ABC Electronic Company: Communication and Solving Conflicts in the Work Place

Overview 

The case is about an international ABC electronic company that sells cell phones and tablets. It deals with selling and customer services. Due to the competitive business environment, ABC deals with after sales service to retain and attract more customers. It has eight branches globally and every branch has a call center which deals with solving customer’s issues. The managers in each center are committed and focused to ensure they have the best customer care services. they handle all the calls timely and fashionably. their center is known to have the highest number of customers and performs best. The company has five employees who consist of Thomas the branch manager, Janet the supervisor, Michael, Kathy, and Kareem are call representatives. The company has different interpersonal conflicts among the employees and their managers (Perloff, 2014). 

Conflict analysis 

There was an interpersonal conflict between Thomas and Kareem whereby Thomas’ focus on performance and productivity and nothing else mattered in the company. However, Kareem is a Muslim and he has to balance between the demands of his job and religion. He made various movements to go and pray and that appeared to be a waste of time among his colleagues and the managers. He could not balance between work and religion therefore his calls started reducing which led to his termination from work (McGoldrick & Glenormiston College, 2010). 

Communication practices 

There is poor communication in the whole company because for instance Thomas does not entertain any form of explanation or conversation from the employees. When Michael noticed that Kareem kept going outside and sat on the mat talking his own things. He did not care asking to know why but he went and reported him to Janet who is his supervisor. Janet did not also ask Kareem or discuss anything, maybe give him a warning but he went ahead and reported him to Thomas who fired him immediately without any investigation nor conversation. The poor communication has made the employees to fear and work under pressure so that they do not get into problems (Perloff, 2014). 

Recommendation for good communication practices 

There should be good communication starting from the manager to the subordinate staff. In the beginning there was no communication that is why Kareem did not know he was making a mistake to obey his religious rules of prayer. The rules and regulations should be stated at the beginning of the employment to make sure that the employee understands and accept so that he knows whether he can cope or not. The leader should not be too harsh to the employees. His character makes the working environment unbearable for working. 

The leaders should make sure when there is a problem the employee is first asked why the reduced calls and be warned why going outside would ruin performance. Communication helps to coordinate employees to carry out business activities efficiently. Good communication and feedback is also a form of motivation to the employees. Thomas says that he has never been told by Thomas if his job was good or not but the supervisor did and that made him keep going knowing he was on the right track. Feedback and listening to the opinions of other employees is good as it makes them feel important and valued (McGoldrick & Glenormiston College, 2010). 

References 

McGoldrick, J., & Glenormiston College. (2010). Work place communication . Terang, Vic: Glenormiston College, Institute of Land and Food Resources, the University of Melbourne 

Perloff, R. M. (2014). The dynamics of persuasion: Communication and attitudes in the 21st century . New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.