W3A/2 590 Its just a matter of timing - Essay Example

It’s Just a Matter of Timing Question After being hired by Vegas, Teresa learned that the company’s checking account was severely overdrawn. Actually, Vegas’ company owed the bank in excess of $40,000 as a result of overdrawing. In this context, Teresa realized that the first move to rectifying the company’s checking account is to return it to a positive status. The first approach for Teresa was to prioritize the payment of urgent credit obligations in order to ease the company’s short-term debts.

Also, Teresa considered addressing order-related complaints from both new and old customers. Within a short time, Teresa was able to return the company’s checking account to a positive balance status. Suddenly, Vegas’ overspending habits emerged. After Vegas demanded $30,000 for a house purchase, Teresa learned that her boss had serious financial and cash-flow strategies. Instead of cutting his spending down to the bare minimum, Vegas kept overdrawing the company’s checking account to finance his personal expenditures.

Question 2Instead of quitting her job, Teresa can constructively resolve the conflict with her boss through negotiation. Admittedly, conflicts and technical differences are the order of the day in most workplaces. Like in the case of Teresa and Vegas, bosses may often pressure accountants to allocate a company’s finances to personal undertakings. Instead of quitting, employees can consider employing compromising conflict resolution techniques in negotiating with their bosses (Patton, 2011).

Because they are powerful, bosses will always exert authoritative demands on subordinate employees. In such cases, employees should not just quit because of authoritative bureaucracies in their workplaces. With respect to the case study, Teresa should understand that she is in a weak negotiating position. In addition, Teresa should appreciate the fact that negotiations are two-way courses; hence she should avoid being overly assertive. Instead of treating the difference with Vegas as a competition, Teresa should approach the negotiation in a fair and equitable manner (Baron, 2007).

Question 3As a consultant, I would propose two solutions to the Teresa-Vegas case; creation of boundaries, and use of emotional intelligence in relationship management. First, creation of workplace boundaries is paramount in establishing professional and interpersonal rules of engagement. Primarily, the first element of workplace boundaries that surfaces in the Teresa-Vegas conflict is definition and delineation of professional roles. Properly delineated roles ensure that not employee or manager oversteps his or her mandate in relating with others.

In order to achieve optimal performance, role definition is often complemented with workplace ethical codes of conduct. Ethical codes of conduct define the acceptable and unacceptable behavioral habits regarding verbal and nonverbal communications in workplaces (Turban, 2007). For example, Vegas’ interior-décor firm should document workplace roles and ethical codes of conduct that must be strictly practiced without exceptions. Such boundary strategies are helpful in preventing and managing workplace conflicts.

Besides delineation of roles, emotional intelligence techniques can apply in cases like the one of Teresa and her boss. Technically, emotional intelligence helps individuals to build concrete interpersonal relationships in workplaces (Jordan & Troth, 2002). Also, emotional intelligence is effective in achieving one’s job-related goals without necessarily fighting with colleagues and bosses. In this case, I would recommend that employees working for the interior-décor firm receive online training courses on emotional intelligence.

Technically, emotional intelligence helps employees to navigate through social and bureaucratic complexities in workplaces (Mayer, 2009). For example, an emotionally intelligence Teresa will be able to understand the emotional construct of Vegas, and employ her emotional prowess in leading her boss towards the right financial direction. Therefore, training on emotional intelligence coupled with establishment of workplace boundaries will prove instrumental in solving the difference between Teresa and Vegas.

ReferencesBaron, J. (2007) Resources and relationships: Social networks and the mobility in workplace. Harvard Business Review, 63(5), 45-61.Jordan, P. & Troth, C. A. (2002) Emotional intelligence and conflict resolution: Implications for human resource development. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 45(2), 94-108.Mayer, B. (2009) Staying with conflict: A strategy to ongoing disputes. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Patton, B. (2011) Getting to yes: Negotiating agreement without giving in. Indianapolis: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Turban, B. (2007) Longitudinal relationships between workplace bullying and psychological distress. American Journal of Human Relations, 29(1), 104-117.