Managing Conflicts Sample Paper

Concrete Experience

            Immediately after completing my third year of studies, I had to seek for an industrial attachment and upon being attached to one of the most profitable companies across the globe, it soon dawned on me that conflicts in the organization existed.Managing Conflicts Sample Paper I felt frustrated with having to constantly deal with cases of conflicts. However, I later learnt to accommodate the opinions of Lerbinger (2012) who argues that in order to manage conflicts, one must accept that conflicts are natural and happen almost everywhere.

Reflective Observation

            Shockingly, when conflicts arose in the firm, a good number of people were either forcers or avoiders. Not so many of them were willing to be accommodators or collaborators when it came to conflict resolution. A good number of them were not willing to participate in conflict resolution steps. As Tjosvold, Wong and Feng Chen (2014) put it, some individuals see avoidance and instances of competing as a means of managing conflicts as opposed to being collaborating or compromising.Managing Conflicts Sample Paper

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Abstract Conceptualization

            No organization is immune from instances of conflicts from time to time (Whetten and Cameron, 2011). However, conflicts can be managed if the management invents options meant for ensuring that future organizational conflicts do not occur or are minimized. Based on social conflict theory, conflicts in a society or organizations? results due to different competing forces (Lerbinger, 2012). To manage conflicts, all groups should forge working relationships with each other at all times.

Active Experimentation

            Based on the observations made, it became evident that there are certain steps or practical initiatives that can be used by firms to solve future conflicts. For instance, according to Rahim (2010), the management of organizations can avoid future detrimental problems such as this by coming up with options for mutual gains, establishing overarching goals, separating people from problems and focusing on the on interests and not the positions of the people in the organization.

 

UNIT 8 ? Empowering and Delegation

Concrete Experience

            Throughout my industrial attachment, I came to learn that when leaders or managers empower their employees, such employees are able to assume greater authority and responsibility. As Zhang and Bartol (2010) point out, empowering includes boosting employees? accountabilities, allowing them to be self-directed and supporting them to make their own decisions. At some point, I was given the opportunity to make my own decisions provided they were at the heart of the firms? interest.Managing Conflicts Sample Paper

Reflective Observations

During the period of the industrial attachment, I observed instances of empowerment and delegation at play in the organization. I noticed that majority of employees in different departments were empowered to perform certain duties free of supervision. According to Konczak, Stelly and Trusty (2000), employees who are empowered, feel appreciated by the firm and work on maximizing their contributions towards the firm. A lot of supervision reduces morale and by undertaking empowerment and delegation in an organization, employees feel appreciated and work towards making overall contributions (Whetten and Cameron, 2011).

Abstract Conceptualization 

            Delegation and empowerment are some of the most important skills needed for the organization?s success. After all, it is impossible, say for managers to carry out duties on their own. To maintain organizational effectiveness, reduce managerial stress in addition to ensuring that employee?s skills are developed, delegation and empowerment is necessary.

Active Experimentation

            Organizations willing to remain relevant in the future in an ever dynamic business environment have to recognize and embrace the concept of empowerment and delegation. As Hakimi, Van Knippenberg and Giessner (2010) contend, delegation and implementation should be employed as a primary tool when leading teams or employees in the organization. This is one of the most powerful ways of ensuring that individual?s roles in the organization are diversified, while at the same time keeping them fresh and motivated in addition to developing other skills and abilities (Whetten and Cameron, 2011).

 

UNIT 9- Building Effective Teams and Teamwork

Concrete Experience

            During my years in school, I got involved in activities that required teamwork. Building effective teams and teamwork may not be as easy as it sounds. I did come into contact with a number of people not willing to work together and as Hansen (2006) puts it, this creates a lot of stress to other team members. Teamwork however, is beneficial as working members in a team are able to complete tasks quickly and achieve their goals faster. Managing Conflicts Sample Paper

Abstract Conceptualization

            A number of organizational theories have attempted to cover the uniqueness of effective team building and teamwork. For a team to realize its overall goals, all team members must be dedicated and give their overall contributions to the team. Each member of the team has to have his/her own set of objectives with all of them working together towards one common goal of the team.

Reflective Observation

Building effective teams and teamwork is not an easy task. Some of the challenges to effective team building that I noticed included lack of communication, lack of diverse skills, role confusion and conflicts. As Whetten and Cameron (2011) argue, challenges to effective team building ends up affecting the teamwork as poor who lack clear common goals may not be in a position to deliver or achieve their stated goals. For instance, when conflicts arise early enough in the process of creating teams, such may go on to affect the whole teamwork process.

Active Experimentation

            Michan and Rodger (2000) argue that in order to avoid future problems associated with building effective teams that leads up to teamwork, it is important for individuals taking up leadership roles to be aware of some of the factors that may inhibit effective teams and teamwork.Managing Conflicts Sample Paper Team leaders have to possess certain skills aimed at ensuring teamwork is achieved and conflicts are reduced. 

UNIT 10 ? Leading Positive Change

Concrete Experience

            Scott and Jaffe (2003) argue that one of the hardest parts of stimulating positive change in an organization is initiating momentum. During my industrial attachment period, I experienced that managers and department leaders faced a lot of problems when initiating positive change. I felt that managers had a time leading positive change in addition to not being able to agree to some of the changes initiated due to inability to quickly adapt. My fears were somehow the same to those of other employees in the organization as well.

Reflective Observations

            As noted above, leading positive change can be one of the most demanding activities that managers and leaders in the organization can undertake. Resistance to change is a common occurrence in many organizations across the globe (Rothwell et al., 2009). I was able to notice that a huge number of employees were not ready to accept change for reasons well known to them. The majority of them cited redundancy, shift in roles and the inability to quickly adapt as some of their main reasons in opposing any forms of positive change that the management tried to initiate.Managing Conflicts Sample Paper

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Abstract Conceptualization 

            Leading positive change can be demanding and tasking to the people involved. However, there are methods of navigating through this problem. Good communication and public awareness of what positive change brings are some of the ways that can be used to ensure change is embraced. It cannot go without mentioning that education on the advantages of positive change may be another strategy of ensuring positive change is achieved (Whetten and Cameron, 2011).

Active Experimentation

            Whetten and Cameron (2011) argue that leaders should not be like passengers on a bus, but the drivers who end up creating a roadmap to a given destination. In order to lead positive change in the future, managers have to inspire themselves and others, visualize boldly, improve and grow rapidly and focus more on the community and human resources (Fullan, 2014).   

References

Fullan, M. (2014). Leading in a culture of change personal action guide and workbook. John Wiley & Sons.

Hakimi, N., Van Knippenberg, D., & Giessner, S. (2010). Leader empowering behaviour: The leader?s perspective. British Journal of Management, 21 (3), 701-716.

Hansen, R. S. (2006). Benefits and problems with student teams: Suggestions for improving

Konczak, L. J., Stelly, D. J., & Trusty, M. L. (2000). Defining and measuring empowering leader behaviors: Development of an upward feedback instrument. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 60 (2), 301-313.Managing Conflicts Sample Paper

Lerbinger, O. (2012). The crisis manager. Taylor and Francis.

Michan, S., & Rodger, S. (2000). Characteristics of effective teams: a literature review. Australian Health Review, 23 (3), 201-208.

Rahim, M. A. (2010). Managing conflict in organizations. Transaction Publishers.

Rothwell, W. J., Stavros, J. M., Sullivan, R. L., & Sullivan, A. (Eds.). (2009). Practicing organization development: A guide for leading change (Vol. 34). John Wiley & Sons.

Scott, C. D., & Jaffe, D. T. (2003). Managing change at work: Leading people through organizational transitions. Thomson Crisp Learning.

Team projects. Journal of Education for business, 82 (1), 11-19.

Tjosvold, D., Wong, A. S., & Feng Chen, N. Y. (2014). Constructively managing conflicts in organizations. Annu. Rev. Organ. Psychol. Organ. Behav., 1 (1), 545-568.

West, M. A. (2012). Effective teamwork: Practical lessons from organizational research. John Wiley & Sons.

Whetten, D., & Cameron, K. S. (2011). Developing management skills. Prentice Hall/Pearson,.

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Managing Conflicts Sample Paper