Conflict Resolution Strategies In The Workplace – A Case Study Analysis

Analysis of Interpersonal Conflict in Sledge Harbor Marine

Question:

Discuss about the Workplace Conflict Management using Case Study.

In modern organizations, where is a large number of employees and there is the involvement of complex processes, it is obvious that there would be frequent conflicts between the team members. If these inter-personal conflicts are not addressed, then they are bound to have a negative impact on team work and productivity (Moore, 2014). This would cause hindrance for the employees in achieving the organizational goals. This would not only prevent the organization in realization of its goals but it would also lead to poor performance of the employees (Triplett & Loh, 2017). Hence, it is important to resolve the conflicts arising in the workplace so that a healthy work environment can be maintained. The act of conflict resolution requires particular leadership traits, decision-making abilities and problem-solving skills.

This case study analysis is based on the interpersonal conflict issues between the employees of Sledge Harbor Marine. This report aims to manage the conflicts so that the matter is being handled in a timely and sensitive manner. The relevant issue would be discussed along with the various elements of the conflict management system. A framework for resolving the conflicts would be suggested along with its benefits and risks. A communication process would be outlined in which the various communication modes would be discussed. The analysis of the ethical dilemma for the firm would also be outlined.

Outline of relevant issue

The case revolves around two employees named Bob Smith and Roger Jones who were employees of the company. There was a considerable age difference between both the employees as Roger was 24 years old while Bob’s age was 40 years. They had an argument over a minor safety hazard on the vessel, which lasted more than three months. The conflict took place during maintenance work on the port and argument was about the safety hazard of the electrical cords at the vessel. The primary reason for the heated exchange was miscommunication and different perspective of both the parties. Bob and Roger may have different opinions regarding the safety hazard in the vessel and were unable to achieve common grounds. This aggravated the conflict situation in the coming months. This minor conflict resulted in a huge debate everytime as both parties attacked each other time and again. There were instances of taunts in front of everyone not only in the workplace cafeteria but there were virtual conflicts in the social media websites as well. There were inappropriate posts in the social media which not only affected the relationship of Roger and Bob, but it also affected their relationship with the other employees of the organization. There was a negative influence on the organizational culture and there was a decrease in the motivation level of the employees too. This affected the organizational productivity and this was a matter of concern for the managers.

Key Drivers of the Organizational Conflict

Elements of Conflict Management System

The key drivers of the organizational conflict were the difference in personalities of the two members involved and the poor communication of both of them. Both the employees were from different backgrounds and they had diverse experiences in life. This is the reason they failed to understand the differences between the viewpoints of each other. There were also poor communication skills, which made them difficult to agree on a common point (Snyder & Diesing, 2015). Another reason for this was their lack of listening skills in understanding the opinions of each other. They were rigid in their thought process and did not welcome the idea of the other party. Bob was not open to the idea of Roger and the vice-versa was also true. There was lack of ideas, which made them prone to conflicts, which was indirectly responsible for this issue.

There are potential risks if the underlying conflicts are not resolved. There is the possibility of permanent damage in the inter-personal relationships of the employees of the organization. There would be subsequent decrease in the productivity of the employees. This would be due to the fact that the organizational conflict would affect the mental health of the employees (Einarsen et al., 2016). When engaged in conflicts, the employees tend to become prone to stress and this affects their personal as well as professional lives. There can also be situations in which the concerned employees would avoid being together in meetings and this may hamper the organizational work processes (Triplett & Loh, 2017). There are also possibilities of employee turnover which would increase the attrition rate of the organization (Leon-Perez et al., 2015). This would increase the overall cost of the company and there would be less operational profit of the company. There would be an increase in the various kinds of costs such as operational, legal, workplace and other kinds of expenses for the company, which is detrimental for the long term profit of the company. The increase in the operational expenses and other kinds of expense would not be considered good for the sustainability of the organization.

There would also be rising instances of absenteeism of the concerned employees like Bob and Roger. This is because of the fact that there would be lowering of the employee morale and hence the employees would not be eager to attend office everyday. There are also possibilities of workplace violence, if the tension between Roger and Bob continues to grow. This would not only mean that there would be tensions between these two entities, but it would also spread to other employees of the organizations. There can be organizational violence which may result in legal problems between the employees which would become a hassle for the company (Triplett & Loh, 2017).

Potential Risks of Conflicts in the Workplace

Solution for workplace conflicts

It is important to find suitable solution for the conflicts that have arisen in the workplace (GilinOore, Leiter & LeBlanc, 2015). There should be a meeting that should be organized in which both Bob and Roger should be invited. The following are some solutions which should be implemented in the case study scenario-

• Teach employees to respect differences- It is important to invite both the employees and tell them to understand each other’s differences. The situation should be made understood to them and how different approaches can complement each other should be elaborated. The HR manager should possibly realign the roles of each concerned parties in the given situation and should utilize their respective strengths (Brown, Thomas &Bosselman, 2015). It is advisable to implement one suitable diversity program that would mitigate the future conflicts in the organization (Ju et al., 2014). A customizable program for diversity management should be created
• Perform root cause analysis of the problem- Bob and Roger both should be asked about their own viewpoints and what is bothering them. It is important to understand the actual causes of conflict between both the parties (Latino, Latino & Latino, 2016). It would be a good idea to know their individual perspectives so that it can be solved accordingly (Charles et al., 2016).
• Collaborative coaching program- The human resource managers should consider a collaborative coaching program in which attempts are taken for resolving the particular situation (Desimone & Pak, 2017). In this program, the moderator should understand the important traits of each person and expectations from each other. It is important to foster better communication processes and understanding between the key parties involved.
• Stop meeting Bob and Roger separately-If the individuals having conflict meet the moderator separately, then there is risk of polarizing their positions. If the person who is designated for solving the conflicts become familiar with the individual parties, then both Bob and Roger would try to prove themselves right (Triplett & Loh, 2017). In such cases, it would be difficult to come in negotiating terms with both parties involved.
• Seminars on active listening- It is important to conduct seminars on “active listening”, in which the participants would be subjected to good listening skills that would help the organization to meet its objectives (Jahromi et al., 2016). When in conflicts, the person spends his or her time in formulation of his rebuttal. This is the reason that the person would hear what they actually want to hear and this let him miss the words that the speaker actually wants to communicate (Jahromi et al., 2016). The manager should ensure that both parties are listening by asking open-ended to them and using positive feedbacks to reinforce the things that are actually being said (Stewart, Atilano & Arnold, 2017).
• Request for behavior changes- Bob and Roger both should be subjected to request in their behavior changes and this should be done in an official manner (Jahromi et al., 2016). They should not be asked to change their attitudes but they should only be asked to behave in a positive manner in the workplace (Cahn & Abigail, 2014). This request should be done in an official manner and an agreement should be signed in which the conflict parties would agree to behave appropriately in their workplace.
• Determination of the underlying need- The ultimate goal of the conflict resolution process is the decision of the right person and the wrong person (Jahromi et al., 2016). The moderator should look for needs of the employees especially the unmet ones (Chemolli &Gagné, 2014).This would not only increase the employee satisfaction but would also lead to resolution of the conflicts.

Benefits and risks of the conflict resolution processes

There are several benefits as well as risks of the conflict resolution process, which needs to be kept in mind before implementing the conflict resolution process (Jahromi et al., 2016). They are discussed as below-

• Teach employees to respect differences- The benefit of undertaking this tactics for conflict resolution is that it would make the concerned employees to understand the perspective of the opposite party (Jahromi et al., 2016). This would also make a long-term identification of the various background differences between Bob and Roger. One risks for using this method would be that there are possibilities of misunderstanding the cultural or the educational backgrounds of each other, if it is not communicated well (Mao & Hale, 2015).
• Perform root cause analysis of the problem- The benefits of such a technique lies in the fact that it would uncover the relationship between symptoms and causes of the problems that have transpired between the two employees (Reason, 2016). It would target the issues at their root itself, which would help in the better resolution of the issues. The risks of this process include that this method presumes that there is always a single source of problem and this may not be effective in this scenario. Chances are that the problem may persist and there would be further worsening of their interpersonal relationship (Jahromi et al., 2016).
• Collaborative coaching program- The benefit of this option is the development of the leadership skills of the concerned employees. The coaching programs would enhance the communication skills as well as public speaking ability of the employees, which would help them to understand each other’s point of view in a better way (Maltbia, Marsick &Ghosh, 2014). One of the main risks associated with this program is that there are chances of absenteeism from such programs and the employees may not find adequate time to attend such coaching programs.
• Stop meeting Bob and Roger separately- One of the greatest advantages of this method is that it would not lead to misinterpretation of both the parties (Jahromi et al., 2016). However, on the other hand, if the two parties are not met separately, then the moderator may miss some important points that both the participants would not share when discussing things together.
• Seminars on active listening- One of the main benefits of this process is that it enhances the ability to absorb as well as pass the data as well as information being provided during the process of exchange of data (Freeman et al., 2014). This would make both Bob and Roger to empathetic and consider each other’s views in a positive manner. On the other hand, this kind of technique would be helpful only in one-to-one conversations and would not be helpful in group communications.
• Request for behavior changes- The benefit of this approach is that this would prevent the inter-personal clashes that were increasing between Bob and Roger. However, the request for behaviour change may further infuriate the concerned parties and the problem may become aggravated.
• Determination of the underlying need- This would help the moderator to determine the actual reason for conflict between Bob and Roger, which would help him to take more appropriate steps. However, the determination of the crux of the matter may be a time taking and tedious process, which would dilute the purpose of the conflict resolution process.

Conflict Resolution Process	Benefits	Risks
Teach employees to respect differences	Understand the perspective of the opposite party, Long term identification of background differences	Chances of miscommunication
Perform root cause analysis of the problem	Uncover the relationship between symptoms and causes	Assumption that there is single source of problem
Collaborative coaching program	Enhance communication skills as well as public speaking ability of the employees	Absenteeism, Busy schedule of the employees
Stop meeting Bob and Roger separately	Not lead to misinterpretation	Moderator may miss some important points
Seminars on active listening	Enhances the ability to absorb as well as pass the data, participants become empathetic	Not applicable in conversations involving multiple persons
Request for behavior changes	Prevent the inter-personal clashes	Request for behaviour change may further infuriate the concerned parties
Determination of the underlying need	Determine the actual reason for conflict	Time taking and tedious process

 Fig: Benefits and risks of the conflict resolution processes

Source: Created by author

Communication of advice

It is important to communicate the conflict resolution advices to the concerned employees in a timely, proper and informative manner so that the entire process of the resolution is not diluted (Sallis, 2014). The following should be some of the most important tools for communicating the various advices to the concerned employees-

• Intranet- This is a private hub, which is usually accessed by the authorized users and help in better collaboration and better internal communication (Mishra, Boynton & Mishra, 2014). Roger and Bob should be informed about the actual issue and the solutions for them in their own intranets and they should be asked for attending a face to face meeting, which would give greater clarity of the event.
• Discussion Forums- This kind of forums should be organized when there would be the presence of the concerned employees and one or multiple members from the senior management (Romero et al., 2013). This type of forum is helpful in knowledge dissemination and in fast resolution of the matter (Jahromi et al., 2016). This forum should be integrated with the internal email, which would help in understanding the viewpoints of both the employees.
• Face to face meetings- This is one of the most effective methods of conflict resolution in which the concerned parties would meet each other face to face along with the presence of a moderator. This communication tool would be used to reduce the level of miscommunications that have come up between Roger and Bob.
• Internal Blogs- The internal blogs should be used to communicate the advices to the concerned team members (Jahromi et al., 2016). It is important to let the employees share about their share of the story and share their grievances with the management (Strang et al., 2013). This tool can be used by all the employees of the organization other than the concerned employees to share their experiences and feedback.

Implementation of policy based on social media

The company should consider using a policy based on the social media, which is considered as one of the most popularcommunication tools of the modern times (Jahromi et al., 2016). The social media are ever changing media tools and the organizations are not aware of the situations that may arise in this domain (Leonardi, Huysman & Steinfield, 2013).

The social media policies should comprise of two broad areas such as social-media policies for official accounts of company and social media policy for the employees (Bucher, Fieseler & Suphan, 2013).The following are some of the criteria which would be considered while implementing a procedure on the social media use in the workplaces-

• Roles and Responsibilities- The employees should be responsible social media user in the workplace and hence it is important to educate the employees regarding their usage. The employees should not be allowed to post controversial topics on the social media websites and is their responsibility to maintain the confidentiality and privacy of the organizational information (Dron& Anderson, 2014). The person responsible for governing specific attributes of the social media usage would be underlined and their roles should be specified clearly. There can be social media roles such as increasing brand awareness, engage more number of audience, foster open communication and others.
• Rules and Regulations- It is important to outline the expectations of the company and guide the employee’s behavior on the social media (Jahromi et al., 2016). The employees should be guided about particular issues of engagement, etiquettes, brand guidelines and confidentiality (Riff, Lacy & Fico, 2014).They should be prohibited from using negative words, abusive language and foul words on the social media platform.
• Potential legal risks- There are various potential risks that are associated with the social media usage, which should be mentioned in the company policy. There should be various issues that should be disclosed in the policy document such as crediting sources, employee disclaimers and privacy procedures (Gamero-Garrido et al., 2017). For example, the employees should be made understood that they need to give a disclaimer when they are posting any comment on the social media website (Gamero-Garrido et al., 2017). They should also be able to credit the various sources when they are borrowing or reposting the content from any external sources.
• Security Risks- The companies should have hyper-vigilant approach when the security concerns are present in today’s social media websites (Gamero-Garrido et al., 2017). There should be guidelines for the creation of strong passwords, avoid phishing attacks, scams and spam which would help the organization to better deal with such challenges (Verbeke et al., 2017). The employees should also be guided about the fact that what needs to be done on the event of a security attack.

Analysis of ethical dilemmas

The conflict resolution strategies include the generation of a wide number of ethical dilemmas in which the employees should take the responsibility of following the path of ethics (Neuman & Robson, 2014). The following are some of the ethical dilemmas that would be faced by the organizational members-

• Concerned employees may have confidentiality issues regarding the sessions they have with the moderator (Neuman & Robson, 2014). The data on the conflict resolution sessions may be accessed by a third party, which may disturb the organizational culture. This may pose serious questions on the privacy and data security of the organizational data.
• Blaming others unnecessary is often the most common ethical dilemma faced during the resolution of a conflict. There are possibilities that Bob may blame Roger and vice-versa, which is detrimental for organizational health. The usual tendency of blaming others would hamper organizational growth.
• Employees may take credit of other’s work which may further increase the conflict in the organization (Neuman & Robson, 2014). This is one of the most important ethical dilemmas in which the employees would be reluctant to choose unethical means of gaining good recognition in the workplace

Conclusion

The workplace conflict management is one of the most important jobs of the human resource managers of an organization. The conflict situation often arises in the organizational context, in which there is co-existence of number of entities. It is important to determine ways to resolve the conflicts in a timely manner; otherwise there would be significant loss in the organizational productivity.  In this case study, there were sufficient conflicts arisen between Bob and Roger, which needed immediate attention. This was creating negative influence on the organizational culture and hence it needed immediate attention.  The various ways of handling this conflict situation are being discussed. The benefits and risks of each such processes are also being discussed. The analysis of the ethical dilemmas of the members are also being discussed. The usage of the social media in the organization needs serious attention on their respective policies, which are being discussed in detail. This report would broaden the understanding of the various factors that help in the process of conflict resolution and how it would benefit the organization in a better way.

Conflict Resolution Process – Benefits and Risks

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