KELLOGG
Conflict management
Role conflict between marketing and production departments
Kellogg has insufficient communication between its product development and marketing departments. Increasingly, Americans are trying to eat more healthfully, which includes consuming fresher, sustainable, and unprocessed foods. Kellogg is a noted purveyor of cereals, including sugary cereals. A desire for less carbohydrate and sugar-dense breakfast options and the greater diversification of American tastes in general could mean that the company may face long-term demand-related problems later on."Kellogg, which had revenue of nearly $13 billion last year, is the world's largest cereal maker by sales as well as a leading producer of cookies, crackers, frozen waffles and toaster pastries" (Carey 2010). It must strive to retain this market base and cannot rest on its current laurels of success. Kellogg is insufficiently diversified in the healthy cereal market. However, there is a clear conflict between the missions of the marketing and production departments -- the marketing department wishes to 'sell' the product to consumers based upon popular health claims, while the production department is creating foods that remain sugary, unhealthy and tasty.
2.2 -- Horizontal conflict: production...
In 2009, Kellogg was cited for a violation of truthful advertising laws by the FTC for its Frosted Mini-Wheats and forced to change the claims on the packaging. Kellogg must strive to more realistically promote these core products, else it garner more bad publicity but there is resistance to doing so amongst marketing staff.
2.3 -- Vertical conflict -- insufficient communication between Kellogg and suppliers
There are also concerns about contamination problems at Kellogg, after a 2010 recall of cereals was necessitated because of a strange odour emanating from the boxes that was linked to a chemical involved in the processing of the interior lining of the boxes that could cause nausea and diarrhea (Pepitone 2010). This suggests…
