...Managing Conflict in a Diverse Workplace Case Report Summary: Digisys Technology is a distributor of digitization equipment, who employs programmers, sales and marketing professionals, IT and software engineers. One of their biggest clients is the U.S dept of Defense and is lead mostly by senior managers who are retired military officers. Antoinette Mayer, a senior software engineer with some management responsibilities is having problems with Jay Strong her boss, in the perception she feels she was being sexually harassed. Antoinette’s perception comes from a walk in the parking lot with her boss when the conversation turned personal, about her new marriage, and she felt he was being a little flirtatious which was unprofessional, she felt uncomfortable. Jay was now joining her on different occasions at and around work areas, and requesting more updates on work related jobs, he requested meeting at the bar and failed to tell her the meeting was canceled and if she could stay for a drink, she left. Jay Strong was a rising star at Digisys, and the CEO’s protégé with lots of advantages’ in the company, events seats, country club membership and a budget for after hour socializing. Strong was rotating though the company to become more familiar with the operations and employees before moving on to another division. The trouble came when Strong’s boss sent him an article about women in the organization feeling left out. Strong’s intent was to get to know Mayer...
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...Recently, tensions have risen between employees in the patient accounts department due to personal conflicts. Confrontations between employees have disrupted the work environment, teamwork is diminishing, employee morale is decreasing, and managers are lacking the tools needed to address and solve these issues. Lack of managerial assistance in solving conflicts among employees also seems to be a problem. Shaun Walder, Director of Patient Accounts, does not like to get involved and rather have the employees work it out amongst themselves. These problems become related because if managers do not get involved, employees will continue to disagree with one another, and the issues are never addressed properly. That brings me to the purpose of this paper. How can managers effectively resolve interpersonal emotional conflicts? Literature Review Interpersonal conflict can be described as conflict between two or more individuals who are in a disagreement with one another. Emotional conflict can be described as conflict that involves interpersonal disputes that occur due to feelings of anger, mistrust, fear, dislike, and resentment. Emotional interpersonal conflict is most common amongst teams, co-workers and between management and subordinates (Schermerhorn et al., 2005). Personal conflict can occur between individuals or groups. However, the distinguishing trait of personal conflict is that it is based purely on negative feelings about another individual or group, and less on substantive...
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...COMPETENCIES NEEDED FOR THE CONFLICT MANAGEMENT Md. Musharrof Hossain Head, HRM, ICDDR,B Competencies needed for the Conflict Management The following competencies are required for Managers for better management of conflicts: Knowledge: 01. Understand the laws and regulations that have an impact on conflict management and on organizational functioning in areas related to conflict management. 02. Understand the organizational change process. 03. Understand the design and practice of training in the workplace, including adult learning theory. 04. Understand conflict resolution theory, principles and methods, particularly as they apply to the various conflict resolution mechanisms typically part of conflict management systems. Be aware of current best practices in conflict management. Competencies needed for the Conflict Management Abilities: Ability to manage organizational change. Ability to conduct needs assessment (i.e. to discern the nature of the organizational needs). Ability to design and conduct adult training. Ability to design and conduct evaluation of program implementation. Ability to facilitate groups and build consensus. Ability to design a conflict management system (or to lead the design process). Ability to work collaboratively. Ability to assess the decision-making centers in an organization and to gain the support and cooperation of the key decision makers. Ability to mediate, or to use a mediative process...
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...styles together in order to be effective in dealing with such diversity. According to dictionary.com, communication is defined as the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing or signs. It is not only important for managers to understand how effective they can be based on their communication techniques but also understand that each team member or subordinate will respond differently to each form of communication. In the workplace, managers can communicate with their teams via e-mail, telephone, web casts, text messages, instant messages and face to face. Being a great manager is about learning which communication technique works best for each individual. One mistake that managers make when dealing with a wide range of employees: believing that what works for one individual will work for all individuals. Having conversations about performance, communicating changes and relaying bad news can be difficult for those in management positions. The negative conversations are necessary; therefore if leaders have a strategic method in how they deliver the information, it makes it...
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...Managing conflict Name Institution Thesis Management of conflicts, power, and politics focuses majorly on the interpersonal processes the affect the decision-making by the managers. It may also entail the organizational way of change and adaptation of their immediate environment. It includes the capacity to influence the behavior of others in a relationship involving two parties like groups, organization, or even countries. Organizational politics is the process of one person exerting more influence over another in the relationship acted on daily forum of an organization. Conflict management is a common phenomenon in organizations (Rainey, 2009). Managing conflict aims at lessening the interdependent between the conflicting groups. It can involve physical separation of the conflicting parties. Physical separation buffers the creation of the inventory between the units of workflow making it less independent and reduces conflict. Generally, conflict is unending in any society where people live together. Introduction Many people and organization wish to compete peacefully with their market competitors, family members, and organizational departments. However, conflicts are inseparable from persons they form part of our daily living. Conflicts are the long live Methuselah and were present even in the beginning between the two brothers that is Cain and Abel. The term conflict has no definite meaning but scholars who are interested in studying it...
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...Developing Talent and Managing Workforce Diversity and Well-Being. 1. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT “Performance management involves goal setting, performance appraisal, and reward systems that align member work behavior with business strategy, employee involvement , and workplace technology” (Cummings &Worley, 2009). Research has shown that organizations with a fully functional performance management system outlive those...
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...Managing Workplace Diversity & The Relationship with Human Resource Management and How Effective It Is Course: Business & Management Submission Date: 03/05/2012 Submitted to Leeds Metropolitan University Word Count:2989 Contents Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Diversity 4 Diversity in the Workplace 4 Emergence of Diversity 5 Legislation and Problems they Solve 6 Emergence of Managing Diversity 7 HRM 8 Relationship with Managing Diversity 9 HRM in the UK vs. USA 10 Reasons Supporting HRM 11 Critical Arguments Posed to HRM 11 Recommendations 11 Conclusion 11 References 11 Introduction In this report I will be investigating managing diversity and taking a look at how it has developed and how it has had an impact on everything in life. I will mainly focus on how this has had an effect in the workplace and look at key arguments that support diversity and look at arguments against diversity in the workplace and why this may be considered a negative or a hindrance and most importantly I will look at how successful this has been at helping companies maximise their assets and key areas that I have identified that need to be improved. In the second part of my report I will examine the close links of managing diversity and human resource management (HRM). I will look at factors that support it and arguments that need to be considered when looking at HRM. Diversity Diversity in people can be described as the subtle differences...
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...interdependent individuals who come together to achieve specific goals. Formal groups are work groups that are defined by the organization’s structure and have designated work assignments and specific tasks directed at accomplishing organizational goals. Informal groups are social groups. The forming stage consists of two phases: joining the group and defining the group’s purpose, structure, and leadership. The storming stage is one of intragroup conflict over who will control the group and what the group will be doing. The norming stage is when close relationships and cohesiveness develop as norms are determined. The performing stage is when group members began to work on the group’s task. The adjourning stage is when the group prepares to disband. 2. Explain how external conditions and group member resources affect group performance and satisfaction. External conditions, such as availability of resources, organizational goals, and other factors, affect work groups. Group member resources (knowledge, skills, abilities, personality traits) can influence what members can do and how effectively they will perform in a group. 3. Discuss how group structure, group processes, and group tasks influence group performance and satisfaction. Group roles generally involve getting the work done or keeping group members happy. Group norms are powerful influences on a person’s performance and dictate things such as work output levels, absenteeism, and promptness. Pressures to conform can heavily...
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...Conflict Disagreement or clash between people or groups due to the difference in individual or group interest is known as conflict. Not all disagreements are conflict. It is the opposition of persons that gives rise to dramatic action. It can arise in all aspects of life- both personal and professional. Though conflict sounds to be a negative word, engaging in conflict can have positive effect on relationship and organization as a whole. Positive aspects of conflict Conflict helps to know that problem really exists. If conflicts are not taken care of, it leads to disastrous condition but discussing conflicting views can lead to better solutions. It enhances relationship between counterparts. Working through disagreements and coming out on the better side draws people together. Their respect for each other strengthens and they know they can withstand disagreements. Conflict raises awareness of what is important to individuals. Though conflicts are challenging, it can be exciting as well. It encourages people to grow thereby managing the difficult situations. Also, conflict creates opportunity. Causes of conflict There are a number of different causes of conflict. The way our society is organized can create the root cause of conflict. In our society, people are treated unequally and unjustly which erupts conflict. In most cases, conflict arises when people’s beliefs clash. Religious and political views are sensitive because people often depend on these for a sense of identity...
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...Conflict comes up in every aspect of one’s life if you are at home, shopping or with friends. Conflict becomes especially hard when you are in professional setting. Whether the organization is a business, an industry, a government agency, a hospital, a school, a law firm, or a family, disagreements occur as decisions are made and problems are solved. Involved participation in such situations means that different ideas, opinions, beliefs, and information will surface and clash. The result is controversy— the conflict that arises when one person’s ideas, information, conclusions, theories, and opinions are incompatible with those of another person, and the two seek to reach an agreement. (Johnson, D. and Johnson, F., 2009) August Turak (2012) stated “Good leaders are great at resolving conflict. Great leaders keep conflict from arising in the first place.” (Forbes.com) The article 3 Secrets of Conflict Resolution, helps to clarify things, the author states that a lot of conflict comes from ambiguity, meaning that things are just left open without any real meaning and person emotions get involved and nothing is solved. People are not getting to the root of the real problem. Something that I found extremely interesting was that the author’s findings were that most of the time work place conflict were not people problems but leadership problems, because the certain agreement processes were never formalized and left ambiguous. Being straight forward with clear concise statements, using...
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...Conflict Management Strategies for U.S. Army Better Opportunity for Single Soldiers (BOSS) Program HRMN365 What is BOSS? Better Opportunity for Single Soldiers (BOSS) is Military Welfare and Recreation (MWR) program for the United States Army that is overseen by senior enlisted military advisors and ran by junior enlisted soldiers with the funding of the MWR program ("Better opportunities for," 2004). The goal of the program is to ensure a high quality of life for the single soldiers of the Army through volunteerism, recreation activities, and improved living standards. Its organizational structure (See Figure 1.1) consists of a web of teams of representatives. Each unit has a representative. This forms a Battalion BOSS program which has an additional junior leader chosen by the Command Sergeant Major (CSM) of each specific Battalion (BN). Next each BN Representative then reports to the Brigade (BDE) Representative who is chosen by that respective CSM. After that each BDE representative reports to the Garrison or Fort BOSS President who is referred to by the collection of Command Sergeants Major to the post CSM. In addition to the organizational leadership every soldier considered single or a geographical bachelor are participants in the BOSS program ("Better opportunities for," 2004). All groups of teams work together internally and externally to accomplish missions set forth by command. In addition to this, the teams have monthly training meetings at the unit...
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...focus will be employees on Singapore work environment. Cullen & Praveen (2014) explains culture as the characteristics of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts etc. Nick (2012) points out that in Southeast Asia, Singapore has become a newly industrialized nation, which was hailed as a great economic success during the last 2 decades and the countries traditions of its culture still play a major role in business activities. While Stanton & Nankervis (2011) argues that the national culture of Singapore is high in power distance and this has lead the superiors and subordinates treat each other as unequals in the country. Singapore has also been called is also called a “nanny state’ by Nick (2012), because it is a work culture in which people are supposed to do exactly what they are told and there is no decentralisation or any opportunity for lower level employees to make suggestions. The research used both primary and secondary data collection method to collect information about the question at hand. Research found that Clearly the problem of conflicts due to culture is prevailing both in work conditions and everyday life in Singapore. These have huge implications for the businesses, especially in a fast passed globalized business. Conflict at work is common in multinational companies around the world, but as Joana, John, Luthans & Bovaird (2014) states, conflicts in human resource due to culture can...
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...Numerous studies have performed on the topic of conflict management to identify the most effective strategy of managing conflict in the workplace. Conflict is inevitable as no two individuals have same ideas, attitudes, or actions. Because of these differences, incompatibility or disagreement arises which can harm the individuals as well as the environment. It is important to understand the reasons and types of conflict to resolve it effectively. Pinkley (1990) says that conflict is a process that begins when an individual or group perceives differences and opposition between oneself and another individual or group about interests, beliefs, or values that matter to them. However, Deutsch (1973) and Tosvold (1998) define conflict as an incompatible activity where one person’s action interferes, obstructs, or in some way gets in the way of another’s actions. The focus of the research is the condition that describes conflict as an unmatched activity. Furthermore, Boulding (1962) describes conflict as a situation of competition in which parties are aware of the incompatibility of potential future positions and each party wishes to occupy a position that is incompatible with the wishes of the other. The article also emphasis on the consequences of the incompatibility of the future and provides a comprehensive meaning of conflict. According to Zarankin (2008), conflict is defined as the incompatibility between an individual’s desire and action and those others who create a challenge...
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...Management Candidate Name: Samantha Salmon Managing stress and conflict in the organisation Assignment Table of Contents Contents Page Number 1 Understand the effectiveness of own organisation in dealing with workplace stress and conflict Evaluate the effectiveness of the organisation in recognising workplace stress and conflict and providing the necessary support mechanisms 3 2 Be able to improve the management of workplace stress and conflict in own area of responsibility Plan improvements to the identification and approach to dealing with workplace stress and conflict in own area of responsibility 6 3 Implement improvements to the identification and approach to dealing with workplace stress and conflict in own area of responsibility 7 4 Critically evaluate own ability to identify and deal with workplace stress and conflict effectively in own area of responsibility 8 6 Appendices • Employee Assistance Programme Appendix 1 • Employee Wellbeing Appendix 2 • Equality and Dignity at Work Appendix 3 • Occupational Health and Referrals Appendix 4 • Disciplinary Procedures Appendix 5 • CIC Appendix 6 Understand the effectiveness of the organisation in recognising workplace stress and conflict and providing the necessary support mechanisms Definition of stress Stress can hit anyone at any level of the business and recent research shows that work related stress is widespread and is not confined to particular...
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...CONFLICT T he success or failure of any organization is dependent upon the use of its indigenous, collective energies. When procedures are clear, the "esprit de corps" is high, and the business is said to be productive. But whenever people come together in one setting over a period of time, you can always expect conflict to find itself in the midst. The Webster’s dictionary defines conflict as a sharp disagreement or opposition of interests or ideas but from a more objective perspective, conflict is “a state in which one party perceive that another party has, or is about to negatively impact something that is important to the first party” (Robbins, 2006). The key word to note in this definition is “perceives”. Perceive is a concept that occurs within the mind. It is one’s interpretation of a situation or thing and does not necessarily have to be true. That might explain why on many occasions, a conflict that arises; may be unnecessary or misguided and result in wasted time. Causes of Conflict A s you may discern, the causes of conflict are numerous and each has their own accompanying challenges. Within the organization however, C. Brooklyn Derr in his book Major Causes of Organizational Conflict: Diagnosis for Action, stated that there are six (6) main causes of conflict: 1) The interpersonal disagreements that arise when one person is experiencing individual stress. People bring their whole selves to the workplace and they may...
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