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Differences in Power

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Submitted By Hbennett3223
Words 1579
Pages 7
Hudson Bennett
November 17th, 2011
Paper 2
BA305-02
Word Count: 1,555

The two groups I have chosen for this paper are my family, and John A. Lavalley Excavating or J.A.L for short. My family is a group of people that will continue to grow as I grow up, and this is by far the most important group I will ever be apart of. John A. Lavalley Excavating is the group of people that I work with each and every day made up of 7 guys. In my family, I usually take the integrating approach to handling conflicts. This happens usually when my mother wants me home at a certain time of night so she can sleep well with me home safe and sound. She wants me home at 12:00, and I want to be home at 1:00 so we make an agreement that I will be home at 12:30 and both us are satisfied for the most part. The main sources of power I have in this group are charisma, and referent power. I have charisma in this group mainly because my younger brothers look up to me. The way I present myself provides them with a positive role model and they are able to look up to me and aspire to follow in my footsteps. If I was a bad influence to them and they followed my path, I would look at myself as a failure for an older brother and be disappointed that I was not teaching them what is good and what is bad. Another type of power I have in this group is referent power. Very similar to my reasoning for charisma, I want to be a role model/mentor to my younger siblings and eventually my children, nieces, nephews, and grand kids. I have power over my little brothers, but at the same time, my parents have power over me because I can identify where they are coming from and respect each of their opinions. For John A. Lavalley Excavating, I usually take the obliging approach to handling conflicts. The obvious reason for using this approach it that I am the youngest and newest member to this company so I am only trained and knowledgeable in a couple of small categories of construction. An example of the obliging approach is when I get questioned on the reason I did a certain job or task. My boss or foremen will confront me and tell me I did something wrong but at the same time, in my mind I believe that I did the right thing. When this occurs, I must accept that they know more then me and must go by their decisions over mine to get the job done. The main sources of power I have in this group are rewards, and also information and expertise. For rewards power, I have the ability to get things done when my superiors ask me to do so. My boss could ask me to walk a mile and hammer a stake every one hundred feet into the ground, and I will do it. For information and expertise, I have the ability to know how to mow and weed whack the Waste Management landfills properly and efficiently. After doing the landfills twice a year for the last two years, I have gotten to learn how to properly do them so that my boss is happy with the outcome. This is a type of power because knowing the ways around each landfill, not forgetting any pipes so the mower doesn’t hit them, and making it look presentable are very important. I am in charge of all the mowing for the group when we are assigned to do the landfills.

In group 1, the collaborating conflict handling approach works because I have high concern for others, but at the same time, I also have high concern for myself and my beliefs. With this group being my family, I care for what they have to say and take everything to heart so understanding and solving conflicts is easy to make everyone in the situation happy. This situation doesn’t work when I have proof that I am not lying to them and must win the argument. This can happen on nights when I come home real late and my mother thinks that I drove home drunk because I left a light on, or something that I don’t usually do on a night-to-night basis. Collaborating won’t work in this situation because I can’t just say “Yes mom I was drunk and drove home”, I have to stand up for myself and state that it was just a late night and I was tired and forgot to shut the kitchen light off, and that I wasn’t too drunk to do these things. This has happened a few times in the last year or so and now we don’t argue about it any more because I am responsible, and she believes that I am safe and just forget things some times. In group 2, the obliging conflict works well because I understand my role within the organization. Being a lower level employee and not having all the experience that everyone else does, I am allowed to do very little to show power. Yes, I am allowed to run the mowing operations at the Landfills, but that is the easiest job our company has to offer. Almost every time there is a situation, people don’t come to me for advise because I am a younger person. This is why I let them have the final say in all conflicts and I take the losing side. This approach does not work for one main reason; I like to have respect from my elders. I understand that I am new to the organization, but my input in conflicts or situations aren’t always the wrong ones. I am an educated person with ideas equally or even sometimes better then the ones of my co workers but mine aren’t listened to because I am newer and younger then the other guys. I usually take different conflict handling approaches in these groups because integrating and obliging aren’t always the right way to solve an argument. When different conflicts come up, approaches like avoiding work best. This can work best when there is a conflict that the avoidance outweighs the benefits such as my boss saying that we must put in silt fence a certain way. If we ignore the problem, and do it our way, with the same results and it getting done in half the time, this is a reason why avoidance can work. Overall I am satisfied with the power I have in my family. This is because my family is a close-knit group of people who all have feelings for each other and want everyone to succeed. With my brothers looking up to me, and having power over them it makes me feel more important and have a positive affect on their lives. Overall I am not satisfied with the power I have in J.A.L Excavating. I like to have control over situations no matter what they are, and within this group I do not have the power I’d like to have. Even if I was able to have just a little more respect from my co-workers, that would make me more satisfied with the power because then they would take my thoughts into consideration and not always be right in conflicts.

A conflict handling approach that I do not typically use in my family is competition. I would like to try using this approach in this group because almost all the time, I have the utmost respect for my family and don’t want any problems.
My plan for using this approach is: if my brother and I were in an argument on who would get my brothers car in the next 6 months when he cant drive anymore, I would use competition to dominate and win the argument. Instead of saying “We can share this car”, I will make my point known on how my car is older and needs more work done to it so I should be allowed to get this car for myself and Connor should not.
A Conflict handling approach that I do not typically use in J.A.L Excavating is collaboration. I would like to try using collaboration or integrating in this group because instead of caving into all situations that come up and doing what is right in my bosses mind, I would like to try and persuade him that my idea is right also, so we can take a little bit from my thoughts and a little bit from his to meet to accomplish one common goal.
My plan for using this approach is: In mowing the new dykes along the Connecticut River this coming spring, I am going to suggest that I be allowed figure out how to mow the dyke by myself this time, instead of him mapping out how to do it. After the first time mowing, we will go up and down the dyke and if he approves of the mowing, hopefully he will let me take control of my own decisions on the landfill instead of him telling me what to do then I follow the instructions.

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