Situation Description
Having spent over ten years at one of the local companies in my suburb, I was fortunate to be recruited by Nike as the Chief Accounting Officer. Unlike my previous employer, the workload at the new company was substantial, considering the organization’s size and the numerous financial activities. Based in the Philippines in one of the company’s international branches, I was responsible for computing all the organization’s financial records in the city.
Nike enjoys a large market base in the Philippines, with many city residents competing for its products, which makes the accounting work demanding. As the chief accountant, I relied on the numbers provided by the junior accountants to compute the final accounting record. However, one of my colleagues from an Islamic religious background would always deliver the numbers late on Fridays, as he attended prayers at the nearby mosque. This made my work difficult because I needed all the numbers to audit and carry out the final accounting work.
On August 20, 2021, after conducting financial audits for the previous three years, the company requested financial reports from its branches worldwide. I was frustrated because I couldn’t deliver the financial report from my end, as the notorious colleague was late with his numbers, having attended prayers at the nearby mosque. I explained this to my branch manager, who was equally frustrated by my delay and asked for extra time to sort out the inconvenience.
Luckily, my boss understood and gave me some time allowance to put things in order and finalize the financial report. I asked my colleagues to stand in for their affected counterparts and help them produce the numbers to fasten the process. In collaboration, the colleagues assisted the affected member. They quickly generated the necessary numbers, enabling me to complete my accounting work and submit the financial report to the branch manager, who then forwarded the report to the head office. Even though the colleague caused minor inconvenience, teamwork helped to salvage the situation.
The collaboration and teamwork helped to correct the inconvenience caused by the delay of the Muslim colleague and protected our branch from reprimand by the head office. In the future, I advised my colleagues to always stand in for their counterparts whenever he is out for Friday prayers to prevent the delay and inconvenience that may be caused. This yielded results in the subsequent days, as they would stand in for the colleague and produce the numbers, enabling me to compute and carry out my accounting work on time.
My work and the overall work in the financial department became easier because there were no delays or inconveniences as before, and we even became one of the best-performing branches globally. My team adopted a collaborative approach, facilitating each other’s work and enhancing overall efficiency and results. The branch manager, constantly frustrated by the delays, became happy with our department and advised other departments to emulate our teamwork and coordination. We became the role models for all the departments in the Nike Philippines branch, motivating my colleagues and me.
Thomas Kilmann Conflict Resolution
The Thomas Kilmann theory posits that conflicts arise from disagreements over ideas, values, motivations, and desires, which differences in age, religion, ethnicity, nationality, and other factors can fuel. As a result, the model advocates for two dimensions for conflict management, which are based on assertiveness and empathy.
Thomas Kilmann’s conflict resolution model, which advocates for assertiveness and empathy, employs these two approaches to achieve common ground by avoiding conflict through accommodating divergent personalities, collaborating, compromising personal interests and desires, and competing for success. Assertiveness, one of the theory’s significant components, is the ability to express one’s opinion and stick by it. Since people have different opinions, it is essential to make your opinion known and stand by it. This will help us understand one another and prevent forced ideas (Savchenko et al., 2022).
The second component is empathy, which means understanding another individual’s point of view and feelings. This is crucial in managing divergent views by preventing competition and personal attacks, which may trigger frustration and anger. Understanding one’s own views and feelings is crucial in fostering collaboration and accommodating the diverse perspectives of colleagues, particularly those from unique cultural backgrounds.
Assertiveness and empathy are essential in managing existing conflicts and preventing future conflicts. Peace is maintained in an organization by using approaches such as avoidance, which advocates for limiting confrontation by keeping away from the conflict or avoiding direct attacks on the subject matter (Russell, 2022). Similarly, accommodating is critical for maintaining by promoting tolerance and accepting the views and desires of others. This will help in preventing competition and rivalry. For instance, cultural differences must be accommodated to avoid organizational conflict. Collaboration, which promotes a moderate approach to problem solving and balancing power between oneself and colleagues, is another essential approach for managing and preventing conflict. Ultimately, compromising, which involves taking a neutral stance between opposing views, is crucial to managing and preventing conflict within an organization.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence involves understanding, interpreting, expressing, managing, regulating, and utilizing emotions effectively when interacting with colleagues, friends, and business partners. Understanding one’s emotions is critical in managing relationships with others by avoiding behaviors and words that might provoke or trigger conflict (Dasborough et al., 2022). One must manage emotions in the workplace to maintain a proper relationship with workmates.
It helps one control emotional manifestations such as anger, hatred, and frustration, which can affect one’s relationships with others. An individual with emotional intelligence possesses the ability to understand other people’s feelings and behaviors, as well as the reasons behind them, thereby embracing and accommodating the outcome (Bayighomog & Arasly, 2022). This is critical in managing and controlling emotions in difficult situations. Occasionally, people may become emotionally tense and overwhelmed by their emotions, exhibiting frustration and anger towards others, hence the need for emotional intelligence.
Analysis
In my situation, I applied both theories to manage the crisis and ensure it did not escalate into a conflict. My colleague was a devout individual who only sought to fulfill his religious obligations. Even though this was causing a delay in his official duties, thereby causing inconvenience for the entire department, his motivation stemmed from a desire to remain faithful to his God.
The whole department, led by me, was frustrated by the resultant inconvenience, which nearly triggered reprehension from the head office and the branch manager. However, I realized the colleague was from a different religious background and thus had to be accommodated. Unlike my colleagues, who were Christians, my colleague was a Muslim with different religious values and beliefs; hence, it was necessary to accommodate his diversity and collaborate with him on official duties to enhance efficiency for all of us. By advising and encouraging his colleagues to stand in for him and help him to carry out his work to avoid delays, I used Thomas Klimann’s Model of conflict resolution through the strategies of accommodation and collaboration.
In addition, I showed empathy by understanding the colleague’s delay was not deliberate but circumstantial. I understood his religious feelings and Islamic values, which motivated his Friday prayers. Although I am a Christian with different religious values, I empathized with my colleague and understood his actions. As a result, I sought to assist and facilitate his responsibilities without compromising his values, thereby promoting diversity.
While I had the option of reprimanding him and imposing punishments for his actions, I chose to accommodate and collaborate with him to avoid conflict that might have arisen by encouraging teamwork and unity among the colleagues. This proved effective and successful by promoting efficiency and good relationships among my team. Instead of being reproached, my team became a role model for other departments, thereby improving the motivation of my group members.
The theory of emotional intelligence also played out in the situation. Demonstrating the ability to recognize, manage, and apply emotions effectively in interactions with others was apparent. Even though I was frustrated by the delay of the colleague, which made my accounting work difficult since I depended on his numbers to compute my financial report, I did not let my emotions take control.
I perceived, interpreted, controlled, and used my emotions effectively without disregarding his emotions. I considered his feelings and religious thoughts, and worked well not to hurt him. Instead of calling him out and condemning him, which might have hurt his religious feelings and affected his morale, I encouraged teamwork and unity to cover for his inefficiency. This yielded fruit and left everyone emotionally satisfied, protecting his feelings and thoughts. I applied emotional intelligence theory by handling the situation without hurting the thoughts or feelings of the colleagues in question, encouraging teamwork and unity.
Reflection
From this situation, I learned two essential things for organizational success. First, I learnt about the importance of teamwork and collaboration among groups. The ability to embrace teamwork and work in unity helped to cover for the inefficiency of one member, which acted as the weak link. Without teamwork, our work in the financial department could have stalled due to the delay by one colleague; however, the unity we embraced helped to save face and enhance efficiency. Secondly, I learnt about the importance of practicing diversity and accommodation. An organization needs to embrace diversity and accommodate divergent cultures.
In the above situation, emotional intelligence proved more effective. The ability to recognize, understand, manage, and apply emotions effectively in interactions with others helped prevent conflicts that could have occurred if I had mishandled my emotions or allowed them to dominate me. This enabled me to handle the situation without offending colleagues, preserving their morale and positive working relationships.
Although the situation was handled correctly, the colleague in question’s lack of communication made it more complicated. The crisis would not have arisen if the colleague had properly communicated with his counterparts and explained his case to them. If proper communication had been established, his colleagues could have stood in for him initially, preventing the delay and inconvenience. But instead, he chose to remain silent, which potentially caused inconvenience for the whole team.
From the above situation, the ability to impose teamwork and collaboration became the cornerstone for managing the situation and achieving success. Teamwork improved efficiency and covered for the inefficiency of one colleague. Organizations that practice teamwork and collaboration will enjoy high work efficiency and high productivity. Secondly, leaders should develop emotional intelligence to effectively handle and manage team members and workers with diverse cultural backgrounds and personalities, thereby preventing conflicts.
Initially, I overlooked the cultural differences among my team members regarding religion and values, which led to a gap with one of the culturally diverse colleagues. If I had considered the cultural diversity of my team members and initiated teamwork and collaboration, the inconvenience could have been avoided. Therefore, Organizations should consider the cultural diversity among their employees to avoid conflicts and crises caused by cultural divergence.
In the future, I would assess the composition of my team members and initiate teamwork and collaboration among them so that colleagues can cover for their fellows’ weaknesses. Additionally, I would improve communication among the members and foster a healthy relationship within my group. This will help create understanding among members, making it easier to cover for colleagues’ weaknesses and reduce inconveniences.
References
Bayighomog, S. W., & Arasli, H. (2022). Reviving employees’ essence of hospitality through spiritual wellbeing, spiritual leadership, and emotional intelligence. Tourism Management, 89, 104406. Web.
Dasborough, M. T., Ashkanasy, N. M., Humphrey, R. H., Harms, P. D., Credé, M., & Wood, D. (2022). Does leadership still not need emotional intelligence? Continuing “The Great EI Debate”. The Leadership Quarterly, 33(6), 101539. Web.
Russell, K. (2022). Dealing with conflict. Clinical Leadership in Nursing and Healthcare, 261-285. Web.
Savchenko, O., Kovalkova, T., Lovka, O., Boychuk, O., & Kostikova, O. (2022). Choice of conflict resolution strategies in negative emotional states. In H. Çalışkan et al. (Eds.), SHS Web of Conferences (Vol. 150, p. 01003). EDP Sciences. Web.