Conflict Resolution

BALANCING PRIORITIES 7

Negotiation and Conflict Resolution

Michelle Freeman

Purdue University Global

GB580M3

Professor, Pricilla Aaltonen

June 1, 2021

In this assessment I will identify three employee conflict situations observed with the management staff of the Turul Winery within the FLIGBY simulation and discuss resolution options. Overall, the simulation guides the participant through various problems then provides feedback on the actions taken. The FLIGBY game and the required reading material provided many suggestions and procedures which can be used as a guide which will be reflected in this assessment.

Conflicts

There are numerous conflicts within the FLIGBY simulation at the Turul Winery amongst the management team. To streamline the Winery’s mission, vision, and values the general manager experiences resistance because the team wants to go in different directions.

Alex and Rebecca

One conflict is with Alex, the chief winemaker, who feels that the focus should be on the premium brands rather than cheaper wines. Rebecca, the sales manager, disagrees with Alex and thinks that the winery should indeed focus on larger sales for the cheaper wines.

Rebecca and Ellen

The second conflict exists between Rebecca and Ellen, the hospitality manager. Rebecca feels that Ellen has nothing to offer that would move the winery forward. During the arrival of the management team to the meeting called to discuss the company’s mission statement, Rebecca verbally expresses her opposition to Ellen being included and to Ellen as she enters the room.

Rebecca and Larry

The third conflict I will discuss is the one that exist between Rebecca and Larry. Rebecca thinks that Larry is abdicating his responsibility as the assistant winemaker by not being present for a prescheduled customer meeting. Larry feels that is important for him to be able to support his wife through her difficult pregnancy.

Motivation

Both Rebecca and Alex expressed substantial logic behind their quality versus quantity argument. Alex feels that because he has a great amount of knowledge and experience in making wine at Turul he is somehow predominantly responsible for them winning so many awards for their high-end wines. He wants to move forward but also wants to maintain tradition. On the other hand, Rebecca is motivated by producing larger quantities of less expensive wine to help increase revenue and market share.

The motivation behind Rebecca being adamant about Ellen not being included in the decision-making process is mainly because she wants to be in complete control. The behavior she displays is an indication that she does not value Ellen’s contribution to the winery and feels that she offers nothing to move the winery in the direction it needs to go. Ellen feels that she is an important part of the winery’s team and has a lot to offer. She expresses the importance of her many years of experience as the winery’s hospitality manager and is motivated by her vast knowledge of the employees and the surrounding community.

Larry’s motivation for not wanting to stay with Rebecca for the customer’s sales meeting is that his wife may be in labor and does not want to miss the birth of his child. Rebecca’s motivation is that if Larry is not available, she will have no choice but to have Alex attend. This will place limitations on her being able to generate revenue from sales made to the customer with the lower grade wines.

Negotiation Plan – Rebecca and Alex

I will be discussing a plan for negotiating a resolution for the conflict between Rebecca and Alex. The conflict between Rebecca and Alex is based on quantity versus quality. The type of conflict between Alex and Rebecca is employee-employee conflict. Source for the above? Rebecca wants the company to focus on quantity by focusing on more sales of cheaper wines while Alex wants the company to focus on premium brands than cheaper wines. The conflict resolution that will help the two conflicting parties reach an agreement is through collaboration. According to the conflict resolution model by Thomas-Kilmann (2008), collaboration strategy seeks to find a solution that entirely satisfies the concerns of all parties involved, in this case Alex and Rebecca. The Thomas-Kilmann model identifies two dimensions people fall into when choosing a conflict resolution strategy: cooperativeness and assertiveness (Thomas, 2008). Cooperativeness involves taking action to satisfy the needs of others while assertiveness involves taking action to satisfy one’s needs (Thomas, 2008). In the case of Rebecca and Alex, emphasizing areas where the conflicting parties agree can bring a faster resolution of the conflict. If one side can be viewed as wining, showing what is in it for the losing side can be an effective way of securing their buy-in. In this case, both Alex and Rebecca would be required to bring forward their reasoning as to why each thinks that his or her opinion should be considered and not the other. For example, why Alex thinks that high premium brands is better than more sales of cheaper wines, as proposed by Rebecca.

Task List

Before the start of the negotiation for the agreement, Alex and Rebecca will be required to carry out several tasks. The tasks include: Identify areas of disagreement, identify how important their desires are and research on the impacts of their proposed options and the impacts they have on the company. Each party will be required to conduct market research to gather facts on the impacts their proposal will have to the business both in short term and long term. This will include the market niche that cheaper and more expensive wines will target. The research will also focus on the profits that each proposal will bring to the company in both long-term and short-term. This information will help set the basis for reaching into an agreement. The reason as to why the company is in business is to serve as many customers as possible and to maximize on profits. Therefore, the research findings will help both parties settle in the proposal that attracts more customers and maximizes on the profits. For example, if the premium brand wines brings in more profits to the company than the cheaper wines, then Rebecca will have to agree with Alex on his proposal of focusing on quality over quantity and vice versa. Alex will research why he feels that premium wine brand is better than cheaper wines. On the other hand Rebecca will research why she feels focusing of more sales of cheap wines is important for the business. Both will have a period of one week to complete their research and present the finding to the general manager. The general manger will then evaluate both findings and give reasons to both Alex and Rebecca on the findings that seem feasible to the company.

Overcoming Challenges

A major challenge that might arise in the conflict resolution is if either of the parties or both are assertive (Fisher, Ury, & Patton, 1991). This means that their actions and opinions are aimed at satisfying their needs. For instance, Alex, who is chief winemaker may want the company to focus on premium brands over cheap wines because of his personal reasons and not for the benefit of the company, the same is the case for Rebecca. To solve this challenge in the conflict resolution process, both parties will need to evaluate how important their desires are against the benefit of the company. They will need to consider the consequences of choosing to be more assertive. To reach to an agreement, both parties will need to identify specific points of disagreement and work towards finding a common ground (Srividya & Basu, 2015). Furthermore, both Alex and Rebecca will need to be encouraged to view conflict as an opportunity for growth and to serve for the good of the company and not for their personal agendas.

It’s a good paper. Just clean up the grammatical and punctuation errors, etc. Resubmit for a grade.

References

Fisher, R., Ury, W., & Patton, B. (1991). Getting to yes: Negotiating agreement without giving in. New York, N.Y: Penguin Books. 7-42.

Srividya, N., & Basu, R. (2015). Conflicts between employee and employee and management in private organisations. Anvesha, 8(4),14-27.

Thomas, K. W. (2008). Thomas-kilmann conflict mode. TKI Profile and Interpretive Report, 1- 11.