Organizational Change and Framing
Recently, at my place of work, there has been a change of management. The company’s shareholders had decided to bring in new leadership to help in shaping the organization’s current poor run of loss-making. The new administration is undertaking to interpret and change the organization’s current situation to urge the employees to move in their desired directions to achieve better outcomes. Despite the organization’s current norms and cultures associated with the former management, the new regime had developed some methodologies to improve the organizational performance and meet its objectives. The new management strategies help shape the future of the organization while at the same time keeping the employees’ working needs met. The strategies are generally viewed as proactive, and they include apprising where employees’ performance assessments are done by frequently combining written and spoken components by which the management assesses and makes suggestions on employee’s job performance. Documenting performance is aimed at increasing salary and promotions.
The management also used emotional appeals to support a proposition or plan of action by placing a premium on beliefs, emotions, and values. Additionally, the new administration used consultations in trying to meet its objectives. Consequently, the organization also applied impression management and, most specifically, the indirect impressive control where they associated positive events and people to shape the dented image of the organization. Again, the organization applied legitimization and pressure techniques. Since organizations operate inside a regulated legal framework, the impact of the organizational norms and constrain the conduct of the management and its employees, then the administration has an incentive to act as corporate actors by striving to modify or establish them to their benefit. Lastly, the new management also used consultations in the course of carrying out its activities so as obtain the general opinions and requirements of the employees.
Competing frames in the case of the new management are threats and opportunities. The new administration’s specific performance gaps may be driven by threats resulting from terrible performance on product quality or profit metrics. For instance, the legitimating tactics and pressure appeals imposed prove to be threat-based and could lead to underperformance of employees. The opportunity-based tactics such as consultations and apprising result from increased aspiration levels in response to new growth opportunities of the organization. Among all the frames used by the new management, talks seem to be ethically considerate. The employees were more receptive to change because it occurred due to a discussion rather than a command. Establishing open communication lines and soliciting opinions from employees by the new management at all organizational levels is essential. The more people participate, the greater the level of acceptability. When people believe they have a stake in the outcome, they are more likely to support a reform that leads to organizational success.
Collaboration as a Conflict Resolution Technique
My conflict resolution style is collaboration. The real benefit of collaborative conflict resolution is that it helps all stakeholders feel appreciated and comprehended. When I listened critically to the concerns that individuals in conflict have for one another, I helped to defuse aggression by providing unfettered utterances. Numerous disagreements arise as a result of the parties failing to listen to one another. As a result, they frequently misunderstand the root of the other party’s reasons for refusing to concede. When both parties in a conflict articulate their full range of issues, it can build understanding, compassion, and mutual trust. Additionally, it establishes the atmosphere for future conflict settlements and assigns collective responsibility for resolving the issue to everyone involved.
Collaboration has enabled me to monitor my and other parties’ behavior for signs of destructive conflicts. Collaboration has equally contributed to resolving the underlying conflicting issue, contributed to a win-win conclusion, and built a platform for future productive collaboration and joint accountability for the outcome. Lastly, I was able to develop a profile as a skilled negotiator. Consequently, the style has had a few limitations making it difficult to use at all times. The primary downside of collaborative conflict resolution is that dispute settlement required a significant amount of effort, energy, and time. The explanation for this is that, since a win-win solution is wanted, as a negotiator, I had to wade through various possibilities before achieving a balance. This latency can have a negative impact on workplace performance and contribute to increased anxiety and dissatisfaction.
Some of the ethical strengths of collaboration as a style of resolving conflict include the following. First, as a negotiator, in collaborating between two conflicting parties, honesty is among the most important ethical aspects of collaboration since it is a win-win situation. Additionally, honesty is a critical quality of a business since it establishes the atmosphere for the type of work culture needed to foster, ensures uniformity in job performance, and encourages client and prospective loyalty and trust. Second, fairness in the distribution of outcomes and benefits is another moral strength of collaboration as a conflict resolution technique. The moral weakness of coalition as a conflict resolution technique is that it may involve deception. Either of the conflicting parties may take advantage of one another by using deception to solve the conflict. The steps to develop a more collaborative conflict style include:
- Increasing awareness of the conflict issue.
- Developing an inquiring mind.
- Determining the root causes of concerns.
- Creating a declaration of common purpose.
- Producing solutions.
- Sorting the alternatives and coming to an agreement on the perfect Solution that functions for everybody.
- Create a monitoring and evaluation framework.