PLEASE WRITE CASE SUMMARY AND PERSONAL OPINION 500 WORDS.

Conflict Management: Determining the

Source(s) of Incompatibility

Case prepared by Abderrahman HASSI1

Plastico is a thermoplastic manufacturing company specializing in the transformation and

production of plastic products designed for the automotive, chemical, computer, pharmaceutical

and food processing industries. The company is renowned for its work with materials commonly

used in components of toys, electrical kitchen and bathroom items, textiles, medical components,

solar panels, electrical connectors, exterior car parts, TV components and computer housing

items. Additionally, the company offers a variety and range of products in all sizes, shapes and

colours. Plastico is comprised of hundreds of employees and several departments. In the R&D

division a team of four senior technicians are responsible for developing new innovative

products; the unit is managed by Tom, a chemical engineer. The team members have been

working together for over 12 years and a natural and harmonious synergy has developed among

them over time. Recently, the company obtained an unexpected contract and penetrated a new

market niche. As a result, several new employees had to be hired for the R&D division.

One of the new employees is Francine, a 23-year-old young woman who recently completed a

BA in chemical engineering. During her studies, Francine was an exceptional student and was

awarded several grants and bursaries for her research and academic accomplishments. Although

overqualified, she accepted the technician position because of the present economic downturn

and lack of available jobs in her field of study. She was assigned to the new project and given the

task of designing and developing a new thermoplastic product for a major international client.

Her responsibilities included close team collaboration with four colleagues from the R&D team:

Aaron, 48 years old, with 27 years of experience; Justin, 45, with 24 years of service at the same

company; John, 44, with 20 years of seniority; and Dave, 40 years old, with 17 years of work-

related experience. The members of the R&D team hold high school diplomas and over the years

have worked their way up in the company to the level of technician, mainly through on-the-job

training and in-house seminars.

As a new employee, Francine immediately gets seriously involved in the project, working hard

and autonomously. However, she tends not to get involved in informal discussions at work with

the team and never participates in social activities after work. Dedicated to performing well,

Francine works long, hard hours and always demos her findings and results to her colleagues.

Since her arrival, she has completed her tasks well in advance of the others and often asks the manager for extra work while the other technicians catch up on their parts. A few times, she

has offered her assistance, but all four abruptly refused and requested she wait until they

completed their sections. Some even made derogatory comments about how she works. As a

novice on the team, Francine decides to ignore the comments, simply passing them off as

irrelevant and mere nonsense.

One Friday morning, Aaron runs into Tom and asks him to meet with him for a few minutes to

discuss issues related to the R&D team.

Manager: Good morning Aaron. What are these issues youre referring to?

Aaron: Well Tom, there is an apparent glitch with the new little girl you placed on our

team!

Manager: Really, what could it possibly be? She seems to be performing really well.

Aaron: She has a very negative attitude and is annoying the group in R&D. She thinks

shes so much more intelligent than everyone else and constantly tells us how to

do our job better. She likes to brag about her university experience and projects.

She seems to forget that weve been around for many years and nobody knows the

job like we do!

Manager: I have to tell you, I am a little taken by surprise. Francine is doing such a great job

and she always meets her deadlines far earlier than anticipated. She is quite a

professionally rounded young woman who comes through for us on all requested

tasks. She is a dedicated technician, not to mention a reliable employee a rare

quality these days!

Aaron: I wonder if stressing out the team is one of those requested tasks! Listen Tom, the

boys told me to inform you that theyve had enough of the girl. We do not think

she is a good fit for the team. She may be frustrated because she is not working as

an engineer. Something needs to be done about the issue.

Manager: I am meeting with her in a few days to discuss her learning plan and Ill bring up

the matter to see what she has to say. Meanwhile, please tell the fellows in R&D

to stay calm and continue doing the same good job as usual.

Aaron: Please Tom, try to do something about this one before we start seeing a negative

impact on team performance and motivation. Thats all we need! It may be a good

idea to encourage her to continue seeking that engineering position she really

wants and to leave the R&D team before the low morale of some of our boys starts

affecting the entire unit. The project is important to us and we need to move

forward without any added stress.

A week later, the manager meets with Francine. After discussing her learning plan, he mentions the team issue. Manager: As agreed, we will proceed with this outlined training plan of activities for this

fiscal year. Regarding professional development, I think you are moving along

fine and there is no need for any further skills to be developed at this time.

However, we may need to discuss seminars in team building that may be available

to you.

Francine: Team-building seminars? What do you mean Tom? Why would I need to consider

looking into those seminars?

Manager: Let me get straight to the point Francine. You see, the issue is that a number of

your new colleagues in the R&D unit are not at all impressed with what they refer

to as your condescending attitude when you advise them on better ways of

approaching their tasks. We mustnt forget that the team is comprised of

experienced technicians who have been doing a great and efficient job for many

years.

Francine: A condescending attitude? These guys are really pathetic! I have never told

anyone how to do their job! I am well aware that I am fresh out of university and

that the first five years for me are all part of my learning curve! They have nerve!

Manager: Tell me a little about the dynamics within the R&D team.

Francine: In the beginning, I tried to be helpful and offered to assist them, but they replied

with nothing but nasty and arrogant undertones. I quickly understood the boys

game and since then have decided to focus on completing my own tasks. Tom, I

know I am young and everything, but let me assure you that I will never engage in

these sorts of games at the workplace it is just not part of my personal or work

ethics.

Tom, the fact is that your so-called experienced and efficient technicians take

their time to follow up on simple tasks that could be done more efficiently and, as

a result, in a more cost-effective manner. These guys are just not comfortable

working with someone who is trained to be more results-oriented in terms of

budgets and deadlines.

Manager: Well, everyone works differently.

Francine: Not when employees take long coffee and cigarette breaks, surf online or chat

endlessly about their weekly get-togethers. These guys dont take working for

Plastico seriously at all, and they have a completely different mindset when it

comes to getting things done. They seem to think the company owes them

something for taking up all of their good years! The thing is Tom, we just have

very different work ethics and they cant seem to accept that. We wont even

mention their views on women in the professions.

Manager: Thank you for the information. Let me look into all these issues and get back to

you soon.