The distribution center of Hayward Healthcare Systems, Inc. has some serious problems. At this point, management has no control over the workplace behavior of the division's employees. Conflicts arise continually, with several leading to physical altercations among employees. Poor management has directly contributed to poor performance; with defect rates high and an unacceptable rate of errors in orders taken from client hospitals, the workplace conflict has the potential to seriously damage this company's reputation in the marketplace and, thus, its bottom line.

After giving this matter serious thought and consulting with the Director, Ms. Foster, Mr. Jackson (you) decided that the best course of action would be to craft an "All-Hands" Memorandum to the Distribution Center employees and supervisors that outline a conflict resolution policy that all employees must use to resolve future disputes.

Both you and Ms. Foster want to achieve the same outcome in this situation which is to take control and to successfully introduce policies that will positively affect workplace morale and behavior. Of course, to achieve this desired outcome, you must determine the source of the low employee morale, implement a strategy for dealing with bad employee attitudes, and put some workplace standards of behavior in place to rectify this situation. In addition, you must develop the management skills of the supervisors who report to you.

What seems to be the cause of the conflict?

What style of conflict management are the distribution center's employees using?

What style of conflict management have these managers used in the past?

What should Mr. Jackson do to settle the conflict? Should either or both of the employees be punished for their behavior?

What can Mr. Jackson do over the long term to ensure that incidents such as the one described in this case are less likely to occur?

What can Mr. Jackson do to develop a group of supervisors who can provide the support he requires and who can properly direct the work of the employees in the distribution Center?

How important is communication in this case? What should Mr. Jackson do to improve the quality of communication in the Distribution Center?

CASE STUDY INFO

Bob Jackson is the new operations manager of the distribution center for Hayward Healthcare Systems, Inc., a mid-size, non-union company located in California. The Distribution Center is a $80-million-dollar-a-year operation that has 50 employees, including 15 minorities and 18 females in the work force.

Jackson was transferred from another operations position in the company to fill this position because of some serious performance problems in the distribution center that had resisted all attempts at improvement. The center had experienced a very high level of defects (400 per month) and an unacceptable rate of errors in the orders taken from client hospitals. Jackson accepted the assignment knowing that top management would expect him to improve the performance of the distribution center in a relatively short period of time.

Jackson's first few weeks on the job were revealing, to say the least. He discovered that the five supervisors that his predecessor had selected to lead the center's workforce had little credibility with the employees. They had each been selected on the basis of their job seniority or their friendship with the previous manager.

The workforce was organized into three categories.Pickersidentify supplies by code numbers in the storage area, remove packaged items from the shelves, and sort them into baskets.Driversoperate forklifts and electric trucks, moving baskets and boxes of supplies to different locations within the distribution center.Loaderstransfer supplies onto and off of the forklifts and delivery trucks.

The Situation Mr. Jackson Encountered

Jackson found that his employees were either demoralized or had tough, belligerent attitudes toward management and other employees. Part of the problem, he soon learned, was a lax approach to background checks and prior job references. Seven employees were convicted

This case was prepared by Ms. Kay Wigton with the assistance of James S. O'Rourke, Concurrent Professor of Management, as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Personal and corporate identities have been disguised. Copyright 1994. Eugene D. Fanning Center for Business Communication. Revised: 2004. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise - without permission.

felons who had been imprisoned for violent assaults on their victims. The previous manager had made all of the hiring decisions by himself without bothering to check on the applicants' references or backgrounds.

Jackson soon discovered that it was not unusual for employees to settle their differences with their fists or to use verbally abusive language to berate people who had offended them. His predecessor had unintentionally encouraged these disruptive activities by staying in his office and not being available to the other workers. He had relied largely on his discredited supervisors to handle their own disciplinary problems. Before long, the center employees felt they could handle their own affairs in any way they wanted, without any interference from management.

The Loading Dock Incident

While sitting in his office, planning to make several policy changes to improve the efficiency of the distribution center, one of Jackson's supervisors entered and reported that two of the loaders had just gotten into a heated dispute, and the situation on the loading dock was tense.

The dispute was between Ed Williams, an African-American, male employee, and Buddy Jones, a while, male employee, and focused on which radio station to play on the loading dock sound system. Williams is the only black employee who works on the loading dock. The company's policy permits employees to listen to music while they work and, in recent years, workers have considered listening to music to be a benefit that improves their working conditions.

Williams insisted that he couldn't stand to listen to the country music that Jones preferred to play. For his part, Jones claimed that Williams' choice of rap and hip-hop music was offensive to him and made working conditions difficult. An emotional and angry argument developed between the two men over their choices in music, and each yelled racial slurs at the other. Neither the company nor the division have a policy governing the choice of music permitted in the workplace. Apparently, whoever gets to work first chooses the music for the day.

Both Jones and Williams were known as tough employees who had previous disciplinary problems at Hayward Hospital Supply. Jones had been incarcerated for 18 months prior to being hired by the company. Jackson knew that he should take immediate action to resolve this problem and to avoid a potentially volatile escalation of the conflict. His supervisors told Jackson that, in the past, the previous manager would simply have hollered at the two antagonists in the conflict and then departed with no further action.

Jackson's objectives in resolving the conflict included the establishment of his own control in the workplace. He knew that he would have to change "business as usual" in the distribution center so that employees would respect his authority and would refrain from any further unprofessional conduct.