Case Study:
The New Career Development Program That Ruins Careers

Introduction * It can be said that for any business that employs human beings will always encounter experiences of organizational conflict. This conflict can be caused by a multitude of ever-changing variables and circumstances. It is important to understand why organizational conflict is important and how it can be used as a productive resource that, when managed properly, can build stronger, healthier working relationships and create a corporate culture of open and effective communication channels (Shockley-Zalabak, P., 2015). In this case study, there are several examples of organizational conflict that have been exhibited amongst the program development group. This paper will identify those individuals and their behaviors contributing to the conflict and offer a solution that is mutually beneficial to all parties involved. * Case Study Background * The AMEX Corporation is in need of an up-to-date career development program which called for the need of new materials and a new training format for the entire employee population; all 10,000 employees. The department director, Jane, must make a determination as to how project assignments will be assigned that best fits the needs of the group to achieve optimal results. On Jane’s team, there are 4 senior staff members: Denise who is the most experience and best qualified in Jane’s opinion; Roger who is equally qualified but with less experienced than Denise but also has the most experience training larger groups of employees; Jill and Roger are both less experienced and do not possess the knowledge or skills to lead such a complex project. During their first staff meeting, Jane has asked for each member to express their interests in which part of the career development program they would like to be assigned and to also take into consideration everyone’s strengths and overall workload. Denise pointed out that it will be necessary to assign a lead on the project and not just the four of them working independently of each other. John took this opportunity to express his interest as the team lead and explained why he was qualified to do so; he has worked and trained with the largest group at AMEX (approximately 6,500 of diverse employees). He then accused Denise of not being able to confront her issues openly. Denise felt that John was being inappropriate in his statement and felt that it should be decided by Jane at a later time and when asked by Jane if she would like the lead for herself, she felt as equally offended as she expected the lead role to be assigned to her simply because she was the more tenured team member and every expected for her to be the team lead anyway. Both Roger and Jill understood they were not qualified and rescinded their interests in becoming team lead. In order to resolve this conflict and proceed with project assignments, Jane must make a decision to assign either Denise or John the team lead position. * Conflict Preferences, Strategies, Tactics, & Emotions * There are several conflict preferences taking place during this staff meeting. John has displayed the competition conflict preference as he has emphasized his desire to be the team lead by acknowledging his own personal needs and goals without taking into consideration the needs of the other members of the group involved in the conflict (Shockley-Zalabak, P.,2015). As you can see, by being competitive, John has blocked the productive nature of the meeting in order to declare himself as the victor. John’s strategy is to expose Denise and her inability to resolve conflict openly as she has done in previous situations. His tactic was to expand the conflict by being aggressive and expanding the conflict by related the issue at hand to old, unsettled issues. Denise has displayed the avoidance conflict preference by wanting to postpone the decision making process because she is not comfortable with tackling conflicts. Denise expected that she would automatically be assigned as the team lead but since John expressed his interests, Denise no longer wanted to discuss the topic that she brought to the table. Denise is not concerned or supportive of John’s opinions or career goals or anyone’s for that matter. Denise’s strategy to avoid the issue in its entirety has proven John’s point so to justify her stance, she used the tactic to reiterate her superior ranking in order to constrain the conflict. Both Jill and Roger have displayed the accommodation conflict preferences. They have acknowledged that they are not qualified enough to lead the team. They removed themselves from the delegation process despite that if they were given the opportunity it would help their own career goals. They sacrificed their own career goals to help keep the peace and avoid further conflict. Their strategic objective is based on their desire to maintain their working relationships and keeping the peace. Their tactic for conflict maintenance was to acknowledge their limitations to simplify the decision making process. * Emotions also played a key role in the organizational conflict. Emotions trigger the fight or flight response bodies have when presented with a conflict. Emotions are often the contributing factor to conflict and the difference in whether the outcome of conflict is perceived as positive or negative (Shockley-Zalabak, P.,2015). In this case study, Denise, Jill, and Roger recognized that there was a conflict and their instinct caused them to avoid the conflict and keep the peace, whereas John response was to fight for the top spot to which he strongly felt he was most qualified for. It is important to recognize that everything we do is driven by emotions which is why emotional awareness is imperative. Jane didn’t expect to have the meeting turn out the way it did. She did not take into consideration the emotions that were involved when she wanted to open talk about work assignments. She underestimated John’s emotions and the consequences of such a conflict. * Conflict Resolution * In order to resolve this conflict successfully that is beneficial to all parties involved, Jane should chose both Denise and John as team leads for the career development program project. They both possess the necessary skills, knowledge, and experience required to implement the program successfully. Since Denise has implemented seven other programs, should would be the lead for the overall implementation of the program. John on the other hand, has experience with training large groups of employees and so he would be the lead on the training aspect of the implementation. This assignment of duties, not only provide a win/win situation for both Denise and John, but it also leverages the expertise of both employees and also acknowledges the strengths and contributions they bring to the team. Jane must be sure to schedule another meeting with just Denise and John to discuss why it is important to have open dialogue because if it weren’t for the conflict, the outcome would have been different. Only one person would have been assigned team lead leaving the other feeling excluded and overlooked which could have caused dissention and resentment resulting in more conflict. In this case, both parties have a feeling of exclusion and have been given the opportunity to strengthen their work relationships by collaborating effectively. * * * * * * Refereneces * (Shockley-Zalabak, P. (2015). Fundamentals of Organizational Communication: Knowledge, Sensitivity, Skills, Values (Ninth ed.) *