Resolving Organizational Conflicts in Communication and Team Work - Essay Example

Resolving Organizational Conflicts in Communication and Team Work Introduction This report constitutes the process and resolution of consultancy for an organisation enmeshed in issues in communication, teamwork and achievement of organizational goals. Within the organisation brew conflicts of interests that spew forth outcomes that drag the organisation back instead of taking strides forward as a team. Such conflicts may be constraining factors in the smooth transition in the expansion of the organization. This implies that greater workload and responsibilities are expected. These issues will be identified and analyzed with the backdrop of research from available literature. With an objective disposition, the consultant interviewed some members of the senior management team who expressed their concerns for the organisation. Armed with this initial information, the consultant dug deeper by studying the issues and researching on possible interventions to resolve them. This paper will provide a background of the organisation, the presenting problems, elaboration and explanation of the concepts from a review of literature and the resulting recommendations for intervention and conclusion. Adino Drug Detox Trust Adino Drug Detox Trust is a drug rehabilitation center that welcomes drug users who want to turn their lives around from being enslaved from drugs to being drug-free. The rehabilitation clinic helps them in their recovery and reintegration to society. The organisation has enjoyed an untarnished national and international reputation for the past 30 years. It is registered as both a nursing home as well as a charity. It provides round-the –clock medical and social care. Adino employs holistic and integrated models of care including complementary health care such as acupuncture, and social care that provides counseling and practical help in identifying the causes of the problem and dealing with it. Each patient is provided with his own individual care plan based on his specific medical, social, mental/psychiatric and emotional needs. The patient may expect a rapid detoxification from the drugs he has taken during his stay at Aldino. Upon admission, he is assessed for possible medical and detoxification treatment as well as by the Social Services team. He may stay in the clinic for a maximum of 3 weeks of detoxification prior to going through the second phase of detoxification. Within a year, he cannot be readmitted, as he is expected to remain drug free for a long time after his detoxification and when released from the clinic, that is his own responsibility. Besides, there are other clients who need the services of the clinic. The personnel involved in Aldino is composed of teams. The Operational Teams are comprised of the Nursing team, the Social Care Team and the Auxillary support team. The Senior Management Team (SMT) is comprised of the CEO, an Operations Director, Financial Director and an HR director. The SMT holds monthly board meetings. They are answerable to a board of trustees who meet quarterly. Referral Problem Meeting with the chairman of the board, the consultant inquired about the presenting problem of the organisation. The chairman expressed concern and dissatisfaction with the way the management could not agree on so many things. He observed that there was constant squabbling and disagreements and too much interpersonal friction especially between the CEO and the financial director. The senior management team was always divided and the members manifested more individualistic career ambition than collective goal-setting for the organisation. The chairman noted that there was not enough corporate collegial cooperation. Such issues in communication and teamwork has resulted in low morale for the organisation. With the impending move to expand from a 15 bed unit to a 21 bed unit, and ready to accept additional clients in two month’s time, it is expected that the increased work load may present more challenges to the organisation in terms of workload and decision-making. The board of trustees, knowing the state of affairs of the SMT, is not confident that they will function effectively to ensure a smooth implementation of the expected changes. Apart from identifying the problems in communication and teamwork, the financial aspect was also brought up in the initial meeting. The chairman was not convinced of the move to add 6 more bed units as financially viable. He was concerned of such a move as they are to present it to local authorities who fund the organisation and assure them that the decision to expand was indeed cost-effective. The next interview was with the Financial Director. He was in denial of the communication problems of the management team that the chairman of the board of trustees identified. He told the consultant that they were in good terms with each other socially. However, upon more probing, he admitted that there were some conflicts between the directors and he disagreed with some of their decisions. He agreed with the chairman on cutting down expenses to accommodate the move for expansion to a 21-bed unit and to still meet at least a 10% surplus at the end of the fiscal year. He suggested reorganizing shift schedules of the staff and to utilize more unpaid volunteers. He also questioned the steep salary of the CEO and her refusal to let go of some of the staff and just reorganize shift schedules. Her reason was that cutting down on the staff will affect their service delivery. They had a good reputation to protect and maintain. The disharmony among the SMT heads was very palpable. Asked about risk assessment, the finance director said it was not his job, it was the operations director’s. Clear-cut delineations of duties protected them from helping out the organisation by involving themselves in other areas of concern. The consultant knew that he had a herculean task ahead of him in planning out an intervention to resolve the identified problems. Drawing from academic literature, it is noteworthy to discuss how effective communication and good teamwork should be developed in organizations. These should first be established so that achievement of goals could be ensured. The financial aspect may be dealt with more effectively if communication and teamwork are first set in place. Communication In the workplace, good communication is key in accomplishing tasks in pursuit of organizational goals. Dialogue is defined as “a sustained collective inquiry into the processes, assumptions and certainties that compose everyday experience.” (Isaacs, n.d.). In the organizational setting, dialogues are used to have a “meeting of minds”, extracting what each member believes and coming up with an agreed decision that takes into account those beliefs, Members think together, analyzing causes and effects, and end up understanding a shared meaning. Usually, they reach greater heights in idea-storming that as individuals, they could not have thought of. This is contrasted with the construct of consensus building wherein people “seek some rational means to limit options and focus on the ones that are logically acceptable to most people.” (Isaacs, n.d.). Usually, the final consensus is reached if only to end the discussion, and that is what the group can “live with for now”. There is no guarantee that whatever factor initially leading some members to disagree will just vanish after the consensus has been made. It is likely that some members walk away in resignation but not in total satisfaction. This might be the case at Aldino. Issues crop up because not everyone is satisfied with the final decision, such as the move to expand from a 15-bed unit to a 21-bed unit. Richmond & McCroskey (2005) defines organizational communication as “the process by which individuals stimulate meaning in the minds of other individuals by means of verbal or nonverbal messages in the context of a formal organization” (p. 20). There are six functions that seem to dominate communication in the organizational context. The functions are to inform, regulate, integrate, manage, persuade, and socialize. Informative communication usually entails a message in written format disseminated to all the employees by way of memos, circulars, email, etc. This way, information is disseminated quickly. Another way to spread information in the organization is through regular meetings. When meetings are scheduled, employees must be prepared to raise questions regarding their concerns which need more information for them. This way, both management and employees get to open communication lines. With Aldino, it seems there was not enough information to go around to let people know of current and upcoming changes that affect the whole organisation. Most of the members keep to themselves and if they have dissatisfaction, keeps it brewing inside. Regulative communication is usually directed toward regulatory policies within the organization or messages about maintenance of the organization. Integrative communication focuses on the coordination of tasks, work assignments, group coordination, or the fusing of work units toward a common goal. In other words, it is communication directed at getting people to work together and have tasks coordinated so each member of the team is aware of what is to be done (Richmond & McCroskey, 2005). Huge problems are encountered when one staff group seems only concerned with doing their assigned tasks and not so much inquire about what the other groups are doing on the same case. In the consultant’s interview with the Finance Director, it was obvious that he thought of something regarding other areas that are not under his area of responsibility, but refused to act upon them because it belonged to someone else’s job. He would rather stick to his own scope of responsibility. The management function of communication is focused on getting personnel to do what is needed, learning information about personnel to know them better, and establishing relationships with personnel. Basically, if a manager is successful in these three, then he has better chances of gaining employee respect and support. The persuasive function enables one to influence another to do something in particular, sort of cajoling a co-worker to do something like covering for him when he fumbles at work. This is an important skill for the SMT to master, as they are seen as the leaders of the organisation and would need to learn how to motivate their staff. Finally, the socialization function of communication in the organization is the one that determines one’s survival in a team even if it is under stress. It attempts to get along well with others so that each one gets integrated into the communication network (Richmond & McCroskey, 2005). This is what the Finance Director was bragging about to the consultant. He said he and the management team go out to tea or long lunches and plan for the organisation. However, it seems the communication that transpires remain on the socialization level and not into more productive decision-making for the organisation. Team work Management must be consistent in communicating to each worker its philosophy of providing the best quality health care and treatment through collaborative efforts of professionals from different disciplines. Each worker should be able to feel that he is part of a great team that sets high goals and successfully attains them. According to Burgess (2005), top leadership must be required to create conditions that engender knowledge transfer among the staff and convey that the benefits of knowledge transfer outweigh the costs. In the absence of this commitment, it is unlikely that attempts to increase knowledge flow will succeed. In order to succeed working as a team, organizations must be aware of relational power, or the give and take of power and knowledge. Hence, this would involve knowledge transfer from individuals who possess it to those who do not. In healthcare institutions, this may be in the way of sharing expertise in various disciplines which must be transferred and shared among units. Indeed, companies that are more effective at knowledge transfer have been shown to have a greater likelihood of organizational survival and higher levels of productivity (Dart et al., 1995; Dyer & Nobeoka, 2000; Galbraith, 1990). In the case of the SMT, each director keeps knowledge in his or her own area and if someone disagrees with such knowledge, they become defensive instead of collaborative to settle issues. Usually, groups go through growth patterns, especially if members stay with each other for a prolonged period of time. Various theories on group development commonly identify the stages groups go through. Wheelan’s (1994) Integrated Model of Group Development describes the first stage as a period of member dependency on the leader and powerful group members to lead and to provide guidance and direction. The second stage is referred to as a period of Counterdependency and Fight, where members begin to disagree among themselves and assert their own individual opinions about group procedures and procedures. Since the group’s task is to develop a unified set of goals and operational procedures, this stage inevitably develops conflicts. Such conflict tests the strength of the member’s trust in each other, and if they are successful in overcoming the conflicts, a climate of trust and safety in expressing oneself is established. This paves the way for the third stage, which is the Trust and Structure phase, wherein commitment to the group and willingness to cooperate is very much evident. Mature negotiation about roles, organization and procedures are transacted, and members work to solidify positive relationships with each other. The fourth stage, which is the Work stage of group development lives up to its name as team productivity and effectiveness is intensified. The members of the group are assumed to have resolved many of the issues of the previous stages and are more ready to work towards the achievement of group goals and task accomplishment. Wheelan’s developmental description of the integrated model somehow parallels Tuckman’s model (1965), which is one of the most commonly cited models of group development (Cassidy, 2007). It was formed from a meta-analysis of 50 research-based studies of group development and identifies the stages as Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. Tuckman and Jensen (1977) later added the stage Adjourning, as they wanted closure in the life cycle of groups (Cassidy, 2007). Based on the literature, the SMT of Aldino Drug Detox Trust is currently in the second stage of group development: Wheelan’s Counterdependency and Fight stage and Tuckman’s Storming stage. It shows group members developing friction with some other members because they become aware that even if they are part of a group, they still maintain their individuality, and attempt to express that. “As the group develops, members start to find the leader-focused stage frustrating and confining. Individual members seek to clarify their roles, and the group seeks to assert independence from the leader (counterdependency). Coalitions start to form among members with similar ideas and values. Fights and conflicts between coalitions and members with different values start to emerge.” (Chang, Bordia & Duck, 2003, p. 107) Conflicts may arise from a variety of sources. Cassidy (2007) identifies some as “(a) trying to establish independence from the group, (b) vying for control or leadership of the group, (c) disagreeing about values and the expression of individual ideas, and (d) disagreeing about the task and goals of the group.” (p. 416) At Aldino, the CEO may go for decisions she thinks are best for the organisation such as the expansion and the retention of staff in 4 shifts. For her, the quality of services will speak for the organisation and maintain their good reputation. This will attract more stakeholders which will boost fund generation and thus increase the surplus at the end of the year. On the other hand, the Finance Director may think her decisions are not cost-effective and suggest ways of cutting down on expenses by decreasing the number of staff and the reorganizing shift schedules. Both have their own valid points, however, it is unfortunate that they cannot or refuse to see each other’s perspective to agree on a compromise. It is also worthy to look into the personality profiles of each of the members of the SMT to see areas where they could have incompatibilities. One self-assessment test using preferred style that reflects one’s personality is the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). It is a personality inventory test that comes up with an individual’s personality profile and psychological preferences in how he perceives the world and makes decisions. The preferences indicate the differences in people based on the following (Myer-Briggs, n.d.): How they focus their attention or get their energy (Extraversion or Introversion) How they perceive or take in information (Sensing or Intuition) How they prefer to make decisions (Thinking or Feeling) How they orient themselves to the external world (Judgment or Perception) The MBTI is a good gauge of which a certain personality profile matches a certain field of work. Analyzing the MBTI profiles of the SMT, it was known that the CEO is an ENTP. Hickman (1992) says this personality type is creative, resourceful and intellectually quick. She enjoys debating issues and may be into “one-up-manship”. She is thrilled with new ideas and projects but may neglect the more practical aspects of life. She is generally outspoken and assertive and has the ability to understand concepts and apply logic to find solutions. This profile fits the CEO very well, as her advocacy for the expansion to 21 beds may be an idea she was excited about, however, she might not have considered the practical costs of such a grand idea. There is hope, though, as her profile says she has the ability to understand concepts and may be logical in finding solutions. The Financial Director is an INTP. From Hickman’s (1992) interpretation of this profile, he is a logical, original and creative thinker. He can also become excited about theories and ideas and he is very capable of concretizing these theories into clear understandings. He values knowledge much, is very competent and logical, however, he is hard to know well. He tends to be individualistic, with no interest in leading or following others. Again, this profile describes the Finance Director very well. His logic brings down lofty ideas to practicality, such as pinning down cost effectiveness of the expansion plans. His individualism was seen when he raised his hands off from suggesting ideas to the operations director during the consultant’s interview with him. Understanding the profiles of these two disagreeing individuals bring much understanding of their backgrounds. The CEO may be suspicious of the FD’s adherence to his financial management because he may be more concerned with compliance with the law and order rather than on the charitable aims of the organisation. On the other hand, the FD may be frustrated with the stubborn idealism of the CEO turning a blind eye to expenses just to fulfill her charitable ambitions. The rest of the SMT, the Operations Director and the HR Director both have profiles that likewise fit them to a T. However, they tend to form cliques with opposite sides of the camp, the Operations director sides with the FD’s views while the HR Director supports the CEO. Personality profiles are helpful in determining why some people do not get along. When people understand their differences, it lessens the personal angst they may have felt for another, and chuck it down to a personality attribute instead of a subjective disapproval. Consultancy Two prevailing models of consultancy for conflict resolution derived its approaches from the Rationalist tradition and the Cultural tradition. The rationalist perspective views conflict as a threat to efficiency and conflict resolution includes special tools to ward off conflict into more productive outlets. On the other hand, the cultural tradition emphasizes social construction of conflict resolution meanings and forms in the context of the organization (Selznick, 1980; Barley, 1991). Morrill & Rudes (2010) explain further that rationalist perspectives believe that conflict arises from incompatible goals, interests, values, beliefs and/or feelings which may interfere with organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Thus, Kolb & Putnam (1992) contend that conflict resolution becomes “central to the smooth, integrated functioning of organizations”(p. 314). The consultative process in rationalist tradition entails concentration on cultural shaping of negotiators’ interests, strategic choices, preferences for bargaining styles and outcomes (Brett & Crotty, 2008). It also links national cultural traits to study collectivism and individualism (Hofstede, 1980). Processual-rationalists study conflict resolution within experimental paradigms as specialized interaction away from daily complexities and social networks that constitute contemporary organizations (Morrill & Rudes, 2010). In contrast, the cultural tradition starts from a different point about organizations. Selznick (1969) argued that organizations have both formal (bureaucratic) and informal relationships and these must be understood in their broader sociocultural contexts. Members come up with multiple meanings and interests which may not be in accordance to bureaucratic rules and goals (Gouldner, 1959, Hallet & Ventresca 2006). Morrill and Rudes (2010) consider how organizational members define situations as conflict may be linked to several factors. Consultants must be able to understand both formal and informal relations in order to understand to the real problem. The intervention planned by the consultant takes on a rationalist method. Having identified communication and teamwork as the sources of the organizational issues, these need to be dealt with in order to achieve smooth integrated functioning and organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Intervention To resolve the “storming” issues happening at this Aldino and to eventually progress to the next stage in group development calls upon the groups’ compromising, consensus-making and dialoguing skills. Coming up with group guidelines is an essential part of group work. Specifics such as listening and taking in another’s points of view before rebuttal are examples of such guidelines. Wheelan (1999) offers the keys to successful team intervention to include the following elements: “First, an accurate, detailed assessment of a group’s current developmental level is critical. Second, successful intervention is guided by information. That is, educating members about group development, the characteristics of effective teams, and the importance of taking a systemic view of group problems is an important step in the intervention process. If members can take a systemic view, then they can work together to improve the functioning of the team processes and procedures” (p. 187). Another important thing to consider is the role of the leader. All the members of the SMT are leaders of their own teams. Each has a specific role in the organisation, and each needs to learn how to lead not only their team but the whole organisation. The challenge is in leading it together. A leader is stereotypically known to possess positive qualities and capabilities. However, in a research reported by French, Simpson and Harvey (2001), a good leader is also equipped with ‘negative capability’. “The underpinning image of leadership is based on knowing and is manifested through activity, work and achievement. There is, however, a quite other dimension of leadership, based on not knowing, on not doing, on being-done-to, and on being no longer in control of one’s own situation.” (French, Simpson & Harvey, 2001). It is heartening to find a leader who is humble enough to admit when he doesn’t really know instead of putting up a façade of being all-knowing. This peculiarly human capacity to live with and tolerate ambiguity, of being content with half knowledge is quite a refreshing concept. It implies the capacity to engage in a non-defensive way with change, without being overwhelmed by the ever-present pressure merely to react. It also indicates empathy and even a certain flexibility of character, the ability ‘to tolerate a loss of self and a loss of rationality by trusting in the capacity to recreate oneself in another character or another environment’ (Hutter, 1982, p. 305). A good leader is always open to learning something new, and not haughty enough to claim that he is already “made”. Being human and fallible is one trait that all members of the group share, and what better quality to relate to than that? Group members will even feel important enough to share the burden of thinking up solutions to problems with their leader. With the SMT, the CEO is usually the leader by default. The consultant suggests rotating the role of leadership among the SMT so that each director gets to lead the management team at one time or another. Although they are expected to work as a team, the leader has the most responsibility and accountability to the stakeholders. Thus, if one gets the opportunity to try the shoes of another member, then more understanding is bound to ensue. Since the concern of the CEO is the delivery of quality services to stakeholders of Adino, the consultant looks to successful recommendations from the literature. Koch (1995) has proposed a model outlining four factors essential in motivating staff to provide high quality service to their clientele. These are: (1) An understanding of the “psychology of excellence in teams”. This entails everything related to a psychological understanding of people and how they can work together towards quality improvement; (2) Quality improvement teamwork (QIT). Koch (1995) defines it as “cross-functional/ multidisciplinary; voluntary; and able to harness individual’s energy and enthusiasm” (33-34). He also mentions the need for a trust strategy for TQM or total quality management, commitment of senior management, introductory workshops for facilitators and members and of course, the aims clearly laid out; (3) Understanding and reviewing the processes of care and service. Everyone on the staff involved with quality improvement should be highly aware of the key issues to emphasize in the cross-functional process review approach namely: the identification of key patient/ service flows; a cross-functional team; an awareness of technical and customer components to improvement and the objectives to enhance quality and reduce risk/ adverse events (Koch, 1995). Lastly (4), using data display to motivate. Visually prompting staff the procedure of high quality care provision will indeed assist them in their tasks, not to mention there is no excuse for non-compliance. Also, seeing their progress charted out for everyone to see makes one more aware of his or her responsibility to the patients and to the organization. If the root causes of poor communication and teamwork are acknowledged and worked on following the consultant’s recommendations, the consequential outcomes of boosting morale among the staff and meeting the goals of financial success are bound to follow. The case at hand is a manifestation of “growing pains” that most groups go through before they eventually reach a stage of agreement to move forward. As trust and commitment is developed within the group, the members foresee signs of better things to come, as the group eventually takes off to fulfil the purposes for which it was established in the first place. Conclusion Contracting the services of a consultant to make an objective assessment of an organisation is an ideal, if not required step in ensuring its effectiveness. The board of trustees of Aldino were concerned that the disharmony in the senior management level will constrain them from implementing changes in the upcoming expansion of the organisation. From the initial interviews, it was identified that poor communication, too much individualism and poor teamwork characterized the organizational structure. The consultant had to observe further in able to probe deeper into the issues. Recommended interventions were improvement of the group’s communicating skills by learning compromising, consensus-making and dialoguing skills. Wheelan’s suggestions for effective team work were also listed to be tried. Leadership skills of the SMT also needs to be reflected upon. Finally, Koch’s four-prong approach to motivate staff to deliver high quality service is likewise suggested to be added to the list of interventions. It would be challenging to implement the interventions suggested knowing the current state of affairs at the SMT level. However, if everyone is committed to the vision, mission and goals of the organisation, then they would be willing to set aside their differences and look forward to the same direction. 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