Question

Date: May 1, 2012

Just a month ago, Troy was fired, and replaced with Jamaal, a three year veteran of the maintenance department. He had a good attitude and was eager to please. He was well known and popular throughout the plant. And, while a few of the maintained workers resented his new position, Jamaal was mostly well respected and provided good leadership.

After replacing Troy, the maintained department made huge strides—productivity was up in every area of the factory, due in large part to better run-times on nearly all of the machines.   While that is exactly what Patrick was looking for, he had been hearing reports of more in-fighting within the group. The same two maintenance workers that got into the physical fight a couple of months ago (refer to Part 6 of the case study) did it again. But, this time they didn’t defend each other. Instead, they blamed each other.

Interestingly, while conflict among the maintenance department was increasing, conflict among the leadership team was decreasing. Dramatically. Even though things were better, they were far from perfect. Quality was still a huge issue, and little improvement had been made in that area. Too, the scrap rate was through the roof—they threw away nearly as much steel as they used, leading to a 50% scrap rate. With the price of steel constantly on the rise, it was worrisome. More worrisome was the fact that much of the scrap was the result of the machines—while they were running, many of the steel cutters and steel benders had divots, pocks, and cracks that led to bad cuts. These bad cuts inevitably meant that nearly half of the pieces of steel being cut were being sent to the scrap heap—no one wanted to spend big money on a grill with a dent or chip.

In the last leadership meeting, Patrick expected that Janet and Jose would discuss the issue of scrap with Jamaal. Yet, when Patrick raised the issue in the meeting, neither spoke up. Patrick wondered why.

Answer the following questions:

1. First, describe your gut reaction to this scenario. What do you think?

2. Describe the conflict within the maintenance group. Why does conflict like that happen? What does the text say about it, and what are its antecedents and consequences?

3. Do you think that there is conflict within the leadership team? Describe it and explain why scenarios like that happen. What does the text say about it, and what are its antecedents and consequences?

4. Based upon what you have learned from the text, what recommendations do you have for Patrick. Be specific.

Answer 1

While the conflict between the senior management is going down, but on the worker level, it is going up. I think, there is a lack of interpersonal guidance to those workers. They need to be taught about behaving with each other and co-operate with each other. Also, the organization is not maintaining its equipment due to which it is not able to attain lean manufacturing. Having a faulty machine is the main cause of waste increase and cost increase.

The conflict about the maintenance group is because of the difference in opinion. They also fought 6 months ago and the same happened this time. Conflict like this happens because of:

• Misleadership.
• Unjust care.
• Job positions undefined.
• The curriculum is insufficient.
• Lack of communication.
• Bad working conditions.
• Lack of a level playing field.
• Harassment and bullying.
• Major inventory adjustments, corporate maps, evaluations, or payment schemes.

The consequence of workplace conflicts are:

Research undertaken by CPP, Inc., called, "Workplace Tension and How Companies Should Exploit It To Succeed," showed that U.S. workers average nearly three hours a week coping with workplace tension. That is about $359 billion in paid hours, or 385 million working days a year. That is a great deal of money for an unproductive time commitment. few other consequences are:

• Diminished efficiency at work.
• Morale Poor Employee.
• Revenue Deficit.
• Misunderstandings and bad coordination.

Yes, there is indeed a conflict among the leadership team. They are not agreeing on a common matter and also they are not focusing on the main issues that the company is facing rather than they decided to stay put. This shows there is a conflict among them.

Conflict at the leadership level happens because of:

• Clash in personalities
• Competitiveness
• Two-faced colleagues

Consequences of clashes at the senior management level are:

• Non-cooperation among the various functional groups
• Lack of ownership
• increase of waste and resources
• increased fight among the workers at the ground level.

Recommendations for Patrick are:

• ask them separately for the issues
• If they are not replying then emphasize on the question and ask for a solution
• take the issue to a senior management level only if necessary.