Asia e University

People Management Assignment

Question 1
Conflict can be viewed as clash between people with different ideas & interests.
(a) By providing some specific instances of conflict at your workplace, examine
some of the causes of conflict.
(b) Give an example of a conflict at your workplace, and explain a step by step
approach on how would you resolve it from your perspective.

Question 2
Jobs are designed deliberately and thoughtfully to reflect the demands of the changing
environment as well as organization technologies, skills abilities, and performance of its
employee. You are required to discuss with examples from your workplace on how you
would design motivating jobs for your employees.

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QUESTION 1

Definition of Conflict in workplace

Workplace conflict is a specific type of conflict that occurs in workplaces. The conflicts
that arise in workplaces may be shaped by the unique aspects of this environment,
including the long hours many people spend at their workplace, the hierarchical structure
of the organization, and the difficulties (e.g. financial consequences) that may be
involved in switching to a different workplace.
Conflict in the workplace is a normal occurrence in most organizations. Dictionary
definitions vary from calling it a sharp disagreement to opposing ideas and interests.
Conflict management expert and organizational psychologist Dr. David G. Javitch defines
it simply as tension and believes it offers benefits, as well as disadvantages, in the
workplace. Wherever people work together, conflict is likely to arise, and it presents a
challenge to which management must respond constructively.
Types
Over the years, experts have categorized workplace conflict into various types.
Interpersonal conflict includes personality clashes and difficulty working with others,
both of which can lead to the employees showing anger and exchanging negative
comments. Workplace complaints include disagreement with policies and procedures,
management decisions and individual entitlements, which give rise to conflict between
the employer or his representative and the employee.
Causes
One of the most common causes of workplace conflict is the personality clash.
Individuals all have different values and beliefs, which affects the way they approach
work and problem-solving. Clashes occur when workers have difficulty understanding or
accepting others methods. Other causes include conflicting needs, poor communication
that causes misunderstandings, scarcity of resources that results in competition between

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workers and poor performance by some employees that causes additional workload for
others.
FIVE STAGES THAT CAUSES OF CONFLICT

Conflict Process

The conflict process consists of five stages as shown in figure.

1. Potential opposition or incompatibility.
2.

Cognition and personalization.

3. Intentions.
4. Behavior.
5. Outcomes.

Potential Opposition or Incompatibility

It includes the presence of a condition that creates opportunities for conflicts to arise. The
conditions that can cause conflict are of 3 types.
Communication: Insufficient exchange of information and noise in the communication
channel are all barriers of communication and create conditions for conflicts. Potential
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for conflict increases when either too little or too much communication takes place. The
channel for communication also has an influence on the conditions causing conflict.
Structure: Size and specialization act as a force to stimulate conflict. The larger the
group, the more specialized their activities, the greater the likelihood of conflict. Tenure
and conflict have been found to be inversely related. There is increased conflict when
group members are younger and when turnover is high.
Groups within the organizations have diverse goals. E.g.: Quality control department is
concerned with improving the quality of products while marketing department is
concerned with selling large no of goods and increasing the revenue. This diversity of
goals also is a source of conflict.
Personal variables: This includes the value systems each person has and personality
characteristics each possess. Difference in value systems are a source of conflict, as they
result in disagreement between members of the group.
Cognition and Personalization
This step in the conflict process is important because it is in the step the parties decide
what the conflict is done. Awareness by one or more parties about the existence of
conditions that create opportunities for conflict to arise is called perceived conflict.
Emotional involvement in the conflict creating anxiety, frustration and enimity is called
felt conflict. Positive emotions help in finding solutions to solve conflicts while a
negative emotion enhances the conflict.
Intensions
These are the decisions to act during conflict. There are five conflict handing intensions.
They are:
a. Competing: (assertive and unco-operative): It is a desire to satisfy ones own interest
regardless of its impact on the other party. It includes desire to achieve ones own goal at
the sacrifice of others goal, attempting to convince others that your conclusion is correct
and attempting to make someone else accept the blame for the problem.
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b. Collaborating (assertive and co-operative): It is a desire to satisfy all the parties. It

includes attempting to find a win-win situation that allows both parties goals to be
achieved.
c. Avoiding: (unassertive and uncooperative): It is a desire to suppress a conflict. It
includes ignoring the conflict and avoiding others with whom one disagrees.
d. Accommodating (unassertive and cooperative): It is a willingness to place the
opponent's interest above ones own. It includes sacrificing ones goal to maintain other
party's goals.
e. Compromising: It is situation in which each party conflict is willing to give up
something. There is no clear loser or winner.
Behavior
In this stage, each party's intentions are implemented. This is an interactive stage.
Figure shows conflict behavior:

Conflict at the lower part continuum is small conflicts. Conflicts in the upper part of the
continuum are highly destructive. Strikes, riots, and wars fall in upper range.

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Outcome
The action-reaction between conflicting parties results in two kinds of outcomes.
i)

Functional outcomes: Conflict results in improved performance of the group. It

improves the quality of decisions, brings about creativity and innovations, encourage
interests and curiosity among group members.
ii)

Dysfunctional outcomes: It reduces the effectiveness of the group. It is as a result

of uncontrolled opposition. It leads to destruction of the group. It reduces group

communication and group coordination.

Resolution
Individual managers use different styles to address workplace conflicts. These styles
typically fall into one of five categories, which can be equally effective even though the
approaches are different. A confrontational approach addresses the conflict directly and
tries to force a resolution, while a compromising approach requires the parties in conflict
to negotiate and agree on common ground. A collaborative approach involves working
together to find a mutually agreeable solution. Accommodation means each side agrees to
disagree and accommodate the others view, and avoidance requires all parties to simply
avoid becoming drawn into conflict over any issues.
Prevention
Prevent workplace conflict from arising by hiring staff with balanced personality types
and by fostering a company culture based on shared values and beliefs. Establish ground
rules for all employees, such as a code of conduct and a disciplinary procedure for
contravening the code. Set priorities that enable workers to know what is expected of
them and how to achieve it. Promote effective listening to help employees develop their
awareness of others methods and viewpoints.

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Workplace conflict is bound to happen when you have a lot of employees from a variety
of different backgrounds. Conflict causes tension between employees and, if left
unaddressed, can hinder productivity. Some conflicts are preventable. Others you have no
control over. When you are experiencing conflict with another co-worker, there is a right
and wrong way to handle the situation. To put an end to the conflict, quickly identify the
source of the conflict and uproot it.
Start Within
Examine yourself first. This is always a good place to start when trying to prevent or
resolve conflict in the workplace. By having a little intrapersonal communication, you
can determine whether or not you are doing anything to contribute to the conflict. If you
find that you are doing something to contribute to the conflict, stop the behavior. By
doing so, the problem may resolve itself.
Talk About It
Speak with the other person who is involved in the conflict. Don't call her on the carpet in
front of other co-workers. Instead, meet with her one-on-one. Confronting your coworker in front of others will only result in more conflict. Ask your coworker what is
causing the conflict. It's possible that you unknowingly said or did something that
offended her. Speak calmly instead of using an aggressive tone. If it turns out that your
coworker was offended by something you said or did, apologize for the offense. Agree to
move on and let the past be the past.
Don't Gossip
When something happens that creates conflict, it can be tempting to discuss the situation
with others. Refrain from discussing the conflict with other coworkers. This is workplace
gossip, which can result in greater conflict if your coworker discovers you were talking
about her. If you are unable to put an end to the conflict by talking directly with the
involved party, discuss the matter with someone who is empowered to do something
about it.

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Speak With Management

Involve your supervisor or manager if are unable to prevent or resolve the conflict. This
is especially true if the conflict starts affecting your job performance or morale. Conflict
resolution is one of your supervisor's job responsibilities. It's not necessary to bring every
conflict to your supervisor, only conflict that interferes with your productivity or results
in a hostile working environment.

Question 2
Jobs are designed deliberately and thoughtfully to reflect the demands of the changing
environment as well as organization technologies, skills abilities, and performance of its
employee. You are required to discuss with examples from your workplace on how you
would design motivating jobs for your employees.

Job enrichment is an attempt to motivate employees by giving them the opportunity to

use the range of their abilities. It is an idea that was developed by the American
psychologist Frederick Herzberg in the 1950s. It can be contrasted to job enlargement
which simply increases the number of tasks without changing the challenge. As such job
enrichment has been described as 'vertical loading' of a job, while job enlargement is
'horizontal loading'. An enriched job should ideally contain:

A range of tasks and challenges of varying difficulties (Physical or Mental)

A complete unit of work - a meaningful task

Feedback, encouragement and communication

Job enrichment, as a managerial activity includes a three steps technique:

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1. Turn employees' effort into performance:

Ensuring that objectives are well-defined and understood by everyone. The

overall corporate mission statement should be communicated to all. Individual's
goals should also be clear. Each employee should know exactly how he/she fits
into the overall process and be aware of how important their contributions are to
the organization and its customers.

Providing adequate resources for each employee to perform well. This includes
support functions like information technology, communication technology, and
personnel training and development.

Creating a supportive corporate culture. This includes peer support networks,

supportive management, and removing elements that foster mistrust and
politicking.

Free flow of information. Eliminate secrecy.

Provide enough freedom to facilitate job excellence. Encourage and reward

employee initiative. Flextime or compressed hours could be offered.

Provide adequate recognition, appreciation, and other motivators.

Provide skill improvement opportunities. This could include paid education at

universities or on the job training.

Provide job variety. This can be done by job sharing or job rotation programmes.

It may be necessary to re-engineer the job process. This could involve redesigning
the physical facility, redesign processes, change technologies, simplification of
procedures, elimination of repetitiveness, redesigning authority structures.

2. Link employees performance directly to reward:

Clear definition of the reward is a must

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Explanation of the link between performance and reward is important

Make sure the employee gets the right reward if performs well

If reward is not given, explanation is needed

3. Make sure the employee wants the reward. How to find out?

Ask them

Use surveys( checklist, listing, questions)

Job enrichment is a type of job redesign intended to reverse the effects of tasks that are
repetitive requiring little autonomy. Some of these effects are boredom, lack of flexibility,
and employee dissatisfaction (Leach & Wall, 2004). The underlying principle is to
expand the scope of the job with a greater variety of tasks, vertical in nature, that require
self-sufficiency. Since the goal is to give the individual exposure to tasks normally
reserved for differently focused or higher positions, merely adding more of the same
responsibilities related to an employee's current position is not considered job
enrichment.
The basis for job enrichment practices is the work done by Frederick Herzberg in the
1950's and 60's, which was further refined in 1975 by Hackman and Oldham using what
they called the Job Characteristics Model. This model assumes that if five core job
characteristics are present, three psychological states critical to motivation are produced,
resulting in positive outcomes (Kotila, 2001). Figure 1 illustrates this model.

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Job enrichment can only be truly successful if planning includes support for all phases of
the initiative. Ohio State University Extension began a job enrichment program in 1992
and surveyed the participants five years later. The results, broken down into 3 subbuckets of data beyond the main grouping of advantages/disadvantages as shown in Table
1, indicate the University had not fully considered the planning and administrative
aspects of the program (Fourman and Jones, 1997). While the benefits are seemingly
obvious, programs fail not

because of a lack of benefits, but rather due to implementation problems. These problems
can include a perception of too great a cost, lack of long-term commitment of resources,
and potential job classification changes (Cunningham and Eberle, 1990).

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In order for a job enrichment program to produce positive results, worker needs and
organizational needs must be analyzed and acted upon. According to Cunningham and
Eberle (1990), before an enrichment program is begun, the following questions should be
asked:
1. Do employees need jobs that involve responsibility, variety, feedback, challenge,
accountability, significance, and opportunities to learn?
2. What techniques can be implemented without changing the job classification
plan?
3. What techniques would require changes in the job classification plan? (p.3)
When asked about the successes of a Training Generalist job enrichment program begun
in 2002, Karen Keenan, Learning Manager with Bank of America, stated the
accomplishments were, "greater than expected". The Training Generalist program has
resulted in three successful participants to date. According to Ms. Keenan, positive results
can be directly tied to a program that addressed the strategic goal of greater resource
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flexibility without adding to staff, as well as to proper planning, guidance, and feedback
for the participants. Having a voluntary program contributed as well, attracting a high
caliber of individuals eager to expand their skills and be positioned for advancement. To
date, all three Training Generalists have experienced promotions and additional
recognition while affording Ms. Keenan's team financial results and workload flexibility
it could not have otherwise achieved.
A job enrichment program can be a very effective intervention in some situations where a
Performance Technician is faced with a request for motivational training. Ralph Brown
(2004) summed it up very nicely:

Job enrichment doesn't work for everyone. Some people are very resistant
to more responsibility or to opportunities for personal growth, but
researchers report that some people they expected to resist, seized the
opportunity. Enriching jobs is a particularly effective way to develop
employees provided the jobs are truly enriched, not just more work for them
to do.

JOB DESIGN
One of the contemporary approaches to motivating employees through job design is
empowerment. The concept of empowerment extends the idea of
autonomy. empowermentThe removal of conditions that make a person powerless. may
be defined as the removal of conditions that make a person powerless.Conger, J. A., &
Kanungo, R. N. (1988). The empowerment process: Integrating theory and
practice. Academy of Management Review, 13, 471482. The idea behind empowerment
is that employees have the ability to make decisions and perform their jobs effectively if
management removes certain barriers. Thus, instead of dictating a roles, companies
should create an environment where employees thrive, feel motivated, and have
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discretion to make decisions about the content and context of their jobs. Employees who
feel empowered believe that their work is meaningful. They tend to feel that they are
capable of performing their jobs effectively, have the ability to influence how the
company operates, and that they can perform their jobs in any way they see fit, without
close supervision and other interference, These liberties enable employees to feel
powerful.Spreitzer, G. M. (1995). Psychological empowerment in the workplace:
Dimensions, measurement, and validation. Academy of Management Journal, 38, 1442
1465; Thomas, K. W., & Velthouse, B. A. (1990). Cognitive elements of empowerment:
An interpretive model of intrinsic task motivation. Academy of Management Review,
15, 666681. In cases of very high levels of empowerment, employees decide what tasks
to perform and how to perform them, in a sense managing themselves. Research has
distinguished between structural elements of empowerment
and felt empowerment. structural empowermentThe aspects of the work environment that
give employees discretion, autonomy, and enable them to do their jobs effectively. refers
to the aspects of the work environment that give employees discretion, autonomy, and the
ability to do their jobs effectively. The idea is that the presence of certain structural
factors helps empower people, but in the end empowerment is a perception. demonstrates
the relationship between structural and felt empowerment. Even in companies where line
employees are given substantial decision-making authority they are more likely to
experience empowerment. For example, at Harley Davidson an employee has the
authority to stop the production line if he sees a blemish on the product.Lustgarten, A.
(1/12/2004). Harley-Davidson. Fortune, 149, 1, 76. Leadership style is another influence
over experienced empowerment.Kark, R., Shamir, B., & Chen, G. (2003). The two faces
of transformational leadership: Empowerment and dependency. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 88, 246255. If the manager is controlling, micromanaging, and bossy,
chances are empowerment will not be possible. A companys structure has a role in
determining empowerment as well. Companies organized around teams, like the Saturn
plant of General Motors, can still empower employees, despite the lack of a traditional
hierarchy.Ford. R. C., & Fottler, M. D. (1995). Empowerment: A matter of
degree. Academy of Management Executive, 9, 2129. Access to information is often
mentioned as a key factor in empowering employees. If employees are not given
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information to make an informed decision, empowerment attempts will fail. Therefore,

the relationship between access to information and empowerment is well established.
Finally, empowering individual employees cannot occur in a bubble but instead depends
on creating a climate of empowerment throughout the entire organization.Seibert, S. E.,
Silver, S. R., & Randolph, W. A. (2004). Taking empowerment to the next level: A
multiple-level model of empowerment, performance, and satisfaction. Academy of
Management Journal, 47, 332349.Based on the ideas in Seibert, S. E., Silver, S. R., &
Randolph, W. A. (2004). Taking empowerment to the next level: A multiple-level model
of empowerment, performance, and satisfaction. Academy of Management Journal, 47,
p332349; Spreitzer, G. M. (1995). Psychological empowerment in the workplace:
Dimensions, measurement, and validation. Academy of Management Journal, 38, 1442
1465; Spreitzer, G. M. (1996). Social structural characteristics of psychological
empowerment. Academy of Management Journal, 39, 483504. Source: Based on the
ideas in Seibert, S. E., Silver, S. R., & Randolph, W. A. (2004). Taking empowerment to
the next level: A multiple-level model of empowerment, performance, and
satisfaction. The empowerment process starts with structure that leads to felt
empowerment.

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