Resolution of a Business Conflict

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, it is likely that Ms. 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 STRIVE and STRIVE itself lost, as well as the $250,000 compensatory damages awarded to Ms. Johnson can in this case be regarded the legal costs of conflict. This is in addition to the concerned organization's tarnished reputation as a result of the lawsuit. Other costs which should also be mentioned in this case include but they are not in any way limited to recruitment and retraining costs.