Yolanda Royster
MT302: Organizational Behavior
Unit 8 Assignment
Professor Sapham Perez
September 22, 2015 After listening to the phone call from the advertising representative, there are a couple of problems that they are facing with the promotional campaign. The first would be that the potential athlete could be possibly consuming steroids. The second conflict is that the client really wants this particular athlete to represent their product. Thirdly, the athlete is refusing to take a drug test to prove that he’s not consuming steroids. The PROScout employee has spoken to her team about her disclosures and they were upset that they could lose the client if they did not feature him. The employee consults the boss about the matter to see if they can come up with a solution. As the boss, I would have many questions for the employee. All the questions that I would have for the employee would be based off the information provided from the employee. I would want the employee to approach the team with facts and not just hearsay or what she thinks is accurate. The employee should have all the facts and proof of her findings about the athlete before presenting her case to the team. I would want the employee to have all the facts and evidence before presenting the case to the team on why or why not the athlete should represent the client’s product. I would ask the employee what different approaches she plans to use to present the problem to the team. Her boss should ask the employee what are the different approaches that she will present this problem to the team? What role did she play in the discovery? As the boss, I want to ensure that my employees approach to the situation is direct and that way the team will not overwhelm anyone with too many questions. There are several leadership approaches that were discussed in the textbook. Each approach should be based on the situation because every situation is different and unique in its own right. As the boss, I would use the situational leadership forces to ensure that the team is lead proactively towards the ultimate goal of the team without displeasing the client and telling the client that the athlete cannot be featured because of being on steroids. The case should be handled with delicacy by the boss to ensure that the team is satisfied with her approach. To reduce any type of conflict that may occur in future instances, the boss should create a policy requiring all future athletes to take a drug test before being featured in any promotional campaign or related things. There is always the likely that an issue can become a conflict between both parties that are involved in the case. As the employee, I believe that my firm should support their policies to not use the athlete in question because this could possibly open a door for people to think that it’s okay and condoned by the company to allow athletes who consume steroids to be featured in their promotional campaigns. I also think the firm should give the client other solutions to the problem to ensure that the company is still willing to provide the service and do their job to the best of their ability for them. The company should let the client know how detrimental the outcome could become for their product if it’s disclosed that an athlete who takes steroids represented their product. I also think the firm should include the client in the process of selecting a new potential athlete to represent their product. If the employee does not get a response from her boss in a timely manner, then she should still follow the chain of command in solving the issue at hand. That might mean going above her boss’s head and communicating with her boss’s boss. The employee wants to ensure to her team and the client that she’s trying to solve the problem and come up with a better solution to the conflict and that any resolution to the problem will include someone of higher authority input. By the employee following the chain of command properly, shows the firm, team, and client that she’s looking out for the firm’s best interest but also the client’s best interest in regards to the situation. The communication process begins with the sender, which is the employee in this case. The employee then determines the problem (encoding) and contacts her boss to give the message in regards to the client. The employee should make sure that the message is a formal message and established by the organization and transmitted to the related to the professional activities of members in the organization. The boss receives the message (decoding), and then the boss will make a decision and give the employee feedback. During the communication process, the employee needs to make sure that there is no interference in regards to the message. Such as “noise which represents communication barriers that distort the clarity of the message, perceptual problems, information overload, semantic difficulties, or cultural differences. The final link in the communication process is a feedback loop. Feedback is the check on how successful we have been in transferring our messages as originally intended. It determines whether understanding has been achieved” (Robbins & Judge, 2015).

Reference
Robbins, S. P. & Judge, T. A. (2015). Organizational behavior (16th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.