Introduction
Conflict identification and resolution are big challenges for the management of companies, especially when conducting global business operations. Employee diversity emerges due to different cultural backgrounds and perception of work. The employee-management conflict can be observed in different organizations. Obviously, there are several factors, which cause the conflict, and the top management, playing through an appropriate role, should come up with an effective conflict resolution. Early identification of conflict is necessary for the company to sustain the business process. The management of the company can use different conflict resolution steps. When proposing the solution, it seems pertinent to create the win-win situation for parties (Baack, 2017).
Describe a conflict within an organization or team with which you are familiar.
In Wal-Mart, the conflict between management and employees is in the limelight. The conflict emerged due to the long working hours; employees are compelled to work extra hours to make money. Many employees in this organization are not willing to work extra, as they want to spend time with families. Instead of doing extra shift, they want to go home, and the main resistance emerges from the management. Also, employees are intending to have some increments, as Wal-Mart is just providing the option of extra working hours to get more. It emerges as a conflict between employee and management, and it impaired the labor practices in this company (Jit, Sharma, & Kawatra, 2016). According to the management of the company, Wal-Mart is offering a decent pay to employees and long working hours are justifying this policy or decisions. Employees think that they are mistreated by the management due to unfair labor practices. Many employees have been converted due to this conflict. It is an example of inter-group conflict (Wal-Mart Stores Inc, 2015).
Identify and describe the source(s) and level of the conflict and support with evidence.
The source of conflict is important to identify to come up with an effective conflict resolution. In this organization, the source of this inter-group conflict is the controversial labor practices. Unfortunately, the human resource management of the company is not interlarding with modern HR trends. It is also the main reason for different perceptions and opinion about the work practices people are comparing them with other organization in the retail industry, which makes the management often company quite controversial. Another source of conflict in this company is the behavior or the management of employees, as employees are forced to do extra shifts. Even without a will, employees have to work extra shifts. These are two prominent sources of conflicts, and when proposing the solutions, these sources are to be kept in mind (Jit, Sharma, & Kawatra, 2016).
The level of conflict is inter-group, as management and employees are two groups, containing the controversial labor practices or work & compensation policies. The evidence of this level of conflict was a recent protest by a group of employees against Wal-Mart labor practices (Mathews, 2014). The representative of this group, Linda Haluska, stated that due to long working hours, she was struggling to spend time with family. Also, another working mother at Wal-Mart stated that she did not have enough paid even working in extra shifts to meet living expenses. The group of the management, on the other hand, was quite assertive in expanding the career and growth opportunities with facts and figures. The management group argued that Wal-Mart employees are provided education, health and retirement opportunities this group has tried to justify the extra work and decent pay (Mathews, 2014).
Describe the steps taken to resolve the conflict or, if it is an ongoing conflict, propose steps to resolve the conflict.
There are several steps, which have been taken by the management of the company to resolve the conflict. Obviously, the top management of the company had to pay a prominent role in this conflict resolution process. The conflict emerged between the group of employees and human resource team, and top HR management had to resolve it through considering several steps (Baack, 2017).
Discussion in a respectful manner
The management of the company played a role of arbitrator to resolve the conflict. The first step, which was taken by the management, was respectfully discussing the issues. Interestingly, the Wal-Mart management intended to respect the opinions of both groups, which helped it to understand the situation in an effective and meaningful manner. It did not seem a debate between two groups, as the management met with these groups separately to find the real issues derive insights accordingly (Rachal, Griffin, & Rea, 2014).
Clarifying the issue
The second step that the management of the company depicted was a clarification of the issue. It seems to get the heart of the conflict. The most important thing in the particular step is to enable both groups to agree on the same disagreement. It eliminated the confusion and clarified the disagreement. When clarifying issues, the management met with workers and management to derive needs that were not fulfilled. The management intended to gather much information and ask different questions from both parties (Green, 2016).
Creating a Common Goal
Also, the third step in this conflict resolution process was creating goals for both parties. It was the important step for both, the HR policy makers and the workers. With the intervention of the arbitrator, both parties agreed on the same goals. Importantly, the management investigates the commonalities between these groups. Both parties wanted to end the conflict, and it was the common thing (Alderson, 2015).
Discussing ways
The management had to clear or develop ways, which were to be taken to meet this common goal. Workers wanted the work flexibility, and the company wanted the quality work. To meet the management brainstormed different ideas and thoughts. The management exhausted all options through this brainstorming process. The common goal was to enhance the visibility of quality work and decent pay, and both parties were suggesting accordingly (Green, 2016).
Determining barriers
In this step, the manager determines the barriers to meeting the common goals. For Instance, in this conflict, the prominent barrier was the financial condition of the company, as immediately as the company could not afford the spikes in the payroll system. On the other hand, the barrier could emerge in employee resistance increase of any change in schedule (Baack, 2017).
Agreeing on the best solution
It was the crucial step that the conflict management considered. Employee group decided to sustain the work instead of protest without any extra hour. On the other hand, the Wal-Mart intended to hire enough employees in different stores and inventories to keep in balance and reduce the workload. It also justified the decent pay for employees. In this process, the management intended to remove the root of this conflict. The increasing number of employees in the stores was an elimination of the cause. Getting to the cause of the conflict is necessary for the conflict resolution process, as it can help the management focus on different employee and management concepts such as employee diversity, motivation, and management behavior (Wal-Mart Stores Inc, 2015).
Acknowledgement & Imposing Responsibilities
In this final step, both groups in the company agreed and accepted the solution. Interestingly, it was a win-win situation for both parties. On the other hand, the conflict management imposed new responsibilities on employees and management. Both were agreed on fulfilling these responsibilities to sustain the work process in an effective manner (Baack, 2017).
Describe a minimum of three conflict outcomes that could reasonably occur as a result of the conflict resolution. Support your reasoning for each possible outcome.
Conflict outcomes that might rationally take place as a consequence of the conflict resolution as under
Work sustainability
The first outcome, which has been observed after this process, was the word sustainability. Interestingly, employees decided to get back to work and sustain the work process to meet the goals of the company. It was good with the perspective of both the management and employees. Relative to demand of customers in the retail market, work sustainability was prominent outcomes. Both parties agreed to end the conflict, and it enabled the sustainability or work in different departments (Jit, Sharma, & Kawatra, 2016).
Employee satisfaction
The most important thing for the conflict management is to satisfy both parties. However, employee satisfaction was in the best interest of the company, as due to the satisfaction of employees in the company, it was a great change to retain experienced and skillful employees. Employee satisfaction was a prominent outcome of this conflict resolution process, as employees were motivated to work effectively along with a good behavior moreover, it also shaped the behavior of the management with employees, which also resulted in the employee satisfaction (Green, 2016).
Better labor practices
Another prominent outcome as a result of this conflict resolution was better labor practices by the Wal-Mart management. For Instance, the management changed the employee policies regarding work, which enabled the good reputation in the competitive retail industry. It depicted intentions of the management regarding employee behavior, satisfaction, compensation and worker flexibility, which improved the internal process of the company (Mathews, 2014).
Conclusion
Conflict resolution is a need for the company, and the management should try to adopt some effective steps in this process. In the end, it is to conclude that Wal-Mart survived due to a workable process of conflict resolution. Due to employee diversity, contradiction may emerge with the passage of the time. Conflict resolution is not a complicated process for the management. However, the focus is required to have the best result. The successful implementation of all steps ensures the successful conflict resolution, and the company can experience the expected outcomes, which are beneficial for a long run.
References
Alderson, K. (2015). Conflict management and resolution in family-owned businesses: A practitioner focused review. Journal of Family Business Management; Bingley, 5(2), 140-156.
Baack, D. (2017). Organizational behavior (2 ed.). [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://ashford.content.edu
Green, B. (2016). Conflict Resolution Within Families Can Be A Prescription For Conflict Resolution In Organizations. Allied Academies International Conference. Academy of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict. Proceedings; Arden, 21(1), 16.
Jit, R., Sharma, C. S., & Kawatra, M. (2016). Servant leadership and conflict resolution: a qualitative study. International Journal of Conflict Management; Bowling Green, 27(4), 591-612.
Mathews, C. (2014, June 1). Wal-Mart’s woes just keep piling up. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2014/06/01/walmart-labor-woes/
Rachal, R., Griffin, P., & Rea, M. C. (2014). Labor and Employment and ERISA Class Actions After Wal-Mart and Comcast: A Defense Perspective. ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law; Chicago, 29(2), 319-347.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (2015). Walmart helps women to take control of their lives: Supermarket trains more than 60,000 working in the factories of its suppliers. Human Resource Management International Digest; Bradford, 23(2), 16-18.
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