Manufacturing or Marketing Interface and Conflict - Essay Example

The paper shows that they are solely concerned with the profitability of their own units rather than looking at the bigger picture. Communication and cooperation had slacken-off and they are not sharing vital information with each other, which can strongly affect organizational productivity. Manufacturing and Marketing are the core functions of an organization so harmonious relationships between these two interfaces are crucial antecedents to business success. As the case has portrayed the conflict between these two functions, we must manage the conflict between these units properly in order to run successful business operations.

We first need to understand the issues these departments face, their strategies and the structure under which they operate. As specified in the case that the company is growing under a functional structure, this seems to be the ultimate root cause of the problem. The functional structure has its inherent disadvantages. Under such structures, the functions are detached from each other and they develop a “WE” attitude. Problems are analyzed from one perspective and the individuals within each function are isolated from each other and they have a little understanding of each other.

Thus the conflict can be best managed by making structural changes in it. The most viable solution to the above problem is to move from a functional structure to a process-oriented or product team structure. The product team structure forms teams comprising of individuals from different organizational departments such as manufacturing, marketing, engineering and finance, and these teams share common goals and objectives. Such teams assure that issues related to marketing and manufacturing departments will receive proper attention early on and provides cross-sectional, shared ownership of problems and more importantly they stress on customer-oriented tasks (Omurgonulsen & Surucu, 2008).

Managers can play a vital role in managing the Manufacturing/Marketing conflict. Managers from both departments can encourage their subordinates to work together. They can have a better understanding if there is a close coupling between both functions. Cross-functional training, forming formal and informal lines of communications, and rotating marketing and manufacturing people within the organization can significantly enhance understanding and can create synergy between both the functions. Incentives based on team performance can also wipe out the conflict and can improve coordination among each other.

Creating a reward system that stresses inter-functional cooperation is also an effective method of forming common policies to eliminate conflict (Omurgonulsen & Surucu, 2008).