Case Study

Title: Role of Effective Communication in An Organization

Case Brief

Workplace dispute, because of internal promotion that took place due to the
shifting of operational head to another branch and this case made various good things
about the role of effective communication at each and every level within the organization.

Description of the Problem

Harry, James and the team leader have been working in a local service center
sharing the same office premise for many years which turned out the professional
relationship among the colleagues into a very close companionship. After these seven
years of strong companionship, there comes a day when existing operational head of the
agency was transferred to another branch creating vacancy for manager operations in this
particular branch. After a deep discussion in an official meeting about the same, it was
decided that James would be promoted to this particular profile which gave rise to an
unwanted dispute among the two close friends, Herry and James. The team leader, could
not be promoted and therefore only these two people were there who can be considered
appropriate for this particular designation of operational head.

Harry and James have been very close friends and professional work colleagues
since many years but this turning point of their life changed the feelings and bonding they
were sharing with each other. This was not the actual tension on official grounds, actual
dispute aroused at that point of time when James, being an operational head, introduced
a new policy which made no sense to the team members and just increased their existing
workload. Although team members were not allowed to question upon any of the policies
being made by operational head but Harry, being a close friend, lost his temper. It was
literally the biggest deal for the team leader, to identify the spark that ignited this
disagreement and find out the most appropriate solution that can resolve the conflict and
help these two people regain the sense of friendship for each other.
The Solution of the Problem

The team leader and companion of both the parties involved in dispute could not
take any legal action against any of the parties and therefore decided to go for an informal
communication method called mediation. Mediation can be considered a better option to
sort out this dispute as the two individuals were good friends before the promotion and
formal procedures of conflict resolution may cause further harm to the relationship. For
this reason, mediation seems to be a genuine alternative and moral action in which
disputing parties work with a neutral third party to resolve their disputes. In this process,
the team leader helped both the parties to find a common ground with the aim of dealing
with unrealistic expectations in an effective manner and regain the sense of friendship and
it worked out when the final outcomes were extremely positive. After this individual and
joint communication sessions, both Herry and James started respecting each others
opinions as Herry realized that James was also opposed to the policy of senior
management but was under managerial pressure to implement it (the new policies)
regardless of any positive or negative outcomes.
The Result/Conclusion

From this event of dealing with organizational conflict or where legality and morality
involved, many good things showed up about the role and significance of effective
communication at each and every phase of organizational activity. This situation shows
that the personal relationships among employees are also sometimes affected by the
decisions that are taken on the senior management level which can be only be sorted out
with the help of strong leadership skills and tactics. Each and every leader sometimes has
to live in challenging times and it is very essential at that time to be moral while making
each and every choice. Although morality does not work out in all the circumstances, but
a leader has to keep in mind the moral values so as to become an ideal leader. In the
above case, the conflict was resolved by applying an alternative method of conflict
resolution keeping in mind the moral values and it ultimately succeeded in effective
management of workplace conflict.