is for the parties to have a discussion about the standards of the negotiation. These things may consist of law and expert opinion. In doing this, the parties will have to take their focus away from what they are willing to do and what they are not willing to do. “By using this objective, neither party has to give in to the other, and both parties may defer to a fair solution.” (Hellriegel & Slocum Jr., 2011) Evidence-based management can be applied to this school environment. “Evidence-based management proceeds from the premise that using a better, deeper diagnosis and employing facts to the extent possible enable managers and leaders to do their jobs better.” (Hellriegel & Slocum Jr., 2011) This management style reduces the problems identified through the comprehension of the potentially relevant information in making choices. “Evidence-based management emphasizes the dangers of being ‘seduced’ by the ‘quick fix’ or ‘fad’. It reminds us that managerial decision making is often complex and time consuming, and it requires a tough, disciplined mind-set.” (Hellriegel & Slocum Jr., 2011) There are five diagnostic for the decision makers to consider trying to avoid simpleminded quick fixes: 1. “What assumptions does the idea or practice make about people and organizations? What would have to be true about people and organizations for idea the idea or practice to be effective? 2. Which of these assumptions seem reasonable and correct to you and your colleagues? Which seem wrong and suspect? 3. Could this idea or practice still succeed if the assumptions turned out to be wrong? 4. How might you and your colleagues quickly and inexpensively gather some data to test the reasonableness of the underlying assumptions? 5. What other ideas or management practices can you think of that would address the same problem or use and be more consistent with what you believe to be true about people and organizations?” (Hellriegel & Slocum Jr., 2011)
The reduction of mental blinders and problems identified through the comprehension of the potentially relevant information in the decision making process is aided by the evidence-based management in leaders from having difficulty to seek information. Leaders with biased opinions in favor of certain ideas, is a big failure when information is being sought after by leaders.
Strayer University’s decision makers have to use creativity in their decision making process. “Creativity is the ability to visualize, generate, and implement new ideas or concepts or new associations between existing ideas or concepts that are novel and useful.” (Hellriegel & Slocum Jr., 2011) The decision leader will be able to identify problems, which will help them to increase the quality of the solutions that they come up with. It is very important for the decision makers to be very creative in the way they make the decisions that will affect the students.
It is important for decision makers to learn from their mistakes. There are three categories of blocks that need to be looked at. 1. “Perpetual blocks include such factors as the failure to use all of the senses in observing, failure to investigate the obvious, difficulty in seeing remote relationships, and failure to distinguish between cause and effect. 2. Cultural blocks include a desire to conform to establish norms, overemphasis on competition or conflict avoidance and smoothing, the drive to be practical and narrowly economical above all else, and a belief that indulging in fantasy or other forms of open-ended exploration is a waste of time. 3. Emotional blocks include the fear of making a mistake, fear and distrust of others, grabbing the first idea that comes along, and the like. For many organizations, fostering creativity and innovation is essential to their ability to offer high-quality products and services.” (Hellriegel & Slocum Jr., 2011)
More than likely, the decision makers of Strayer University will experience emotional blocks when making decisions on increasing the graduation rate of the students of the school. Emotional blocks are aligned with how decision makers may feel about the decision that will affect the students of the institution. The decision makers need to make sure that they make well thought out decisions that will offer the students a good education and will help in raising the graduation rate.
The decision makers at Strayer University would benefit from using Osborn’s creativity Process. “Osborn’s creativity process is a three-phase decision-making process that involves fact finding, idea finding, and solution finding.” (Hellriegel & Slocum Jr., 2011) This process helps to overcome blockages. To get to a new method of ides, the decision makers need to be provoked to cooperate and peak their curiosity. They will need a good enough amount of time to implement this process. Pressure on the decision makers to generate ideas will assist them in being successful in getting higher graduation rates.
Decision makers need to find the facts to their problem by looking at trends in the graduation rate. Looking for reasons students successfully graduated and discontinued their education is the type of data that needs to be analyzed. If there are some issues that may be uncovered in the process of finding facts. “This phase requires making a distinction between a symptom of an issue or a problem and an actual issue or problem.” (Hellriegel & Slocum Jr., 2011)
Next, the decision makers have to find ideas that will help them come up with ideas to help them with the decisions they have to make. Decision makers need to defer their judgment. “Individuals can think up almost twice as many good ideas in the same length of time if they defer judgment on any idea until after they create a list of possible leads to a solution.” (Hellriegel & Slocum Jr., 2011) Also, the more ideas the decision makers can think of, the better chance they have at finding good direction to their solution. Brainstorming ideas can help the decision makers with their problem. They will be able to come up with ideas that will be free from critical judgments.
Finally, the decision makers for the school need to find the best possible solution to their issue. To find the best solution for the problem, the leader of the group that makes decisions needs to ask the group what they feel are the best ideas that they came up with to generate a higher graduation rate for the students at Strayer University. Scoring the ideas from one to five will be the easiest thing the group can do to find the best possible solution. When they have figured out which idea has the highest score, they can then decide how they should proceed.
There are environmental and strategic factors that affect the design of the university. “The environmental factors that leaders and employees need to be aware of are (1) the characteristics of the present and possible future environments and (2) how those characteristics affect the organization’s ability to function effectively.” (Hellriegel & Slocum Jr., 2011) Environmental factors include suppliers, distributors, competitors, and customers. Suppliers include faculty in the online and classroom setting, distributors are the different advertisements for the school via billboards, online advertisements, etc., competitors are other universities that are for-profit and nonprofit, and customers are the students.
“Individual faculty negotiate their contracts in an open and union-free environment, however, due to the ample supply of potential faculty in most disciplines bargaining power is fairly low.” (Stotler, 2008) Strayer University, like other for-profit institutions, has a goal to provide an education to adults that is available online and on a campus. Many of the adults that attending these institutions are busy for a number of reasons, they can be busy because they work full time, have a family to take care of, or just would like to complete their degree in a non-traditional setting. The instructors at these institutions are to teach these students the required material. A good understanding of the course material will yield successful completion of the courses by students.
The advertisements that are posted online and on billboards attract students to Strayer University. This helps the institution to get the students so that they can deliver a service to them, a degree. The academic advisors at the institution also help the students in getting the services that they have to offer. It is the job of the academic advisors to enroll the students in the right courses to complete their degree.
“The primary focus among competitors in this industry is recruitment and retention. Most firms in the industry spend large amounts of advertising money to recruit new students, particularly in markets where new campuses are opened.” (Stotler, 2008) These competitors will drive Strayer University to be more productive. Strayer University must make sure that they are able to retain students and help them graduate because in will generate new students for the school.
When a student is deciding whether or not to attend Strayer University, they evaluate their cost against the cost of another institution. “The bargaining power of buyers in this industry is quite low. The buyers would be the students who are seeking a degree and the price would be the tuition, books and supplies.” (Stotler, 2008) Students are not able to negotiate the price of the tuition, as it is usually a fixed price.
Strayer University needs to have a competitive position in order to get students to attend their institution over another institution. “A cost leadership strategy, also known as a low-cost strategy, is based on an organization’s ability to provide a product or service at a lower cost than its rivals.” (Hellriegel & Slocum Jr., 2011) Strayer University tries to accomplish this. “Tuition and fees at for-profit colleges average $13,935 a year, almost twice the cost of in-state tuition and fees at public colleges and significantly more than the average annual cost ($2,713) of two-year public institutions, according to the College Board.” (Clark, 2011) Though the institution may have higher rates amongst these schools, they charge a lesser rate than that of a private nonprofit institution.
Strayer University can increase the current graduation rate of its students. As of 2011, Strayer University had a graduation rate of fourteen percent. This can be increased if the decision makers of the institution try following the points made. It is important for them to come up with ideas that can be a good solution to increase the graduation rate. There are other institutions in the industry that have a higher graduation rate and Strayer University should strive to have a better rate.

References
Clark, J. B. (2011). The Real Deal on For-Profit Colleges. Kiplinger's Personal Finance, 64-68.
Hellriegel, D., & Slocum Jr., J. W. (2011). Organizational Behavior. Mason: Cengage Learning.
Stotler, J. (2008). Strayer Education, Inc: An Equity Valuation. Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies, 83-89.