Conflicts in the Workplace - Assignment Example

?Conflicts often occur in the workplace environment of the 21st century. A conflict can be defined as a disagreement through which the parties involved perceive a threat to their needs, interests or concerns (Wisc). Typically conflicts in the workplace are an undesirable outcome because it hurts the productivity and efficiency of the workers. A few years ago I worked at a start-up company as a quality control operator. The firm had high hopes of building a strong corporate culture. One of the biggest clients of the firm was the social media sensation, MySpace. I was part of the initial crew that started working for the company. More employees were hired in the weeks and months that followed. The basic salary that all floor employees earned was $7 hour. At the time the federal minimum was $5.85 an hour. The company offered the employees through a verbal offering a $5 production bonus per hour if the employees’ production exceeded a specified quota. The production incentive the company offered led to a major conflict between the administration of the company and the employees due to the fact that the company failed to pay the production incentive it promised. The conflict escalated as time passed on. The employees of the company became extremely agitated at the company because they felt the firm lied and stole from them. They were offered a financial incentive that increased the productivity of the company, but the company did not honor the verbal agreement. The morale of the employees became completely deteriorated as a direct consequence of the conflict. Other negative aspects of the conflict included a breakdown of communications between the employees and the administration, demise in the productivity of the company, and a lack of trust in the managerial staff of the firm. Things started to worst at this firm instead of better as the conflict continued. The company began to implement other abusive labor practices such as missing hours worked from the employee checks, late payment of payroll, and bounced checks. Sometimes the employees had to wait two to three weeks after the payroll was due to get paid. As things got worse the employees began to rely on each more for financial and emotional support. On many instances the workers helped each other out by giving rides to work to employees that ran out of gasoline money due to the delays in payment. The employees also united their efforts to find a resolution to the problem. The labor movement led to the formation of an employee union. I was right in the middle of things when the union was formed. I joined the union because I thought that this was the best way to take a collective stand against the oppressor. My employer was wrong because its actions violated U.S. labor laws. People that work are entitled to a monetary compensation to be paid on time every payment cycle. After the union was formed the president of the union requested a meeting with the general manager in order to find a peaceful resolution to the labor conflict. The manager denied the meeting and the employees decided to go on strike. The history of U.S. labor strikes dates back to the 19th century (Washington, 2012). In search of greater protection the unionization of employees increased after the Great Depression. The strike led to a labor stoppage that lasted three weeks. The administration finally gave in and decided to have a meeting with the union leaders to resolve the conflict. After this meeting the company decided to honor the previously negotiated incentive of $5 an hour for employees that exceed a specified production quota. Ironically this negotiation did not lead to the greatest result in the long run since the company lost the faith of its top corporate clients. The firm lost some of its biggest clients and was forced to close down operation less than three months after the labor strike ended. Upon reflection of the conflict I faced at my former employer I would have handled the situation much differently. I was part of the founding team of this company. The labor conflict should have been resolved internally. Some of the conflict resolution techniques that could have led to a peaceful resolution to the conflict include smoothing or accommodation, collaboration and problem solving, compromise, avoidance, and authoritative command (Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn, 2003). If I would have had the knowledge I have now about the existence of these conflict resolution techniques I would have played a more active leadership role among my colleagues. Our desperation and the cry for action led us to create a union that forced action by declaring a strike. The strike was seen very negatively by the clients of the company. As employees we only wanted what was fair, but we did not realize that the strike was going to damage the reputation and corporate image of the company. Strikes are undesirable events that hurt the relations between employees and employers. This is what the employees of Verizon felt at the end of their work stoppage in 2011, “The latest deal has left many rank-and-file workers upset and worried that the likelihood of beating back concessions demanded by the company are now severely diminished” (Tierney, 2012). A conflict resolution technique that could have resolved the conflict that occurred at my former employer could have been compromise. “Compromise occurs when each party involves gives up something of value to the other” (Schermerhorn, et al., 2003, pg. 387). The employees should have been open to alternative solutions. For instance in the process of compromise negotiations the employees could have offer to accept a lower incentive package of $3 an hour extra instead of $5 an hour. The employer in good faith could have offered to improve the fringe benefits to make up for the lower incentive package compromise. To reach an agreement it was imperative for the employees and the administration to keep the lines of communication open. This did not occur and as a consequence the conflict escalated and eventually led to a strike, work stoppage, and eventual demise of the firm. References Schermerhorn, J., Hunt, J., Osborn, R. (2003). Organizational Behavior (8th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Tierney, B. (2012). Unions End the Biggest Strike in Years – but the Battle for Verizon Workers Continues. Retrieved June 4, 2012 from http://www.thenation.com/article/162886/verizon-workers-and-unions-end-strike Washington.edu (2012). Strikes and Union. Retrieved June 4, 2012 from http://depts.washington.edu/depress/strikes_unions.shtml Wisc.edu. About Conflict. Retrieved June 4, 2012 from http://www.ohrd.wisc.edu/onlinetraining/resolution/aboutwhatisit.htm Read More