Evaluation of Team’s Situation and processes
Julie Mok graduated with a bachelor degree in business administration, and got her first job in ASACURA International Company where she was introduced to a team that she would be working in. However, her new team members were dominant, since they had worked together for a long time and did not seem to respect Julie. They also lacked sensitivity, as they never considered Julie’s ideas and views about the upcoming projects; instead, they asked her to follow their instructions carefully, since they had worked in the company for a long time and had a lot of experience. This left Julie stressed by the whole working environment.
In the above case, members of the team pursue their own personal goals that fit well with their ideas and experience. They are reluctant to allow new ideas and change in the group; thus, they discriminate Julie, who came with new strategies on how to organise events in the group. The team’s process is governed by domination of a single leader called Harry Main. He speaks and makes decisions on behalf of the group regardless of views of any other person.
The group’s objectives are also not clear because there lacks agreement on a common set of procedures and methods that would be used for recruiting candidates in the company. In addition, task achievement for each individual in the group is not clear, as members’ feelings and expressions are subdued owing to one person dominating the group (Robbins, 2009). Moreover, there is no discussion on performance effectiveness and problems that the team may encounter when carrying out activities of the project
Sources and Tactics of power used by Harry
During the years that Harry has worked in the organisation, he has made many friends and colleagues, including the HR manager, who is his core source of power. This has made him dominant over other employees in the organisation, especially given that his network of friends would defend him in case of any issue arising.
Harry bullies’ other employees in the organization; for example, he threatened to report Enrique to the HR manager about his tendency of leaving the office earlier than expected. He also likes criticising group members; for example, he refused to listen to Julie’s ideas and instead told her to keep quiet, since other members of the group had more experience and knew more than her. Nevertheless, he believed in his own ideas and strategies without taking much interest in new ideas that would help the project (Wagner & Hollenbeck, 2010).
Due to his influence over other employees, Harry manipulated them for his own personal interests (Shih & Susanto, 2010). This was possible owing to the fact that many powerful friends and colleagues were in a position to defend him in case he faced a problem in the organisation. As a result, he has been able to control most employees and threaten them so that they may give in to his demands. He also disengages other members of the organisation in the objectives and responsibilities that they are supposed to undertake as a team.
Coalition is also a power tactic that Harry uses to put himself in a position of influence (Ivancevich, ‎Konopaske & ‎Matteson, 2011). He takes advantage of his powerful colleagues and friends to acquire favours that most employees in the company do not have access to.
Strategies on how to act in Conflict Situation
Various strategies should be developed to deal with cases of discrimination and unfair treatment in the organization. The first strategy should involve building a strong relationship among group members to enable Julie interact with them freely without any personal differences. She should also not overreact to challenges that she faces in the team; instead, she should try to seek for opinions from other employees in organisation.
The team should also establish rules and regulations concerning members of the organization and seek to follow them, especially in meetings. This would help every member of the team to express his/her opinion on certain issues concerning the group. She should also encourage group behaviours that would make the team more effective and understanding towards achieving a common goal. Moreover, she should clarify her role and each member’s role in the group to avoid conflict of interest, and encourage them to work towards attaining the objectives of the team (Ashkanasy & Humphrey, 2011).
Julie should encourage the group to come up with a clear decision-making process where all members can participate actively (Miner, 2005). This would curb dominance of one individual over other members in the group, thus leading to more interaction and participation. Another solution would involve listening carefully to opinions and views of all members of the group before taking her ideas into consideration. Nevertheless, she should demonstrate her experience practically in order to fit well in the team (Beus, Jarrett, Taylor, & Wiese, 2014).
The best strategy to use in Julie’s case is building of a strong relationship among members of the group in order to understand how they behave and operate. This would enable her know how to interact with every individual in the group and avoid individuals like Harry. Strong relationship among group members will foster a good working environment and interaction in the organisation.
References
Ashkanasy, N. M., & Humphrey, R. H. (2011). Current emotion research in organizational behaviour. Emotion Review, 3(2), 214-224.
Beus, J. M., Jarrett, S. M., Taylor, A. B., & Wiese, C. W. (2014). Adjusting to new work teams: Testing work experience as a multidimensional resource for newcomers. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(4), 489-503.
Ivancevich, ‎J., Konopaske, R., & ‎Matteson, M. (2011). Organizational Behavior and Management. NJ, USA: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Miner, J. (2005). Organizational Behavior: From theory to practice. NY, USA: M.E. Sharpe.
Robbins, S. P. (2009). Organizational behaviour. Cape Town, South Africa: Pearson.
Shih, H. A., & Susanto, E. (2010). Conflict management styles, emotional intelligence, and job performance in public organizations. International Journal of Conflict Management, 21(2), 147-168.
Wagner, J. A., & Hollenbeck, J. R. (2010). Organizational Behavior: Securing Competitive Advantage. New York, USA: Routledge.