Situational Analysis of Dynamic Inc - Case Study Example

Communication Tutor’s name and title: Student’s name and title: Date: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Executive Summary 4 Case study 7 Discussion of findings from staff surveys 8 Critical analysis of the literature 9 Conclusions 12 Recommendations 12 List of figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Executive Summary In this report, we look at communication, conflict resolution and power as issues that challenged Dynamic Inc. in meeting their desired goal. Findings indicate that majority of the employees are not happy with the situation in the new company because there is a lack of trust among employees, work dissatisfaction, have no commitment to the organization, and have no voice when to comes to decision-making process. The conclusion is that communication is vital for the organization to improve because it entails so much with regard to working together in teams. The recommendations made are in line with the case presented and look at what is needed for senior managers and junior employees to work in meeting organizational goals. Introduction The discussion looks into the case of Dynamic Inc. who have hired our consultancy service because the organization is facing issues regarding effective communication among its employees. Jeff, the digital director, wants to avoid the chance a conflict rising among employees at MediaHype. The takeover of Dynamic Inc. on MediaHype, a local agency in Melbourne, seems not to have been taken positively by other employees. The reason is that some of them had to be laid off to create room for the new employees from China. Since Dynamic Inc. is an international global media agency, it intends to open an office in Shanghai in the next three years. Therefore, they want to train many Chinese nationals in preparation for the Chinese launch and hence, are working across the Asia-Pacific offices. The Digital Strategy team at Melbourne receives two new employees, and this means two are transferred from Sydney offices to Melbourne. The director is managing a small group of eight active people who will be focusing on reaching out and engaging consumers on online platforms available. The first clients Jeff brought were lucrative customers, BurnFit Gyms, who had well over 100 fitness clubs throughout Australia. Even though the customers were not sure of Jeff’s knowledge on Australian’s media environment his international credential impressed them more. Having a good resume helped Jeff convince customers of his capabilities as a leader to deliver to them a revised digital strategy. As such, it is evident that having a good resume matters a lot when it comes to approaching clients. Within a week, Jeff’s team had three key deliverables for their client, and this meant they only had two weeks left thus, Jeff decides to have the team report directly to him. What he was trying to do considering the complexity of the task was to an emphasis on interaction amongst group members to facilitate them achieving organizational goals. However, this was not to be the case as the teams started to disintegrate and show signs of conflict and power and hence, Jeff had to take action before the situation worsened. It was clear that the team members were not responding well to each other bearing in mind the complaints that were brought forth to Jeff by Anjana Singh concerning Yuchau and Wen, who were from Singapore. Mike Duffy also went to Jeff and complained about the two employees from Singapore. Assessing the concerns brought forward, Jeff did not think the issues raised were a major problem but during the third week, there were signs of relational strains. It was the turn of Yuchau and Wen to complain about the two junior strategy consultants from Dynamic Sydney, Franz, and Amanda. According to them, the junior strategy consultants lacked job confidence to handle their task yet Jeff was told they were high-potential employees with bright and prosperous futures ahead. The complaints made were alarming and needed to be addressed to meet the client’s needs. The more efficient way of addressing these milestones meant having weekly meetings to brief each team member on the progress of the work. The worst part is that the team stayed in three distinct groups when Jeff called for a meeting to salvage the situation. Consequently, the report looks at conflict, power, and effective communication in a group of employees. The scope of the report will be to look at finding a solution to the milestones presented to enable the team to work together in beating the six weeks deadline. Moreover, the report intends to investigate further on why the employees failed to show person-job fit (P-J fit) and person-organization fit (P-O fit). Accordingly, P-J fit is when a job matches an employee’s knowledge, abilities, and skills. At the same time, it is the extent to which job meets and employee’s desires, preferences or needs. Whereas, P-O fit is the value of congruence between an individual and the organization. It is only by having high levels of P-J and P-O fit that employees will attain better commitment, satisfaction, high-performance levels and interpersonal helping. Case study After layoffs, an organization needs to have strong leadership strategies to help employee focus more on the priorities at hand and thus, recommit themselves to the organization. As such, Jeff’s leadership is vital in helping staff members recognize and deal with their emotions, and this will mean that he will need to listen well and often. Though the task was complicated and time was limited, Jeff needed to listen and respond empathetically by holding regular meetings. Moreover, the short-term goals that needed to be set had to be realistic, clear and attainable. By so doing, this would ensure that work departments remained focused. Secondly, Jeff had delegated duties to his right-hand people, but to the junior employees, this was not appropriate considering they were new employees from another continent. The challenge was on how these senior staff members were to dictate their new roles to the employees from Dynamic Sydney. As such, employees needed to be engaged at all times, and this entailed embodying respect and reducing stress and anxiety through modeling. The loss of productivity was brought about by the fear among workers, and thus, they saw each other as competitors who eroded the collegiality and spirit in the group. Communicating respectfully to employees even when top management does not know the answers to questions or concerns is important. During the uncertain and or trying times of the organization, Jeff needed to encourage employees to stay focused on the goal of the project. Thirdly, communication became a problem faced by employees as well as leadership. Yuchau and Wen were permissive extreme because they were not telling subordinates how to perform their jobs. Therefore, they lacked transformational leadership traits. The bases of power being applied were not efficient and hence, Jeff needed to use expert and referent power as they are positively related to employees’ satisfaction with regards to supervision, employee organizational commitment and performance. The inaction conflict management style is evident in this case because Yuchau and Wen show little interest in the attainment of their outcomes and also little concern about whether the other party obtains their results. Discussion of findings from staff surveys Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Critical analysis of the literature Brubaker, D., Noble, C., Fincher, R., Park, S.K.Y. and Press, S., 2014. Conflict Resolution in the Workplace: What Will the Future Bring?. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 31(4), pp.357- 386. The article looks at conflict resolution and asserts that having collaborative processes helps organizations meet their goals and objectives within stipulated times. It is evident that mediation and arbitration have been used by many organizations in the past. Nonetheless, the article looks at the future and is going to help Dynamic Inc. come up with a strategy that will work best for them in attaining P-J and P-O fit in their organization among their employees. It is necessary to understand the trends in workplace conflict to enable leaders evade a repeat of future occurrences and thus mediation and coaching may be helpful tools when ot comes to resolving existing conflict in the workplace. In the end, it is wise for organizations to have broader adoption of integrated conflict management systems. Miska, C., Stahl, G.K. and Mendenhall, M.E., 2013. Intercultural competencies as antecedents of responsible global leadership. European Journal of International Management, 7(5), pp.550-569. Intercultural competencies are things that need further investigation because they enable global leaders to effectively address Corporate Social Responsibility demands of global stakeholder communities. Therefore, the article is related to the study because it touches on intercultural competencies that are also found in Dynamic Inc. top management personnel. Competencies are necessary for employees because they give a direction for the organization. Jeff being an international leader, he brings with him things that are going to build the reputation of the company. Saundry, R., McArdle, L. and Thomas, P., 2013. Reframing workplace relations? Conflict resolution and mediation in a primary care trust. Work, Employment & Society, 27(2), pp.213-231. It is vital for companies to reframe their relations because it is a means to resolving conflicts thus, acts as ground to mediation. It is essential to understand the importance of framing when it regards conflict resolution techniques. The article is helpful in looking at conflict resolution as it brings to light the avenues that bring about conflict in the organization. Tiftik, H., Kılıç, Ş. and Saglam, M., 2015. Leadership Theories and Comparison of Them. Journal of Research in Business, Economics and Management, 4(2), pp.312-322. Leadership is a key area of investigation as it looks at the characteristics and behaviors observed in specific environment conditions and times. Modern leaders face different and complicated demands and thus, the article gives a distinction of leaders and managers found in the 21st century. Moreover, it has managed to compare the concepts of modern and classical leadership by looking at the views of different researchers. As such, this article is in line with the issues presented in the case because it brings to light the leadership style vital for current businesses. Furthermore, the responsibilities of a leader are also identified for modern leaders and existing differences between managers and leaders introduced. As such, the article helps in identifying the critical roles and responsibilities for Yuchau, Wen and Jeff. Voegtlin, C., Patzer, M. and Scherer, A.G., 2012. Responsible leadership in global business: A new approach to leadership and its multi-level outcomes. Journal of Business Ethics, 105(1), pp.1-16. The article looks at responsible leadership in the global business arena and thus, draws on deliberative practices plus discursive conflict resolution. It further looks at the macro-view and micro-view of leadership by looking at existing research conducted on leadership. Globalization is an issue that needs addressing because it affects the process of communication. The article is related to the case study because it looks at having responsible leaders in international organizations. Furthermore, the article enlightens readers on the new approaches employed by leaders when it comes to leading global companies and or organizations. Conclusions In summary, communication is essential for any global business because it enables organizations to meet their global demands. Hence, managers and employees need to know how to effectively communicate with their company’s international counterparts. Since Dynamic Inc. intends to launch it in China, then effective communication will help it expand its domestic borders. Through effective communication, senior managers and junior employees will form highly efficient teams because there is trust between them. As such, employees of an organization will be able to work together harmoniously in meeting their organizational goals. Employee morale is also boosted when communication is improved in the group because a healthy environment has been produced. Recommendations Jeff needed to maintain power through his communication. Moreover, he needed to encourage his colleagues from Singapore to have permissive-directive dimension as their behavioral approach. Communication between section managers and junior employees can be improved by identifying the problem. This is achieved by assessing which worker is responsible for the breakdown. Section managers need to review all formal messages and gauge their feedback to ensure further communication is not necessary when it concerns clarification of the main themes. An assessment of resources needed to fix the problem needs to be conducted. For example, since the problem results from the acrimonious tension between section managers and junior employees, then mediation program is necessary. Moreover, staff meetings can also help in disentangling these issues. Looking at the case, it is vital for senior managers to engage with junior employees because it entails: having the opportunity to feed senior executives’ views upwards; feeling well informed about happenings in the organization; and believing that senior executives are committed to Dynamic Inc. goals. Hence, engagement approach advises senior managers to communicate effectively and vice versa. Communication can be effective simply by ensuring the both senior managers and junior employees work collaboratively. Considering they are from a different discipline, their expertise should be shared so as to create an approach that is appropriate for the organization. The survey conducted is a measuring tool that will help communication be improved since engagement is enhanced. This method becomes helpful once audiences are segmented to look at whether the right message reaches the right people and in time. Bibliography Brubaker, D., Noble, C., Fincher, R., Park, S.K.Y. and Press, S., 2014. Conflict Resolution in the Workplace: What Will the Future Bring?. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 31(4), pp.357- 386. Miska, C., Stahl, G.K. and Mendenhall, M.E., 2013. Intercultural competencies as antecedents of responsible global leadership. European Journal of International Management, 7(5), pp.550-569. Saundry, R., McArdle, L. and Thomas, P., 2013. Reframing workplace relations? Conflict resolution and mediation in a primary care trust. Work, Employment & Society, 27(2), pp.213-231. Tiftik, H., Kılıç, Ş. and Saglam, M., 2015. Leadership Theories and Comparison of Them. Journal of Research in Business, Economics and Management, 4(2), pp.312-322. Voegtlin, C., Patzer, M. and Scherer, A.G., 2012. Responsible leadership in global business: A new approach to leadership and its multi-level outcomes. Journal of Business Ethics, 105(1), pp.1-16. Read More