Managing Conflict in a Company Faced With

¶ … managing conflict in a company faced with layoffs. PropCo, an operating unit of Allied Technologies Corporation (ATC) was faced with both downsizing the number of employees and attempting to diversify its workforce. Employees who had been laid off and those still working, expressed concerned about this and had a strong opinion of management and their co-workers. Employee Reactions Several employees were asked how they felt about the layoffs and the diversity program.

The ones who were still employed for PropCo were worried that they would be included in the next group of workers to lose their jobs. One member of middle management dreaded having to inform those working for him that they no longer had a job after years of dedicated service. He would not park his car in the employee parking lot on days he had to lay off employees for fear of retribution, such as his car being dented or scratched.

He also felt caught in the middle of the tensions between hourly employees and senior management. Ones who were let go were dealing with feelings of disbelief and anger. One member of management who had been employed by PropCo for over 27 years had planned to retire from the company. Instead, he was faced with sending out resumes and worrying about losing his health benefits. Another employee's main concern was about the talks of trying to diversify the company.

He felt minorities were the first to be let go, and the company did little to recruit minorities in to management positions. He did feel he was one of the lucky few who had been able to find new employment. There was also the old argument between management and hourly employees.

Management felt the workers didn't understand the market and weren't working to stay competitive with other companies, while workers felt management should be making sacrifices such as eliminating bonuses in order to prevent layoffs Evaluation of the Diversity Program PropCo has instituted a program to increase diversity of minorities at the company. This program is not fulfilling its expectations, however. There are few minorities in management, and many workers note they are usually among the first to be laid off.

PropCo has a summer intern program and states they hope to hire some of the interns after they graduate. However, to date, the company has not employed any of these students. The minorities also feel the main reason they are employed is to help maintain the mandatory employee ratio for companies with government contracts. Improving Diversity Effectiveness There are several things PropCo.