Thread Prompt: Choose 1 business issue such as work teams, decision-making, conflict, power,
communication etc. from your own professional work experience or peer-reviewed journal
articles. Apply a total of 2 different concepts (such as evidence based decision-making (EBDM),
forms of conflict, political tactics in the organization, etc.) from Chapters 9–13 of the Kinicki &
Fugate textbook to the issue you are discussing. Relate the chosen chapter concepts from your
reading to the business issue in a way that demonstrates understanding of each concept. Review
the Discussion Board Forums instructions document and grading rubric (found in the Assignment
Instructions folder) for detailed assignment requirements.
Submit your thread by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Monday of Module/Week 6.
Oriana Davis
BMAL 500- D02
DB 3
Communication
An issue that is very relevant at my job is a lack of communication. We are in a very traditional
business setting and every level only knows what they need to know. The people that are in
positions of power have made decisions about our group without getting our input or realizing
how it will affect us in the long run. A big part of our miscommunication is organizational
politics. According to Kinicki and Fugate (2016) Organizational politics are intentional acts of
influence to enhance or protect self-interest of individuals or groups that are not endorsed by or
aligned with those of the organization. (p. 420) We have supervisors that only look out for
themselves by doing things like creating projects that their peers don’t know about, holding
people back from applying for promotions with scare tactics, and not following the proper chain
of command when it comes to personnel issues. That has created a lack of trust between
management and the rest of the team. “Ethical leadership largely influences followers’ behaviors
by establishing ethical standards and communicating them to employees. Leaders are considered
ethical to the extent that their decisions are made for altruistic instead of selfish reasons.”
(Kacmar, Andrews, Harris & Tepper, 2013) Not communicating will have employees shut down
and eventually want to leave before they see if an issue will get better.
Another issue with communication is that the current management team doesn’t always look at
the team as individuals but as a whole. Fiedler’s contingency model helps to explain how a
leadership team can utilize the team to the best of their abilities. There is not a good balance
between the three dimensions of the situational control. Like I mentioned earlier there is a lack of
trust between the leaders and the team members because the group feels as if everyone should be
put into a box and work one way. Like Fischer (2012) discussed leaders have to be flexible and
willing to work with every member of the group. A leader should interact with their team and not
coach, train, or provide feedback in the same manner every time. By adjusting to understand the
context of the situation and the skills that their employees offer it will help them become better
leaders and the employees feel valued. To be an effective leader you should be able to meet the
needs of your team not the team meeting your needs.
“Without wise leadership, a nation falls; there is safety in having many advisers.” (Proverbs
11:14) This scripture speaks to me because we have great people on our leadership team, and we
have to ability to do great things as a team but we are always in meeting to discuss other
meetings and we are not developing our teams. Often times they give feedback just to say they
give feedback and not to help the team. Our CEO also boasts about being “Own Grown” but
there are very few positions that they look to hire from without our smaller more specialized
office. We are always able to identify the areas of opportunity for our representatives but not for
ourselves. We all have room to change and open up the lines of communication to allow the team
to feel like they are a part of what happens to them would be a good start.
References
Kacmar, K.M., Andrews, M., Harris, J., Tepper, B. (2013) Ethical Leadership and Subordinate
Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Organizational Politics and the Moderating Role
of Political Skill. Journal of Business Ethics.115(1) p. 33-44.
Kinicki, A., & Fugate, M. (2016). Organizational behavior: A practical, problem-solving.
McGraw-Hill.
Ficsher, K. (2012) Lesson Six: Leadership (audio presentation) Retrieved from
https://learn.liberty.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-20060742-dt-content-rid-
183967475_1/courses/BMAL500_D02_201740/BMAL500_D02_201740_ImportedCont
ent_20171016083248/Module%285%29/Week%206%20%E2%80%94%20Leadership%
20and%20Power/Reading%20%26%20Study/Lesson%206/6-Leadership/index.html
Reply Prompt: For your peer replies, respond to 2 classmates, adding to their posts with
demonstrated knowledge of the concepts. Review the Discussion Board Forums instructions
document and grading rubric (found in the Assignment Instructions folder) for detailed
assignment requirements.
Submit your replies by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Thursday of the same module/week as your thread.
In the workplace, there are a number of issues that can arise, some more than others. In my
workplace, there are two that seem to stand out more than others: communication and power. The
interesting thing is that they often play off of each other. Communication, or lack thereof, could
be a way to hoard power. This week a guest pastor spoke at our leadership meeting. One of the
things that he said was that often we hoard power because we are afraid of being unneeded. We
need people to want us and come to us. (Adrian Crawford, December 3, 2017). In the workplace,
we will often hoard power by not fully communicating in an effort to keep ourselves relevant to
the conversation. We have to learn to improve communication and empower each other by
listening to each other, learning how to deal with conflict, and realizing that we are not
diminishing our self-worth by empower each other.
The first step to improving communication and empowering each other is learning to listen
effectively. We need to be fully engaged and turn off distractions in order to focus on the
individual we are listening to. Kinicki and Fugate (2016, p. 303) suggest that to learn how to
listen more effectively we have to learn to show respect, listen from the start, be mindful, keep
quiet, ask questions, paraphrase and summarize, remember what is said, and involve your body.
The point is to get your mind and body on the same page and listen to understand. We also have
to work to not become defensive when we feel that we are being attacked. This is very important
when we are dealing with conflict.
Learning how to deal with conflict is the next step to improving communication and empowering
each other. During conflict our defenses automatic go up, each thing said is a direct personal
attack, but conflict is not necessarily bad. "Functional conflict is characterized by consultative
interactions, a focus on the issues, mutual respect, and useful give and take." (Kinicki and
Fugate, 2016, p. 333) We have to be willing to disagree, but work through those disagreements.
Often using the dialectic method is a good way to do this. "The dialectic method calls for
managers to foster a structured debate of opposing viewpoints prior to making a decision."
(Kinicki and Fugate, 2016, p. 349) Having a structured debate opens the floor for anyone to
provide a contribute to the debate fostering an environment of collaboration.
The last step to improving communication and empowering each other is simply to realize that
by empowering each other we are not diminishing our own self-worth. Kinicki and Fugate (2016,
p. 411) define empowerment as "efforts to enhance employee performance, well-being, and
positive attitudes." Empowerment is about transferring information to others so that they are able
to capably and confidently complete tasks. Tuckey, Bakker, and Dollard (2012) explains it in that
"empowering leadership essentially involves encouraging and facilitating employees to lead and
manage themselves." Empowerment is not a means of losing power. It actually increases the
more we are willing to pass along to another person.
James 1:9 says that we need to be "quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry."
(New International Version) This is how we improve communication and empower each other.
We need to work together and stop worrying about who is getting credit. The goal is to work as a
unit and not be so consumed by the need to have our hand in every part of the task.
Danielle,
I enjoyed your post and I do have to agree with power and communication. There is a huge lack
of communication when it comes to people in positions of power. I often see in my current job
that people in authoritative roles use their power to advantage and hoard information to help
make themselves look more valuable. However, in the long it makes them look like a bad
manager and hurts the team as a whole. All five bases of power can be used positively and
negatively and “expert power over those who need such knowledge or information.” (Kinicki
&Fugate, 2016) is one I see abused often. Communicating is something that we have to do in all
aspects of our lives and not sharing your knowledge with others to boost yourself up doesn’t help
you to be an effective leader. “But true wisdom and power are found in God; counsel and
understanding are his.” (Job 12:13 NLT)
“Beginning in the 1970s, OB specialist realized conflict had both positive and negative
outcomes.” (Kinicki & Fugate, 2016) Conflict is also a part of communication, it is a good thing
because conflict can lead to change. Often times conflict can be seen as a negative because you
are not in agreeance but effective leadership allows all sides to be heard. Fischer (2012)
discusses positive outcomes of conflict drawing the team closing together and promotes positive
group work.
Kinicki, A., & Fugate, M. (2016). Organizational behavior: A practical, problem-solving.
McGraw-Hill.
Fischer, K. (2012) Lesson Seven - Power, Conflict, & Negotiation (audio presentation) Retrieved
from https://learn.liberty.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-20060744-dt-content-rid-
183967608_1/courses/BMAL500_D02_201740/BMAL500_D02_201740_ImportedCont
ent_20171016083248/Module%286%29/Week%206%20%E2%80%94%20Leadership%
20and%20Power/Reading%20%26%20Study/Lesson%207/7-
Power_Conflict_Negotiation/index.html
Conflict is when an individual believes his or her interests are being opposed or negatively
affected by another individual or individuals. In the reading, functional and dysfunctional are the
two types of conflict that are mentioned and explained. Functional is usually mentioned within
the management circle of an organization and is generally positive. Functional conflict brings
about consultative interactions and focuses attention on an issue that needs to be rectified. It
allows workers to oppose certain perspectives and present other ideas. Dysfunctional conflict
tends to threaten an organization or business and is believed to be negative. After reading
“Volkswagen: The scandal Explained”, I was able to deduce that the Volkswagen emission
system is a perfect example of the two types of conflict. The suggestion of placing the faulty
emission system within Volkswagen vehicles was a functional conflict for a period of time. It
gave consumers a product and made Volkswagen a profit. Volkswagen sold just south of half a
million vehicles in just the United States and hundreds of thousands more internationally
(Hotten, 2015). This made the vehicle company millions of dollars. However, when the car was
tested, they found that the car emitted forty times the pollution amount of what is allowed within
the Clean Air Act. The emission system was now a dysfunctional conflict because of several
reasons. Firstly, it endangers it’s consumers and individuals that don’t own a Volkswagen product
simply because of the dangerous amounts of pollution. It also influences individuals to form
negative opinions of the organization. The scandal also set the company back millions if not
billions of dollars, and this does not include possible lawsuits against them. This scandal also
shows use of political tactics. These tactics usually include intentional acts of influence to
enhance or protect the self interest of individuals or groups that are not endorsed by or align with
those of the organization (Kinicki & Fugate, 2016, pg. 420). There are nine frequently used
political tactics, but within this scandal, there were only four that really made themselves known.
The first tactic was cultivating a support network both inside and outside the organization.
Support inside the organization came from the workers and support outside of the organization
would come from the consumers or customers. The next tactic used was getting prior support
And building commitment via participation. Another used tactic was interpreting or enforcing
rules to serve one’s own interests. This tactic was shown when the company allowed its
engineers to install faulty in mission systems within the Volkswagen vehicles. The last tactic it
that made itself known within the scandal was using information as a political tool (Week 6
Presentation). The company took the public’s need for vehicles and transportation and turned it
in a way to make money without having to put in real work. In the Bible, Philippians 2:4 clearly
states that we should not look out for our own personal interest but we should look out for the
interest of others around us. Volkswagen put the community and society around them in danger
even if it was not intentional. They wanted to make a profit and ethically there’s nothing wrong
with that. But they allowed greed and materialism to cloud their judgment and simultaneously
changed the judgments of others.
Sandra
Your post was very informative and I liked the way you related it to the Volkswagen scandal
from a few years ago. I also read about how underhanded the whole situation was and how so
many people were deceived by the popular automobile brand. “Their lives became full of every
kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior,
and gossip.” (Romans 1:29 NLT) Volkswagen was in so deep that they started to believe their
own lies and continued to use that to their advantage and make money. The people in positions of
power used their influence and knowledge to approve a product that was not safe for the
environment and people. Part of what I remember from the scandal is how some of the engineers
knew that there were issues with the tests in relation to the emissions but their superiors used the
six stages of persuasion to their advantage. Kinicki and Fugate (2016, p. 418) list the six stages
of persuasion as liking, reciprocity, social proof, consistency, authority and scarcity. Examining
each one of those steps shows how they all played a part in helping to deceive the government,
other executives and the public. Fischer (2012) discussed in his presentation about power and
authority and how as Christians we should never use our power in a way that would step outside
the bounds of God. While we as Christians know we not only obey the authority of our bosses,
we also have to answer to a higher power and the men and women at Volkswagen had to have
had a moral dilemma dealing with the deception.
References
Kinicki, A., & Fugate, M. (2016). Organizational behavior: A practical, problem-solving.
McGraw-Hill.
Fischer, K. (2012) Lesson Seven - Power, Conflict, & Negotiation (audio presentation) Retrieved
from https://learn.liberty.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-20060744-dt-content-rid-
183967608_1/courses/BMAL500_D02_201740/BMAL500_D02_201740_ImportedCont
ent_20171016083248/Module%286%29/Week%206%20%E2%80%94%20Leadership%
