Human Resources in Australia - Conflict Resolution - Case Study Example

HUMAN RESOURCES (AUSTRALIA) CONFLICT RESOLUTION Conflict is commonly a defined as the disagreement wherein the parties being involved recognize a threat to their needs and interests. Conflict which is a normal part of an organization or a team does provide positive impacts as well as negative impacts. Positive impacts are provided by a conflict once the organization or the team views the conflict as part of growth because the development of improved understanding will be a result of the conflict. While conflict provides positive impacts, it also provides negative impacts when the organization or the team views the conflict as a threat to the growth and understanding of their members. The organization will just be contented on the limited options inside their organization in solving the conflict and they will not seek the multiple possibilities in solving the conflict outside the organization. A very important aspect of being in the organization or a team is the occurrence of conflict. Topics concerning how the conflict will work on the organization, of how the conflict will be avoided, and how would the organization will deal about the conflict when it occurs. There are two forms of conflict occurring in a workplace or in any organization. The substantive conflict is all about conflicts about decisions, ideas actions and even directions. This is commonly the scenario happening in the workplace. The second form of conflict in the workplace is the personalized conflict or more commonly called as a personality conflict. In this for m of conflict, the two parties involved in the conflict simply have the notion that “they don’t like each other” An example of substantive conflict is seen my workplace. One of the staff is having problems dealing with the demands of the branch manager that every staff should be starting the daily operation of the store 8:00 am everyday. A conflict between the branch manager and the staff was created. The branch manager is expecting all the staff to be at the store before the opening time which means that all the staff is required to follow the orders of the manager. Though there are some reasons for the staff not to follow orders from the manager, they are all obliged to still accomplish and follow all the orders from the manager. Amanda, one of the staff has a conflict on the orders of the manager. The reason why Amanda is not is not able to follow the orders of the manager is that she do has some child care responsibilities during that early hour the manager is requiring her to work in the store. Amanda is amenable in working at the store starting 9:00am (which was the usual routine of the store staff when the manager still didn’t require the 8:00am routine). Amanda has to take care of the needs of her children early in the morning so that when she leaves for work, the children were already accommodated with the things they need at home and in school. The children of Amanda are already being used for their mother to prepare their needs before their mother leaves the house for work child care responsibilities is one of the simple yet important reason of Amanda for her unwillingness to follow the manager the new policy of the branch manager. The real cause of the conflict between Amanda and the branch manager is that the branch manager is not able to understand the reasons of the staff of why is she not amenable of the change in the opening time of the store. On the other hand, Amanda cannot understand the reasons behind the strategy of why is the manager changing the opening time of the store. The manager wanted to give service to the costumers starting early in the morning. Another reason for the manager to change the schedule of the opening hours is that for the store to be able to cope up to the sales. The sales of the store is not that much increasing. Another reason for the manager not to grant or not to address the request of Amanda is that when he is going to grant the request of one of his staff (of Amanda), other staff might be asking the same request and it would be unfair for him not to grant the other staffs’ request also. In that case, the manager will be going to have problems in terms of the management of his staff as well as the allocation of the staff to work on the hours that several staff is needed. Opening hours and closing hours are the most crucial store hours in the store where I work. During opening hours, workers are needed because there are so many things to prepare for the store opening. Fixing of the goods inside the store as well as cleaning is done during the opening and closing hours. Opening hour is also the time when different deliveries are being accepted, that is why; more workers are needed for the better operation of the store. There are several stages of conflict that had been listed. Latent stage, conflict emergence, conflict escalation, hurting stalemate, negotiation, dispute settlement and post-conflict peace building are the stages of conflict as written by Brahm (2003). Latent stage is the stage wherein the individuals in a group or in a team or organization have differences that create inconvenience or problem to one or the other. These differences are not yet large enough to cause the individuals of a team or an organization to do action of reworking or changing the situation. The emergence stage of the conflict is started when the latent stage had not subsided or had not solved the misunderstanding. When there is a strong frustration that was created by the two opposing sides in an organization, emergence of conflict is possible. A confrontation between the two opposing sides had occurred in the latent stage but there was no reason for them to agree to the confrontation that is why a conflict was created. The emergence of conflict is usually a threat within the staff and the managerial positions in a business (Kriesberg, 2003). Previous issues that had been in the history of the organization have the possibility that it will be carried out in the present dispute between the two opposing bodies within the organization. For example in the conflict that was created between the branch manager and Amanda, some disagreements between them in the past can be carried out in their present conflict. In that case, disagreements such that the manager is being very cruel to his staff can also be carried out to the present dispute between them. After the emergence of the conflict, escalation of the conflict will happen. Escalation is a term that is being use to describe the increase in the intensity of the conflict between the two individuals in in a team. The involvement of some parties or rather of some individuals in the conflict can happen when escalation in the conflict occurs (Maisse, 2003). The conflict between the manager of the store and Amanda had reached the stage of the conflict escalation. The conflict had been existing for several days and if it could not be resolved, it will be really destructive for the whole team inside the store. It was also mentioned that in the stage of conflict escalation, there is a stronger threat to the relationship inside a team because of violence occurrence (Maisse, 2003). In the case of the store manager and Amanda, more threat occurred when Amanda continued to arrive at the store at 9:00am, therefore, disobeying the rules of the manager because it was already implemented that the new opening time of the store will be 8:00am. The manager had to do something to be able to stop the conflict occurring between him and Amanda. He had to do something before the situation get any wilder and may still post more threat to the management of the staff members inside the store. What he did was to think of ways of what to give the staff as an alternative so that their conflict will de-escalate and then will proceed to the process of negotiation. The first action that the manager did was holding a meeting to the entire staff of the store. He holds the topmost position in the store and he is the only one being look upon to held meetings as well as to solve the conflict between him and the staff. During the meeting, the branch manager asked the opinion and views of the entire staff of the new store policy regarding the shift in the opening hours. Many had raised their points and some expressed their ideas that they did not want the new policy. The older policy (which is 9am opening hours) is the one which is more flexible than the new time routine. The manager was surprised with the opinion of the staff because he knew that all of the staff in the store is amenable of the change in the opening time. The entire staff had all along been following the orders of the manager in the new time routine except for one, so he concluded that all the other staff is amenable of the time change. He was mistaken of his predictions and conclusions and now the problem he had is not only concentrated on solving his conflict with only one staff but with the majority of the staff. The meeting had been an opportunity for the workers to open their points regarding the new policy of store openings. In the average, more workers do not have a positive view of the new store opening. Majority of the workers had not been in favor of the time change. The reasons of most of the workers of not being in favor of the new time opening are all practical reasons. One reason which had voiced out by a one of the worker is that he had been observing that for almost a week since the opening time had changed, their costumers still had started calling the store for service after 9:00am. Costumers had also been observed to be arriving at the store exactly 9:00am and beyond 9:00am. This is in spite of the fact that the store manager had posted some notice of the early opening of the store. Another reason that had been voiced out is that the time the deliveries had started to arrive in the store to do deliveries. Most of the staff had made observations that deliveries arrive at the store just minutes before 9:00 am. The deliveries are already used of delivering goods to the store beyond 9:00am. The reason for this is that the deliveries are scheduled to deliver to other store s before arriving to our store. These simple but important reasons had been beyond the knowledge of the manager. The manager was only fully informed because of the meeting that had transpired. Without the meeting and the conflict he had with Amanda, he will not be able to realize some facts that had been happening to the store. Upon the conclusion of the meeting, when all the concerns of the staff had been heard by the manager, the manager asked the whole staff for a little time for him to study the situation in order to impose more effective actions. After a day or so, the manager had again called a meeting. He had expressed his gratitude that even if the majority of the staff is not amenable to the new opening time, they had still obeyed his rules and continued working. He also had acknowledged the points that the staff had given him which gave him information about the arrival of the costumers and the delivery time of goods. He then had told the entire staff that upon extensive study and upon considering all the facts that had been pointed out by the staff; he will be moving the opening time back to the original time which is 9:00am. He had explained that the decision he made is for the benefit of all. To be able for the store to save energy and other resources of opening early, he had also to move back the opening time to the original time. This meeting had marked the end of the conflict between the manager and Amanda. Moreover, there was a prevention of the growth of another disagreement from mostly of the staff with the manager. Mediation is a form of dispute resolution wherein the objective is to assist the disputing parties to have an agreement. The agreement must be able to be reached naturally by the two disputing parties and a help from a third party should not be the needed. Another form of conflict resolution is following the grievance procedure. By use this procedure, the concerns of the employees inside the workplace is being brought up to the higher levels of management. The manager had not been able to do the mediation process as early as possible. There was no early agreement between the manager and Amanda that is why the conflict had reached the point of escalation. Another conflict resolution is the grievance procedure. It is more formal than the mediation process in solving conflict. The rules imposed by the grievance procedure should be strictly followed. Collaboration should also be used to solve conflicts because it is a way wherein the members of an organization work together to achieve a common goal. This is also used to sustain the growth of a team towards a positive change. Figure 1. The stages of Conflict Source: http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/latent_conflict/ WORKS CITED: Brahm, Eric. Latent Conflict Stage.Beyond Intractability Volume III. 2003. University of Colorado. 2 September 2007 Read More