Developing Management Skills: Managing Conflict - Essay Example

The inherent problem was that Michael applied a subjective remuneration policy for all the contract workers. He delayed the remuneration for the contract workers by three months after the end of a contract period. He claimed that the delay ensured that the money was used to acquire new assets, and some of the monies were deposited to a fixed deposit account where they earned interest. He would pay the contract workers after three months and use the interest earned to cater for his personal needs.

Michael explained to Kevin about the remuneration policy but was not sure whether he would accept it. Conflict arose between Michael and Kevin over the current remuneration policy for contract workers. Kevin argued that the policy was against the principles of good business practice that was based on ethical and objective behavior. On the other hand, Michael argued that the benefits of the remuneration policy were two-fold. Firstly, it ensured that the company had extra cash to purchase assets that could be easily convertible into cash.

Secondly, the two would generate income from the interest earned from the fixed deposit accounts. The manager and his deputy got into a conflict over the remuneration policy to be applied. Kevin felt that the policy was against the principle of utilitarianism, rights-based ethics, deontology, contractarianism, and virtue ethics.The conflict between Michael and Kevin can be classified as personal differences (Whetten, and Kim, p. 379). The question inherent in the conflict is, “who is morally right?

” The classification of the conflict as personal differences is attributable to the fact that both Michael and Kevin have incompatible personal values. Michael, on one hand, is concerned about the welfare of the company and his personal needs regardless of the practices used.