Background
Workplace conflicts arising from working in teams and communication breakdown; seemed to be the main challenge of BMC Co’s clients.
Conflict can occur in any organization when employees with different backgrounds and priorities work together. Conflict can be expressed in numerous ways such as insults, noncooperation, bullying, and anger. Its causes can range from personality clashes and misunderstood communication to organizational mismanagement.
The negative effects of workplace conflict can include work disruptions, decreased productivity, project failure, absenteeism, turnover, and termination. Emotional stress can be both a cause and an effect of workplace conflict. Heightened tension over conflicting political views may be one cause of being treated rudely at work at least once a week. Most conflicts are between an employee and his/her immediate manager.
Experts offer several causes of workplace conflict, including:
- Personality differences.
- Workplace behaviors regarded by some co-workers as irritating.
- Unmet needs in the workplace.
- Perceived inequities of resources.
- Unclarified roles in the workplace.
- Competing for job duties or poor implementation of a job description—for example, placing a non-supervisory employee in an unofficial position of “supervising” another employee.
- A systemic circumstance such as a workforce slowdown, a merger or acquisition, or a reduction in force.
- Mismanagement of organizational change and transition.
- Poor communication, including misunderstood remarks and comments taken out of context.
- Differences over work methods or goals or differences in perspectives attributable to age, sex, or upbringing.
Scenario:
You are a Consultant of BMC Co.BMC Co’s Consultants are required to visit their client’s office, observe their operations, speak to their staff, and in the process, collect a set of data, and compile their case notes.
The data that the Consultant has collected will then aid in his/her findings and analysis of the client’s business (i.e areas of strengths, for improvements, that are ineffective or inefficient, etc) before he/she can make appropriate recommendations(strategies/steps/actions for employers/ managers) to the client to improve their business operations and be more effective.
Consultants are required to compile a business report to document his/her task at the client’s office. The business report needs to be submitted to the respective client’s Chief Executive Officer. CEOs are usually very busy.
