127). The owner/manager truly did avoid bringing the conflict into focus by discussing a "general" problem at the next meeting of all the staff.
A more effective technique might have been the creation of superordinate goals; though these are complex and sometimes difficult to develop, if the parties in conflict have a common goal that they must work together to achieve, peace is often achieved with it (OBIM 2010, p. 127). Setting new sales records or giving a bonus to the shifts in which conflicts were occurring for completing a certain amount of pricing or stocking could have perhaps resolved the conflict in this technique. More simply, the owner/manager could have sat down with all three of the employees in conflict and reached a sort of compromise, where the talker would attempt to talk less and the others would try to show a little more compassion and patience. With both parties giving up something in terms of the effort put into this,...
128; Heathfield 2010).
In this scenario, the smoothing technique would actually be the best, as turnover in the organization was high and a temporary fix was truly all that was needed. Compromise would be ranked second, as it is brief yet fairly effective, and the creation of superordinate goals would be third due to its equal capability to resolve the conflict but its much more unwieldy design and implementation. Finally, out right avoidance would be ranked fourth as it would likely have caused a major disruption at a critical time for the business.
References
Heathfield, S. (2010). "Workplace conflict resolution." Accessed 14 November 2010. http://humanresources.about.com/od/managementtips/a/conflict_solue.htm
OBIM. (2010). Organizational behavior instructional materials.
