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Resolution of a Business Conflict
Conflict at the workplace is largely unavoidable. This is mainly because in most cases, people tend to view things differently and in that regard, different viewpoints may get in the way of a harmonious workplace environment. This text concerns itself with workplace conflict. The link to the article I will make use of is: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/03/us/new-york-racial-slur-lawsuit/
The article I will concern myself with in this case is titled Black Boss's N-Word Rant to Black Employee Cost Him, Nonprofit $280,000. Written by Erinn Cawthon and Kristina Sgueglia, the article was which appeared on CNN's website on the 4th of September 2013. Essentially, the story is about a worker who sued her employer for using what she considered to be derogatory language. In the resulting lawsuit, Brandi Johnson (the aggrieved employee) claimed that "she was a victim of a hostile workplace after enduring verbal harassment and a series of statements filled with profanity and racial slurs from her supervisor" (Cawthon and Sgueglia, 2013). In this case,...
Johnson decided to take her employer to court after it became evident that her concerns would not be addressed appropriately internally. In addition to the $250,000 she was awarded by the jury as compensatory damages, Ms. Johnson was also to receive an additional $25,000 and $5,000 from the founder of the organization and the organization itself respectively.
Before defining the phase Cost of Conflict, it would be prudent to first offer a concise definition of conflict. In the words of Wagner and Hollenbeck (2010), "conflict is a process of opposition and confrontation that requires the presence of interdependence, political indeterminism, and divergence" (p. 235). In an organizational setting therefore, the costs of conflict could include all those setbacks an organization suffers as a result of conflict. The said setbacks in this case could be in terms of actual business losses, loss of opportunities, loss of talent, etc. From the view of the participants in the scenario I have recounted elsewhere in this text, the $25,000 and the $5,000 the founder of…
References
Cawthon, E. & Sgueglia, K. (2013, September 4). Black Boss's N-Word Rant to Black Employee Cost Him, Nonprofit $280,000. Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/03/us/new-york-racial-slur-lawsuit/
Schermerhon, J.R., Osborn, R.N. & Uhl-Bien, M. (2012). Organizational Behavior (12th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
Wagner, J.A. & Hollenbeck, J.R. (2010). Organizational Behavior: Securing Competitive Advantage. New York, NY: Routledge.
E. Ms. Spiteri, work teams and the company at large. When it comes to IBM, the ongoing case against it i.e. litigation can be taken to be a cost of the said conflict. Further, one could argue that the company lost in terms of productivity as the affected individual was unable to give her best. Also, her distress could have affected her relations with customers hence informing client complaints which
Resolving Conflict Conflict is inevitable. Individuals or groups of people have differences in gender, race, ethnicity, religion, values, beliefs, and personality. These differences can often be a source of conflict (Raines, 2012). This is particularly true in the organisational environment, where individuals work alongside others in the accomplishment of set goals and objectives. In such an environment, conflict is bound to occur. The likelihood of conflict is even greater where an
Because unresolved conflict within teams can undermine the talents and efforts of even the most dedicated individuals, conflict resolution is an essential component of modern business management. Specific approaches to conflict resolution generally consist of strategies intended to prevent conflict preemptively and strategies intended to resolve conflicts after they arise. As a rule, eliminating conflict prospectively is more effective and more efficient than resolving conflict after it emerges. Generally, once
Thus, Bruce's desire to leave the company was a surprise. Lastly, there was a failure to adequately communicate David's firing quickly. By waiting, Kalinsky opened the situation up to Bruce's interference, which in turn only made the situation worse. Each of these four communication problems contributed to the situation that Kalinsky faced, with two investors seeking to leave the company, including one he did not envision leaving. Many of the
Team Conflict Development and Team Dynamics Organizational tasks are becoming increasingly complex and more involved; teams have become valuable for easier and more effective accomplishment of tasks (Chekwa & Thomas, 2013). Teamwork has turned out to be a crucial driver of organizational productivity in the contemporary workplace (Breugst et al., 2012; Martinez-Moreno et al., 2015; Lee et al., 2015); this to a large extent explains why employers are ever more looking
" (U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, nd) This is a voluntary mediation agreement, which may opt out of by the employer or the employee. The benefits of the UAM include: (1) "UAM demonstrates from the outset a company's willingness to mediate on cases eligible for mediation - this may contribute to the ultimate satisfactory resolution of a matter; (2) With a UAM, the initial step of contacting the employer to