Case Study:

In the last six months, our department has seen a lot of change from new staff members, people leaving, and changes in production and structure taking place in a very short period of time. One very important piece of our department left us three months ago to move onto another organization. Since his departure, we have watched his area take a nose dive in morale and teamwork.

The problem is between two individuals who are fighting to be top dog. Each one thinks he should be able to run the facility, and tell the other one what to do and how to do it. When one thinks the other isn't doing what he is supposed to, he will do it and then tell the acting supervisor that the one person was "supposed to do it, but I did it for him." Each person is trying to get to the top of the ladder, but the rest of us are just not sure what ladder they are trying to climb, considering there is no ladder in that particular area. Their positions are equal, and although they have different responsibilities each day, these responsibilities were created for each of them, so we could allow for the area to run smoothly each day.

These two individuals will argue about every little thing possible, including not breaking down boxes for the bailer, not slicing the ham the way the other likes it, or not making the marinara sauce the way the other likes it. Once the arguing escalates, it turns into verbal aggression. Their verbal aggression has included name-calling or yelling about what the other person does not do to help out, or how they deal with new student interns verses those who have been around for a while.

It all came out in the open when both employees blew up and created a scene in front of a small group of student interns. Both employees were sent home for the remainder of the day to cool off. They were asked to come back to work the next afternoon, so they could sit down and talk with their supervisor and one other management team member. All the different types of conflict were brought to the table, including the way they speak to each other, how it reflects on the department, and how it affects the students and other employees with whom they work.

• The managers explained to them that there was no reason to compete for the top, tell on each other, or be aggressive, because it did not change the situation that was taking place.
• They also asked each person to share what their goals were by working in this department, and for their future.
• Each employee was given a duty list that needs to be followed each day without issue, and any issues that did arise must be logged in a book and also explained to the manager.
• Each person was also given a new project of which he could take ownership.
• This summer they will share their projects with the rest of the department, and, if approved, the projects will be implemented

Instructions

Experiential Activity: Organizational Problem-Solving Situations

1. Imagine you are in charge of creating a new program for employees at your place of business. Based on your reading of this chapter, create list of principles for working together that you would teach to incoming employees.
2. Read the case study located in the Background Information above.
3. respond to the following:
   1. In the above case study, what kinds of strategies were used to manage the conflict between these two workers?
   2. Do you think they were effective? Why?
   3. How might you have managed the conflict differently? Give specifics.
4. cite your sources, found either in the textbook, from a scholarly source or an article from the OCLS collection.