Asia e University

People Management Assignment

Question 1

Conflict can be viewed as clash between people with different ideas & interests.

(a) By providing some specific instances of conflict at your workplace, examine some of the causes of conflict.

(b) Give an example of a conflict at your workplace, and explain a step by step approach on how would you resolve it from your perspective.

Question 2

Jobs are designed deliberately and thoughtfully to reflect the demands of the changing environment as well as organization technologies, skills abilities, and performance of its employee. You are required to discuss with examples from your workplace on how you would design motivating jobs for your employees.

Rajandra Prasath Page 1

QUESTION 1

Definition of Conflict in workplace

Workplace conflict is a specific type of conflict that occurs in workplaces. The conflicts

that arise in workplaces may be shaped by the unique aspects of this environment,

including the long hours many people spend at their workplace, the hierarchical structure

of the organization, and the difficulties (e.g. financial consequences) that may be

involved in switching to a different workplace.

Conflict in the workplace is a normal occurrence in most organizations. Dictionary

definitions vary from calling it a sharp disagreement to opposing ideas and interests.

Conflict management expert and organizational psychologist Dr. David G. Javitch

defines it simply as tension and believes it offers benefits, as well as disadvantages, in the

workplace. Wherever people work together, conflict is likely to arise, and it presents a

challenge to which management must respond constructively.

Types

Over the years, experts have categorized workplace conflict into various types.

Interpersonal conflict includes personality clashes and difficulty working with others,

both of which can lead to the employees showing anger and exchanging negative

comments. Workplace complaints include disagreement with policies and procedures,

management decisions and individual entitlements, which give rise to conflict between

the employer or his representative and the employee.

Causes

One of the most common causes of workplace conflict is the personality clash.

Individuals all have different values and beliefs, which affects the way they approach

work and problem-solving. Clashes occur when workers have difficulty understanding or

accepting others’ methods. Other causes include conflicting needs, poor communication

that causes misunderstandings, scarcity of resources that results in competition between

Rajandra Prasath Page 2

workers and poor performance by some employees that causes additional workload for

others.

FIVE STAGES THAT CAUSES OF CONFLICT

Conflict Process

The conflict process consists of five stages as shown in figure.

1.   Potential opposition or incompatibility.

2.    Cognition and personalization.

3.   Intentions.

4.   Behavior.

5.   Outcomes.

Potential Opposition or Incompatibility

It includes the presence of a condition that creates opportunities for conflicts to arise. The

conditions that can cause conflict are of 3 types.

Communication:  Insufficient exchange of information and noise in the communication

channel are all barriers of communication and create conditions for conflicts. Potential

Rajandra Prasath Page 3

for conflict increases when either too little or too much communication takes place. The

channel for communication also has an influence on the conditions causing conflict.

Structure:  Size and specialization act as a force to stimulate conflict. The larger the

group, the more specialized their activities, the greater the likelihood of conflict. Tenure

and conflict have been found to be inversely related. There is increased conflict when

group members are younger and when turnover is high.

Groups within the organizations have diverse goals. E.g.:  Quality control department is

concerned with improving the quality of products while marketing department is

concerned with selling large no of goods and increasing the revenue. This diversity of

goals also is a source of conflict.

Personal variables:  This includes the value systems each person has and personality

characteristics each possess. Difference in value systems are a source of conflict, as they

result in disagreement between members of the group.

Cognition and Personalization

This step in the conflict process is important because it is in the step the parties decide

what the conflict is done. Awareness by one or more parties about the existence of

conditions that create opportunities for conflict to arise is called perceived conflict.

Emotional involvement in the conflict creating anxiety, frustration and enimity is called

felt conflict. Positive emotions help in finding solutions to solve conflicts while a

negative emotion enhances the conflict.

Intensions

These are the decisions to act during conflict. There are five conflict handing intensions.

They are:

a.   Competing:  (assertive and unco-operative):  It is a desire to satisfy ones own interest

regardless of its impact on the other party. It includes desire to achieve ones own goal at

the sacrifice of others goal, attempting to convince others that your conclusion is correct

and attempting to make someone else accept the blame for the problem.

Rajandra Prasath Page 4

b.  Collaborating (assertive and co-operative):  It is a desire to satisfy all the parties. It

includes attempting to find a win-win situation that allows both parties goals to be

achieved.

c.   Avoiding:  (unassertive and uncooperative):  It is a desire to suppress a conflict. It

includes ignoring the conflict and avoiding others with whom one disagrees.

d.  Accommodating (unassertive and cooperative):  It is a willingness to place the

opponent's interest above ones own. It includes sacrificing ones goal to maintain other

party's goals.

e.  Compromising:  It is situation in which each party conflict is willing to give up

something. There is no clear loser or winner.

Behavior

In this stage, each party's intentions are implemented. This is an interactive stage.

Figure shows conflict behavior:

Conflict at the lower part continuum is small conflicts. Conflicts in the upper part of the

continuum are highly destructive. Strikes, riots, and wars fall in upper range.

Rajandra Prasath Page 5

Outcome

The action-reaction between conflicting parties results in two kinds of outcomes.

i)        Functional outcomes: Conflict results in improved performance of the group. It

improves the quality of decisions, brings about creativity and innovations, encourage

interests and curiosity among group members.

ii)       Dysfunctional outcomes: It reduces the effectiveness of the group. It is as a result

of uncontrolled opposition. It leads to destruction of the group. It reduces group

communication and group coordination.

Resolution

Individual managers use different styles to address workplace conflicts. These styles

typically fall into one of five categories, which can be equally effective even though the

approaches are different. A confrontational approach addresses the conflict directly and

tries to force a resolution, while a compromising approach requires the parties in conflict

to negotiate and agree on common ground. A collaborative approach involves working

together to find a mutually agreeable solution. Accommodation means each side agrees to

disagree and accommodate the other’s view, and avoidance requires all parties to simply

avoid becoming drawn into conflict over any issues.

Prevention

Prevent workplace conflict from arising by hiring staff with balanced personality types

and by fostering a company culture based on shared values and beliefs. Establish ground

rules for all employees, such as a code of conduct and a disciplinary procedure for

contravening the code. Set priorities that enable workers to know what is expected of

them and how to achieve it. Promote effective listening to help employees develop their

awareness of others’ methods and viewpoints.

Workplace conflict is bound to happen when you have a lot of employees from a variety

of different backgrounds. Conflict causes tension between employees and, if left

Rajandra Prasath Page 6

unaddressed, can hinder productivity. Some conflicts are preventable. Others you have no

control over. When you are experiencing conflict with another co-worker, there is a right

and wrong way to handle the situation. To put an end to the conflict, quickly identify the

source of the conflict and uproot it.

Start Within

Examine yourself first. This is always a good place to start when trying to prevent or

resolve conflict in the workplace. By having a little intrapersonal communication, you

can determine whether or not you are doing anything to contribute to the conflict. If you

find that you are doing something to contribute to the conflict, stop the behavior. By

doing so, the problem may resolve itself.

Talk About It

Speak with the other person who is involved in the conflict. Don't call her on the carpet in

front of other co-workers. Instead, meet with her one-on-one. Confronting your co-

worker in front of others will only result in more conflict. Ask your coworker what is

causing the conflict. It's possible that you unknowingly said or did something that

offended her. Speak calmly instead of using an aggressive tone. If it turns out that your

coworker was offended by something you said or did, apologize for the offense. Agree to

move on and let the past be the past.

Don't Gossip

When something happens that creates conflict, it can be tempting to discuss the situation

with others. Refrain from discussing the conflict with other coworkers. This is workplace

gossip, which can result in greater conflict if your coworker discovers you were talking

about her. If you are unable to put an end to the conflict by talking directly with the

involved party, discuss the matter with someone who is empowered to do something

about it.

Speak With Management

Rajandra Prasath Page 7

Involve your supervisor or manager if are unable to prevent or resolve the conflict. This

is especially true if the conflict starts affecting your job performance or morale. Conflict

resolution is one of your supervisor's job responsibilities. It's not necessary to bring every

conflict to your supervisor, only conflict that interferes with your productivity or results

in a hostile working environment.

Question 2

Jobs are designed deliberately and thoughtfully to reflect the demands of the changing

environment as well as organization technologies, skills abilities, and performance of its

employee. You are required to discuss with examples from your workplace on how you

would design motivating jobs for your employees.

Job enrichment is an attempt to motivate employees by giving them the opportunity to

use the range of their abilities. It is an idea that was developed by the American

psychologist Frederick Herzberg in the 1950s. It can be contrasted to job enlargement

which simply increases the number of tasks without changing the challenge. As such job

enrichment has been described as 'vertical loading' of a job, while job enlargement is

'horizontal loading'. An enriched job should ideally contain:

A range of tasks and challenges of varying difficulties (Physical or Mental)

A complete unit of work - a meaningful task

Feedback, encouragement and communication

Job enrichment, as a managerial activity includes a three steps technique:

1. Turn employees' effort into performance:

Rajandra Prasath Page 8

Ensuring that objectives are well-defined and understood by everyone. The

overall corporate mission statement should be communicated to all. Individual's

goals should also be clear. Each employee should know exactly how he/she fits

into the overall process and be aware of how important their contributions are to

the organization and its customers.

Providing adequate resources for each employee to perform well. This includes

support functions like information technology, communication technology, and

personnel training and development.

Creating a supportive corporate culture. This includes peer support networks,

supportive management, and removing elements that foster mistrust and

politicking.

Free flow of information. Eliminate secrecy.

Provide enough freedom to facilitate job excellence. Encourage and reward

employee initiative. Flextime or compressed hours could be offered.

Provide adequate recognition, appreciation, and other motivators.

Provide skill improvement opportunities. This could include paid education at

universities or on the job training.

Provide job variety. This can be done by job sharing or job rotation programmes.

It may be necessary to re-engineer the job process. This could involve redesigning

the physical facility, redesign processes, change technologies, simplification of

procedures, elimination of repetitiveness, redesigning authority structures.

2. Link employee’s performance directly to reward:

Clear definition of the reward is a must

Explanation of the link between performance and reward is important

Make sure the employee gets the right reward if performs well

Rajandra Prasath Page 9

If reward is not given, explanation is needed

3. Make sure the employee wants the reward. How to find out?

Ask them

Use surveys( checklist, listing, questions)

Job enrichment is a type of job redesign intended to reverse the effects of tasks that are

repetitive requiring little autonomy. Some of these effects are boredom, lack of

flexibility, and employee dissatisfaction (Leach & Wall, 2004). The underlying principle

is to expand the scope of the job with a greater variety of tasks, vertical in nature, that

require self-sufficiency. Since the goal is to give the individual exposure to tasks

normally reserved for differently focused or higher positions, merely adding more of the

same responsibilities related to an employee's current position is not considered job

enrichment.

The basis for job enrichment practices is the work done by Frederick Herzberg in the

1950's and 60's, which was further refined in 1975 by Hackman and Oldham using what

they called the Job Characteristics Model. This model assumes that if five core job

characteristics are present, three psychological states critical to motivation are produced,

resulting in positive outcomes (Kotila, 2001). Figure 1 illustrates this model.

Rajandra Prasath Page 10

Job enrichment can only be truly successful if planning includes support for all phases of

the initiative. Ohio State University Extension began a job enrichment program in 1992

and surveyed the participants five years later. The results, broken down into 3 sub-

buckets of data beyond the main grouping of advantages/disadvantages as shown in Table

1, indicate the University had not fully considered the planning and administrative

aspects of the program (Fourman and Jones, 1997). While the benefits are seemingly

obvious, programs fail not

because of a lack of benefits, but rather due to implementation problems. These problems

can include a perception of too great a cost, lack of long-term commitment of resources,

and potential job classification changes (Cunningham and Eberle, 1990).

Rajandra Prasath Page 11

In order for a job enrichment program to produce positive results, worker needs and

organizational needs must be analyzed and acted upon. According to Cunningham and

Eberle (1990), before an enrichment program is begun, the following questions should be

asked:

1. Do employees need jobs that involve responsibility, variety, feedback, challenge,

accountability, significance, and opportunities to learn?

2. What techniques can be implemented without changing the job classification

plan?

3. What techniques would require changes in the job classification plan? (p.3)

When asked about the successes of a Training Generalist job enrichment program begun

in 2002, Karen Keenan, Learning Manager with Bank of America, stated the

accomplishments were, "greater than expected". The Training Generalist program has

resulted in three successful participants to date. According to Ms. Keenan, positive

results can be directly tied to a program that addressed the strategic goal of greater

Rajandra Prasath Page 12

resource flexibility without adding to staff, as well as to proper planning, guidance, and

feedback for the participants. Having a voluntary program contributed as well, attracting

a high caliber of individuals eager to expand their skills and be positioned for

advancement. To date, all three Training Generalists have experienced promotions and

additional recognition while affording Ms. Keenan's team financial results and workload

flexibility it could not have otherwise achieved.

A job enrichment program can be a very effective intervention in some situations where a

Performance Technician is faced with a request for motivational training. Ralph Brown

(2004) summed it up very nicely:

Job enrichment doesn't work for everyone. Some people are very resistant

to more responsibility or to opportunities for personal growth, but…

researchers report that some people they expected to resist, seized the

opportunity. Enriching jobs is a particularly effective way to develop

employees provided the jobs are truly enriched, not just more work for them

to do.

JOB DESIGN

One of the contemporary approaches to motivating employees through job design is

empowerment. The concept of empowerment extends the idea of

autonomy. empowermentThe removal of conditions that make a person powerless. may

be defined as the removal of conditions that make a person powerless.Conger, J. A., &

Kanungo, R. N. (1988). The empowerment process: Integrating theory and

practice. Academy of Management Review, 13, 471–482. The idea behind empowerment

is that employees have the ability to make decisions and perform their jobs effectively if

management removes certain barriers. Thus, instead of dictating a roles, companies

should create an environment where employees thrive, feel motivated, and have

Rajandra Prasath Page 13

discretion to make decisions about the content and context of their jobs. Employees who

feel empowered believe that their work is meaningful. They tend to feel that they are

capable of performing their jobs effectively, have the ability to influence how the

company operates, and that they can perform their jobs in any way they see fit, without

close supervision and other interference, These liberties enable employees to feel

powerful.Spreitzer, G. M. (1995). Psychological empowerment in the workplace:

Dimensions, measurement, and validation. Academy of Management Journal, 38, 1442–

1465; Thomas, K. W., & Velthouse, B. A. (1990). Cognitive elements of empowerment:

An “interpretive” model of intrinsic task motivation. Academy of Management Review,

15, 666–681. In cases of very high levels of empowerment, employees decide what tasks

to perform and how to perform them, in a sense managing themselves. Research has

distinguished between structural elements of empowerment

and felt empowerment. structural empowermentThe aspects of the work environment that

give employees discretion, autonomy, and enable them to do their jobs effectively. refers

to the aspects of the work environment that give employees discretion, autonomy, and the

ability to do their jobs effectively. The idea is that the presence of certain structural

factors helps empower people, but in the end empowerment is a perception. demonstrates

the relationship between structural and felt empowerment. Even in companies where line

employees are given substantial decision-making authority they are more likely to

experience empowerment. For example, at Harley Davidson an employee has the

authority to stop the production line if he sees a blemish on the product.Lustgarten, A.

(1/12/2004). Harley-Davidson. Fortune, 149, 1, 76. Leadership style is another influence

over experienced empowerment.Kark, R., Shamir, B., & Chen, G. (2003). The two faces

of transformational leadership: Empowerment and dependency. Journal of Applied

Psychology, 88, 246–255. If the manager is controlling, micromanaging, and bossy,

chances are empowerment will not be possible. A company’s structure has a role in

determining empowerment as well. Companies organized around teams, like the Saturn

plant of General Motors, can still empower employees, despite the lack of a traditional

hierarchy.Ford. R. C., & Fottler, M. D. (1995). Empowerment: A matter of

degree. Academy of Management Executive, 9, 21–29. Access to information is often

mentioned as a key factor in empowering employees. If employees are not given

Rajandra Prasath Page 14

information to make an informed decision, empowerment attempts will fail. Therefore,

the relationship between access to information and empowerment is well established.

Finally, empowering individual employees cannot occur in a bubble but instead depends

on creating a climate of empowerment throughout the entire organization.Seibert, S. E.,

Silver, S. R., & Randolph, W. A. (2004). Taking empowerment to the next level: A

multiple-level model of empowerment, performance, and satisfaction. Academy of

Management Journal, 47, 332–349.Based on the ideas in Seibert, S. E., Silver, S. R., &

Randolph, W. A. (2004). Taking empowerment to the next level: A multiple-level model

of empowerment, performance, and satisfaction. Academy of Management Journal, 47,

p332–349; Spreitzer, G. M. (1995). Psychological empowerment in the workplace:

Dimensions, measurement, and validation. Academy of Management Journal, 38, 1442–

1465; Spreitzer, G. M. (1996). Social structural characteristics of psychological

empowerment. Academy of Management Journal, 39, 483–504. Source: Based on the

ideas in Seibert, S. E., Silver, S. R., & Randolph, W. A. (2004). Taking empowerment to

the next level: A multiple-level model of empowerment, performance, and

satisfaction. The empowerment process starts with structure that leads to felt

empowerment.

Rajandra Prasath Page 15