What seems to be the cause of the conflict?
The core of the conflict is a toxic organizational culture, which has been allowed to emerge over overtime. An organizational culture comprises numerous aspects, key among them being communication, leadership, collective values, mission/vision, practices, diversity management, regulations/policies, place, and organizational narrative. The leadership failure created by the past operational manager, particularly his appointment of supervisors without a moral authority over the employees, resulted in a complete breakdown in leadership, which when coupled with the lack of formal policies (and best practices) in issues such as the use of radio and stringent recruitment checks, resulted into conflict, ill motivation, belligerency, and poor engagement. Poor communication is evidenced by non-cooperation at work/conflict resolution, use of abusive language, and open physical confrontation. The company has also failed to manage is diversity recruited unstable individuals, and failed to manage interpersonal conflicts effectively.
What style of conflict management are the distribution center’s employees using in this case?
Competition/confrontation. The person that is first at work makes the choice of the radio station (competition), and other conflicts are handled by open confrontation, up to and including physical confrontation.
What style of conflict management have Hayward Healthcare System managers used in the past?
Avoidance. The predecessor manager simply stayed in his office and remained unavailable to help resolve the conflicts, and instead relied on discredited supervisors to handle the conflicts, but they were predictably ineffective.
What should Mr. Jackson do to settle the conflict? Should either or both of the employees be punished for their behavior?
This should be the beginning of non-disruptive conflict management styles (collaboration and compromise) at the center. Mr. Jackson should invite both employees to his office and facilitate the attainment of an amicable solution regarding the incident, reconcile them, and for the purposes of fostering a healthy organizational culture, punish both of the for their unacceptable conduct.
What can Mr. Jackson do over the long term to ensure that incidents such as the one described in this case are less likely to occur?
He should call a meeting with all staff about the same, and other issues, deliberate on the best conflict resolution mechanisms that should be built into the formal grievance/disciplinary policy (complete with consequences for the same) for the purposes of handling future conflicts. Supervisors should be changed to ensure they have greater moral authority, and they should be charged with resolving or facilitating the resolution of conflicts. Clear and acceptable regulatory frameworks on such issues will be very important in future, in preventing competitive and combative conflict resolution. Even most importantly, instilling positive values, belief systems, and attitudes, will help prevent such combative attitudes towards colleagues, which should in turn encourage harmonious decision-making approaches (Yip & Hult, 2011; Armstrong, 2006).
What can Mr. Jackson do to develop a group of supervisors who can provide the support he requires and who can properly direct the work of the employees in the distribution center?
The current crop of supervisors should be dropped, and replaced with individuals with leadership qualities, communication skills, and moral authority over the employees. Perhaps they should be elected through a popular election process. Secondly, the supervisors should hold frequent consultative meetings with the manager, to ensure that the manager is well informed and can intervene in cases of extreme difficulties. Even most importantly, the manager should work closely with both the supervisors and all employees to develop policies (including communication channels, grievance procedures, and disciplinary measures, etc.) and best practices to bar similar behavior. The creation of opportunities for formal training, team building, and other similar activities to build the competencies of the leaders may also be helpful.
How important is communication in this case? What should Mr. Jackson do to improve the quality of communication in the distribution center?
It is critical. Formal and informal communication channels should be introduced among employees and between employees and the leadership, through frequent meetings, suggesting boxes, social media, team building activities, and collective decision-making mechanisms. Communication helps to alleviate confusion, misunderstandings, fear, uncertainty, and other difficulties, which often cause and fuel resistance to change. By ensuring that all parties have the required information when and as they need it, Jacobson can ensure that instead of resistance, he has a critical mass of support behind the proposed changes, which he can use to achieve success.
SUMMARY ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
GOAL: Communication of a vision for change
Audience Analysis and Point of View
Many of the problems in this case study emerged over the years, with the inadvertent encouragement of the past manager, but communicating the same to the team at the distribution center is likely to trigger hostility and resistance. Clearly, the employees at the center has developed a bad culture, but using language that places the blame on them, would result in communication failure because of the tendency to view it as an attempt to justify or repudiate responsibility. However, avoidance of this issue may also be counterproductive, because it risks failing to ensure that important stakeholders understand where the problem is, and work towards the resolution of the same. This is particularly difficult when it comes to the supervisors, who may have to lose their positions, and the individual employees that may be singled out for problematic conduct or even termination. Employees that were hired without adequate background checks may have to be let go under the proposed plan, and given the fact that they are as many as seven, the challenge of communicating the same to them successfully is extremely difficult. Jacobson must ensure that employees understand the exact cause of the problem (as is expected of him by the senior management), and that the culture at the distribution center is necessarily hurtful, without putting anybody on the defensive. He must secure the support of critical stakeholders, including the supervisors, employees and the senior management, to ensure the successful implementation of the change agenda.
Effective Communication
The fact that Jacobson is relatively new at his station necessarily means that he lacks the clear understanding of the group dynamics that would otherwise be helpful to determine the specific manner in which the messages are to be phrased and the delivered. However, being new also gives him the perception (whether real or imagined), of having a fresh perspective on issues, which should create some credibility that he can then leverage to communicate effectively. However, he also risks being perceived as high-handed, and thus resistance. With regard to the senior management, full disclosure is helpful in getting their support, and this should be easier because they are mainly they only have a secondary interest in the center i.e. performance. This is even easier because the previous manager at the center is no longer with the company, and thus the possibility of direct communication and full disclosure causing offense is limited.
On the other hand, to communicate to employees at the center, it is critical to make the process as objective as possible, by emphasizing the fact that an external consultancy team conducted an impartial investigation, and the fact that a number of performance issues (including high error rates) mean that action needed and expected by the senior management. The key to communicating successfully is to ease the team in, gently introducing new information as time goes, and depending on the reaction to the initial bit of information. Formal communication channels should be used to pass the initial information about the investigation and the intended action, followed by formal and informal meetings. Encourage employees to openly discuss issues during these engagements, and use the outcomes of such meetings to tie them down to certain courses of action (O'Rourke, 2012; Armstrong, 2006).
Official communications that indicate draw from past discussions, and should flow from introductions stating “following our fruitful meeting/deliberations” as a way of ensuring that the employees have a sense of ownership over the process. Further, to show empathy, messages should be designed in such a manner that responsibility or blame for the problems is not apportioned to the employees. Using “the organization” as a euphemism for the employees or using words such “us”, “our community” and other such euphemisms should help show ownership, without singling out any specific person to avoid resistance, and ensure greater effectiveness. The communication of sensitive information, including the replacement of the supervisors, should be discussed in person, then in meetings, before it is communicated to the rest of the staff at the center, to mitigate possible resistance, by both the parties that would be worst affected and others that may sympathize with them.
Conclusion
The distribution center offers a classic example of how tactful communication can help avoid problems, and galvanize support that can then be leveraged to ensure success. Effective communication in these circumstances involves creating as little enmity as possible, by stopping short of apportioning blaming, but going as far as possible so that such blame is apparent. It is important to understand that the audience is not incapable of understanding. Instead, it is important to use this intelligence to create a clear picture of the problem, and the urgency of the required changes, and the measures that are required to effect the changes. A mix of formal and informal media and channels of communication also helps achieve different effects, both of which are extremely critical to the communication of the messages. Lastly, maintenance of objectivity and even-handedness (and/or appearance of the same), is extremely important in ensuring that employees support the initiatives without feeling a sense of grievance, which would otherwise, encourage resistance (Kotter International, 2014; Rogers, 2003).
Re: Communication Strategy to Address Communication and Other Systemic Failures
Overview
The Center’s sole problem is a toxic and adversarial organizational culture. This includes a pattern of beliefs, values, assumptions, norms and attitudes that may not have been formerly articulated, but shape the manner in which things at the Center get done and the way people behave. It offers a shared system of meanings that in turn comprises the basis of communication and mutual understanding. The disruptive culture may have been formed because of the past manager’s passive encouragement and failure to offer leadership; failed management of critical incidents; the desperation to maintain working relationships, however dysfunctional; and a generally unhelpful organizational environment. The previous manager’s passive approach to conflict management, inadequate background checks, and appointment of incompetent supervisors, coupled with the lack of formal/informal communication channels, unacceptable values, norms, beliefs, artifacts, and other aspects of culture are now telling. Admittedly, fixing an organizational culture is necessarily a long-time endeavor that demands organization-wide commitment and support, but a few issues have been identifying for immediate action, due to their urgency and implications for performance.
Challenges
Communication – Lack of manager-employee, manager supervisor, supervisor-supervisor, and employee-employee communication has spawned belligerent attitudes, poor conflict management approaches, ill motivation, and non-cooperation. Inaction on this front will only exacerbate the performance issues facing the Center.
Leadership – Bad leadership stifles communication, not least because they are supposed to act as links between the employees and the management. The current supervisors lack credibility with employees and were not appointed on merit. Supervisors appear powerless in addressing even minor issues such as the use of the radio, and hence the cultivation of the dysfunctional culture around many small things, which in turn breed chaos. These supervisors must either be replaced or retrained on their responsibilities and relationship with employees. Similarly, the past manager’s passive leadership approach appears to have fomented the emergence of the current dysfunction, which needs to be addressed by more hands on leadership.
People – Lax recruitment practices may have resulted in the recruitment of troublesome people. The Center has to perform a rigorous performance appraisal exercise to root out poor employees and recruit better one. Alternatively, investment in human capital development and employee engagement may also produce a healthy workplace, but this is both costly and unpredictable.
Policies and regulations – The policy framework creates an environment that either fosters or stifles communication. It defines the media, processes, and channels, etc. Policy and practice vacuums on things as simple as the choice of the radio station, conflict resolution, and management of employee grievances breed helplessness, poor motivation, and even more conflict. This needs to be fixed, by clearly defining multiple media and channels as well as other mechanisms through which employees communicate. Stringent regulations on many operational/functional aspects must be put in place, even though this creates the risk of creating bureaucratic bottlenecks.
Values, norms, beliefs, assumptions, and assumptions – Like regulatory frameworks, these define what is acceptable and what is not. To bolster diversity, cooperation, and communication, physical violence, racial and personal slurs, etc. must be banned from the workplace through value, norm, and belief statements, etc.
Recommendations
Communication (to be implemented within a month)
The manager should establish formal and informal communication channels, including frequent meetings, memos, official emails, frequent status reporting, and use of social media
Give personal/official number/email to employees within
Supervisors should introduce a suggestion box or use their emails to do so
Supervisors should listen more to employee needs and relay them to the manager
Interaction and networking (to be implemented in three months)
The manager should initiate team building activities
Give employees frequent feedback
Introduce collective responsibilities for teams (manager)
Leadership and people (to be done in six months)
The manager should replace the supervisors and troublesome employees after a performance review
Policy/regulation/practices/values, etc. (to be done in six months)
The manager should lead a collaborative effort by the employees to develop policies to ensure functionality
A disciplinary committee led by the manager should be establish to enforce the code (Armstrong, 2006; O'Rourke, 2012)
Conclusion
The distribution center remains one of the most important for Hayward Systems, Inc., and one that represents the diversity that the company prides itself with. However, the Center faces immense and persistent performance issues that demand drastic and urgent measures to resolve, as you should already know. High rates of errors in orders and levels of defects, not only hurt the company’s reputation/brand, but also render it vulnerable to costly legal problems. To alleviate and cure these problems, implementing measures to bolster communication, cooperation, leadership, and a good work environment would be critical.
LETTER
Operational Manager,
Hayward Healthcare Systems, Inc.
5347, Industrial Ave
Hawthorne City
7th January 2016
Re: Communication and Regulatory Changes
A recent investigation at the Center, by an external consultancy team, revealed a number of failures on the part of the company that have resulted in multiple performance issues. As you know, we have a proud and open culture here, but some of its aspects have been adjudged to breed unnecessary conflict and disruption. While we have no intention to turn away from this culture, the company has resolved to make changes to make it even better.
More communication channels have been opened to make it easier to reach (and interact with) supervisors and the manager, as well as other members of the team. Other than suggestions boxes and regular engagements, more team activities have been proposed.
Further, performance appraisal and reward systems will be instituted, as a basis for ensuring that you receive frequent feedback on your work. The company will also seek to strengthen the supervisory positions with the goal of empowering employees to ensure faster and more effective communication.
We recognize numerous gaps in our administrative processes and structure, which have resulted in difficulties for you. To this end, we have proposed the established of a formal grievance and disciplinary body, as well as a complete change to our approach to the company’s founding values, norms, and beliefs, in order to create a diverse, inclusive and successful company.
Lastly, let me say that this distribution center remains important to Hayward Healthcare Systems, in no small part because of your hard work and dedication to the company. We are greatly indebted to you, and once again, we will be looking to you for suggestions and other cooperation to make the proposed changes successful.
_____________
Operations Manager,
Hayward Healthcare Systems Distribution Center
References
Armstrong, M. (2006). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. New York: Kogan Page Publishers.
O'Rourke, J. (2012). Management Communication (5th Edition) . New York: Pearson HE, Inc.
