WEEK 6 - Interpersonal skills and resolving conflict

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BAA7411 Workplace Attributes…

Key Session Outcomes * Understanding interpersonal skills * How to resolve conflict * Decision-making and communicating ideas.

WEEK SIX - Introduction…

This week we will look at how interpersonal skills (coupled with all the previous attributes learned) will be very effective in a conflict situation (and, of course, many other workplace environments).

WEEK SIX - Reading(s)…

All relevant readings will be placed on MyLO.

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Ex 1 - Debating the options

In small teams you are going to debate an issue (you may not necessarily agree with the argument you are to present - but you must present it convincingly!). You may search the Internet to assist in your debate.

Your company has recently added new technical products to its sales line. The CEO has communicated that all employees are to complete a skills audit to find out who has knowledge and skills with the new products. The CEO expects all personnel to be fully au fait with the new products within 4 weeks (and asks you to decide how this will happen!).

OPTION 1 - Your team decides that training employees is time consuming and costly and that the CEO should offer redundancy to unskilled employees - then recruit for people who already have the skills and who can start work immediately. Write notes to support your argument below - ready for your debate.
Within 4 weeks —— time limit, improve product quality
Training takes time, negative effect on company profit, reduce employees’ working hours
Skills related to new product is far from that of previous products
Skills require professional training, tacit knowledge is easy to acquire
Company lose brand image & customer confidence , customer confidence, long-term negative effect on profit

OPTION 2 - Your team are in favour of appraising all employees’ skills - then providing product training. You believe that existing employees have tacit knowledge that the organisation should not lose (i.e. company policy, values, norms) - so training is the best option. Write your notes below ready for the debate. no culture of corporation —— new staff without tacit knowledge
Within 4 weeks, learn skills is enough
Higher salary associated with new staff
Existing staff —— loyalty, appreciation

After the debate - answer the following questions: 1. Did your group provide work collaboratively?
Yes, all our members promote their points of opinions, respondent 1 summed them up.
Some of us do research on fair work Australia, discuss feasibility of other alternatives 2. Did you make the decision through consensus or were some ideas not considered?
Through consensus, every one agree on our opinions, when different opinions are raised, group members discuss and work out the consensus.

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Ex 1 – CAPE Tisbe International Ltd Change of Working Hours Case Study

Now, let’s see if you can incorporate all the interpersonal skills and decision making skills you we have discussed into the activity below!

In your same groups - complete the activity below. You may search the Internet for information.

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Interpersonal Skills, Resolving Conflict, Negotiating and Creativity - all very important attributes!

You work for CAPE Tisbe International Limited (CTIL), as a Senior Administration Officer. Your Manager, Alison, calls you in her office to discuss changes the organisation had made to employee working hours so that overseas clients can contact CTIL at any time (rather than only during Australian working hours). As you are the senior person looking after your section, your manager has directed you to inform your staff of the following:

* From the 1st of June, all staff will adhere to a new roster that covers 24 hours a day, seven days a week * Every person will be expected to work 40 hours during the week, at any time as required by the roster * The roster will operate on a lottery type system (to avoid any favourtism) * Every person may be required to work overtime if the situation demands it, and * Any person not willing to work as part of this roster will have their employment terminated.

After Alison discusses this with you, you raise many objections. You state that the roster is not flexible or fair and will not suit many people, particularly those who have children or have to travel to work. However, Alison dismisses your concerns, saying, “if you don’t like it, you might as well start looking for another job yourself!”

The next day, you call a meeting with your staff to discuss the situation. You attempt to provide them with relevant paperwork (legislation, company policies, conflict resolution options etc.). You state you are not in agreement with the planned changes but must inform them of management’s decision. Suddenly people start shouting back at you they stand up and point. You again try to calm them and state that you are only relaying the information from upper management, and there is nothing you can do. However, one very angry employee yells at you and says, “Come on Pete - you are in a position to help but you are just not standing up for us!!” He turns to the group and suggests they refuse, and in a show of force, refuse to do any work - he adds they should all march to Alison’s office to tell her of their stop-work motion.

Within seconds everyone is standing in agreement - and, as they storm out of the meeting, you wonder how it got out of control so fast.

NOW: Find the relevant CAPE Tisbe polices related to the case (hint: there are at least two). Then discuss the case study and answer the questions below:

1. How did the situation develop into a conflict situation with both you manager and Alison?

The new policies are not reasonable or fair, but Alison’s attitude is very strong with that. When Pete raised his doubts, Alison threatened to sack him. What Pete could do is actually to raise other advices that are productive and can replace Alison’s new policies. If he could not figure those out, he could rely on his staff to solve it together rather than just informing them policies. 2. Describe the situation in terms of the Conflict Theory and power differences…

At the beginning, Alison was in the more powerful position than Pete and his staffs as she has the power of firing employees, thus she made several unfair and unreasonable policies and procedures as to the working hours and planned to exploited the value of employees.

3. Could the situation have been avoided - if so - list the steps you would take (think about communication, interpersonal skills)?

Yes, it could have been avoided.

Communication between Pete and Alison: Pete not only raised his doubts and dissatisfaction but his

solutions—policies and procedures that could replace new sets of policies to persuade Alison that better solutions

are available and that the serious consequences of implementation of new policies—boycott

Communication between Pete and his staff: persuade staffs to make a compromise to a certain degree and explain

the situation of the company and promise certain remedies that they could get from night shift or weekend shift.

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MOCK MEETING - in readiness for Assignment 3

Now - using the previous case study - perform a Mock Meeting to resolve the issues as you have discussed with your team - and write the minutes of your meeting in the templates provided by the lecturer.
You have approximately 30 minutes.
Please see below for an example completed minutes of meeting. You will be provided with a separate template for your mock meeting (this is to be handed in individually).
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Setup…

In your groups - you must choose people to perform the meeting adopting the following personalities (as per the case study) -

* ONE of you will be ALISON * ONE of you will be PETE * ONE of you must be ALISON’s Manager * THE REST will be Pete’s staff!

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How to write Minutes of Meeting

The purpose of meeting may dictate the format for the minutes - along with the company policies or procedures (and templates) for minutes of meetings.

The reason minutes are kept…

* They capture facts (designed to inform those not present what occurred) * Commitments (who will do what) * Positions (support or rejection of actions and ideas) and * They bring ‘form’ to topics * They establish what occurred * They prevent forgetfulness!
Problems with minutes of meetings…

* No one wants to write the minutes! * Often people write a complete transcript of what happened (and not the minutes) * It could be stressful trying to carefully word ‘politically charged’ or sensitive topics * It could be problematic if you don’t record who said (exactly) what (as above) * During the meeting, minute takers must focus on the ‘essence’ not exact words * Minute notes must provide sufficient detail to ensure correct recording * Knowing what to omit from the minutes (conflict, or topic discussions etc.) * How to accurately portray the opinions of attendees (particularly for disagreements)!

Other Issues…

* Recording the minutes of a meeting becomes a legal document (risk, litigation etc.) * Recording conversations may impede honesty, creativity and interaction (as above).
SEE below for an example completed meeting template.

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Agenda and Minutes - Annual General Meeting

In Attendance:
Location: UTAS Chair: All Minutes: All Time Proposed: Started at 4.00 pm 45 mins
AGENDA ITEMS 1. Previous Minutes 2. Orders of Business 3. Discussion and decisions 4. Actions 5. Proposed timeframes. | 1. All agreed minutes of last meeting accepted and (some actions still to be completed). 2. Business review - policy refresh and procedures to meet next 3 year plan * Each team representative presented financial targets (met and unmet), teams goals, development, alignment to company’s strategic plan and general view of procedures and improvements. * All teams state meeting financial targets with only one team producing well of the expected target with the introduction of online merchandising increasing sales / cost ratio. * All teams presented a satisfactory team achievement. * Several team representatives suggested some policy and procedure documents needed updating. 3. As result of item 2 - several policies put forward for discussion and revision, including: * Confidentiality and privacy * Diversity policy * Employee induction policy. 4. General discussion for review of policies all present agreed that: * All policies discussed and suggested revisions to be provided to the CEO and members of the Board for comment against organisational goals after which HR manager will collate and disseminate draft policies to all staff for consideration and comment. * Board members will review draft and prepare, with agreement of CEO and HR representative, final draft for dissemination to all staff. 5. Points noted: * Teams performing well against organisational goals and strategic plan / business plans. * Meeting to be scheduled to discuss recruitment drive for incoming season - especially for online sales. * CEO to talk to all Team Leaders in the coming weeks (prior to recruitment drive) to ensure all understand and are implementing the revisions to policy and related procedures. * Prior to next AGM all teams to conduct internal performance audits against revised policies. 4. Actions | By Whom | By Date | Schedule meeting for recruitment drive | HR team and CEO | Prior next meet | CEO to schedule talks with team leaders to ensure all implementing revisions to P & P | CEO and Team Leaders | 1-2 months | Write new policies for those missing above | BOARD | 2 months |

Meeting Closed: 4.46 pm
Sign off minutes – by Monday next week (minute taker to disseminate)
Location of next meeting: 2 weeks Chair: All Minutes: All Date: 10th April Time: 2.00 pm.

Name: ______Hang Zhou_____________________ ID: ________________________________
Name: ______Wen Sun_____________________ ID: ________________________________
Name: ______Beibei Li_____________________ ID: ________________________________
Name: _______Linghui Wu____________________ ID: ________________________________

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Agenda and Minutes - Employee Roster

In Attendance: (as above)
Location: Chair: All Minutes: All Time Proposed: Started at 4.00 pm 45 mins
AGENDA ITEMS 1. Previous Minutes 2. Rosters discussion of changes 3. Decisions 4. Actions and timeframes. | 1. All agreed minutes of last meeting accepted and (some actions still to be completed). 2. Rosters - discussion of proposed changes: * Company does not have any specific guidelines and procedures for employee working hours, so these guidelines and policies should be made under Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policy in accordance with the actual situation of staff and avoid any conflicts of time arrangement. * For those who have to work at night or weekend (Australian time), company should consider double pay system in order to boost their working enthusiasm. * Company could consider establishing overseas branch in order to solve time difference between Australia and overseas. * Lack of respect in the workplace. Company should make specific guidelines to avoid this situation. * Lottery type system is unscientific; more reasonable roster system should be performed. * 40 hours working time is too long, HR department should consider recruit more workers. 3. Decisions * All attendance agrees that specific guidelines and procedures for employee working hours should be added into Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policy. * Double pay system should be implemented as soon as possible * Establishing overseas branch is time–consuming and not economical, this advice is discarded. * Specific guidelines about respect in the workplace will be made soon * More reasonable roster system will be made soon * Company decides to recruit 20 more workers. 4. Actions: Actions | By Whom | By Date | specific guidelines and procedures for employee working hours | Department managers | Next Friday | Double pay system | Department managers | Next Monday | Specific guidelines about respect | Human Resource department | Next Monday | More reasonable roster system | Department managers | Next Monday | Recruit more workers | Human Resource department | Next Monday |