Conflict solving is never easy, especially when it involves a large sum of money and concerns a number of people. However, with the help of specific approaches towards conflict solving and the existing theories on conflicts within an organization, one can possibly be able to analyze the emerging conflicts and learn valuable lessons from them after they have been successfully solved.
In a retrospective, old conflicts can be a perfect way to render a specific message and to draw certain conclusions regarding a specific situation. That said, it would be a good idea to consider the conflict known as the U.S. Harvest Scandal with Stan Curtis being the founder of the enterprise and at the same time the criminal.
It seems that to analyze the conflict in the given case, the neo-classical perspective suits most, since the conflict within the USA Harvest organization can be related to social ones. Considering the problem closer, one will inevitably come to the conclusion that it stemmed from the lack of cohesion within the organization.
Considered one of the Kentucky’s most powerful feeding organizations, Kentucky Harvest seems to have been under the absolute control of its owner for too long; as the 2010 report says, “Although the emergency food network offers a necessary support for many families in Louisville, its size highlights a failing in our local food system” (The state of food: A snapshot of food access in Louisville, 2010, 4).
Therefore, it can be considered that the organization’s key focus was the quality of performance, while the quality of relationships between its members was left out of the scope of the company’s managers.
Another problem of the Kentucky Harvest, which might have led to its downfall, is the inconsistency of the organizational culture and the lack of emphasis on the corporate values.
While the company does state that its key goal is to provide enough food for all those in need and claim that its members “really got into it from a competitive standpoint” (UFPS Newsroom, 2006), it is clear that the company lacks a cohesive approach towards establishing organizational behavior norms.
Judging by the fact that the swindler was also the founder of the organization, it must be admitted that preventing the catastrophe from happening would have been extremely difficult. The big decisive point in the given case was whether Curtis was planning the con from the very start.
If the whole USA Harvest enterprise was meant to be the greatest con in the history of the USA then one has to admit that the attempts of the organization members to prevent the conflict from taking place would have been futile. Therefore, it can be considered that once the USA Harvest organization had established the principles of transparency as the basis for its organizational strategy, the failure would have been avoided.
Hence, the USA Harvest case can be regarded as a lesson in developing the right leadership strategy, as well as the strategy on facing complexities in both organizational and production process issues, such as weather conditions (Lee & Herschman, 2012), a reasonable approach to conflicts within the organization and an appropriate leadership strategy instead of the authoritative one would have made a great difference.
A notorious issue, the USA Harvest case is still worth remembering for the sake of the lessons that the U.S. business society has learned.
Reference List
Lee, C. & Herschman, D. (2012). Soybean green stem syndrome complicates Kentucky harvest. Web.
The state of food: A snapshot of food access in Louisville (2010). Web.
UFPS Newsroom (2006). UFPC contributes 5,000 pounds of food toward Kentucky Harvest goal.