I am writing to inform you of the workplace conflict and the change process that is likely to be productive in creating a better working relationship among workers and leaders. Particularly, conflict within the Bazem technology company has impeded on the organization's productivity. Conflict within the organization has caused the inability to establish teamwork among workers and the leadership. Essentially, this issue impedes the achievement of the organization's business goals. The goals include increasing the company's profit margin, increasing efficiency of the employees, especially in the production line and dispatch unit and provision of improved customer care service to clients buying and enquiring about the company's communication gadgets. Other business goals that the issue is likely to affect are improving employee skills and enhancing detection of problems affecting the production and sale of products.
Strengths of the Organization
As reflected in the previous analysis, some of the organization's strengths include the existence of advanced technology. The company also has a vast number of employees currently standing at 200 employees. This staff population size indicates that the company is not understaffed, and thus various tasks can be assigned and executed efficiently. Additionally, the company has a considerably more significant market share than some of its competitors, which provides an excellent opportunity to create profit.
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Weaknesses
However, the company has various weaknesses which have made it impossible to achieve its goals. For instance, the company has poor marketing strategies. Additionally, there is poor communication among workers, departments and leaders. These weaknesses are all related to the existence of conflict between different groups.
Steps of Change Process
Identify Areas to Improve
There is a need for the management to identify the various problems in the organization that are causing the issue of conflict. Understanding the challenges ensures success in identifying appropriate areas that need to be changed to guarantee change throughout the entire organization (Holman et al., 2018). One of the issues that need improvement is communication. Poor communication skills among the staff and leaders have adversely affected the relationship between various individuals by causing failure to optimize the leaders' ability to coordinate activities fully. Essentially, these skills, such as listening skills and emotional intelligence, are crucial in creating an environment where all views are seen as significant.
There is a need for leaders to enhance the incorporation of workers into the organization's decision-making processes. This achievement will be made through efficient communication of various changes that the management desires to make to the employees. This communication will provide a chance to present multiple views by the staff. Incorporating workers in decision-making will improve the relations between the workers and the management (Holman et al., 2018). There is a necessity to improve the company's policies, especially those involving the protocols to be followed in the communication process. For instance, the management may establish clear steps of informing the company's CEO on various issues. By first informing the supervisor, who then informs the departmental head before communicating to the general manager, the management will ensure that no leader performs the other leader's duties. Most of the management conflicts occur as a result of interference by some leaders in the responsibilities of others (Mäkikangas et al., 2019). Additionally, the revision of job descriptions of all leaders, from team leaders to the executive, will help reduce overlapping roles and reduce instances of conflict among leaders. While it is significant for leaders to work on their roles together, it is detrimental for the managers to interfere with each other’s work as it may cause internal conflicts based on interests.
Bringing Stakeholders Onboard
First, there will be a need to identify the various stakeholders involved. Some of the categories include the top management, departmental heads and the workers. These three groups must be engaged to provide the opportunity to evaluate their needs and reconcile these needs and goals to create a common goal for the organization. The step will explain the various challenges affecting the three groups and that have contributed to the existence of a conflict.
There is a need for the board to incorporate ideas from all the groups to ensure that the change stakeholders. The workers may be represented by a few members of their group instead of having the entire group, which is likely to cause an impediment to the process. Bringing stakeholders on board is a significant step in the process due to the need to understand the causes of the challenges facing the organization (Mäkikangas et al., 2019). Additionally, the stakeholders represent different skill sets. For instance, most of the top management members have leadership skills, while those in the workers' group may have skills in areas such as marketing and production. Incorporating these sets of knowledge is crucial as there will be varying points of view enabling the existence of various angles from which to view and approach the issue of conflict and challenges causing conflicts.
Planning Change
The creation of the roadmap to the solution involves various processes. For example, the steering committee created after incorporating all stakeholders will need to consider the approach used and the desired outcome. In this case, the desired result is enhancing teamwork and eliminating conflicts. Also, the planning process involves evaluating the resources that will be utilized to achieve the change (Nielsen & Miraglia, 2017). One of the essential resources is a team trainer who may be necessary for leading team-building exercises.
Development of the scope and projection of expected cost is necessary. The stakeholders must ensure that there is a clear objective before embarking on planning (Holman et al., 2018). Also, the budget evaluation is crucial as it will help to work within the means of the organization and mobilize for more funds where necessary.
It is critical at this stage to create a multistep process to avoid the institution of sudden changes that are likely to create a shock to the stakeholders leading to failure. This process includes the development of measurable targets, outlining measurements such as extreme or excellent, incentives and conducting analyses (Holman et al., 2018). One of the measurements is that a properly controlled change will create excellent coordination of roles. There is a need to differentiate short and long-term goals of the project. It is also essential to ensure that the change is sustainable through analyzing the cost of maintaining the change and the motivation of the stakeholders (Mäkikangas et al., 2019). To ensure sustainability, there is a need to consider a gradual process that will allow the involved members to adapt to the change in parts (Silva et al., 2019). For example, bureaucratization to ensure protocols in communication may require the management first to create policies on channels of communication then designate the official means of communication such as fax, telephone or email with the aim of avoiding conflicts due to faulty communication processes. This way, the members will adapt seamlessly.
Providing Resources
Significantly, the resources required will include infrastructure, equipment and human resource. Considering the population of workers, there is a need for division of resources such as facilitators to ensure there is effectiveness. For instance, there is a need to involve three facilitators to ensure that team building activities are handled effectively by dividing the entire team into three groups during activities. It is essential to consider developing infrastructures such as landline connection and installation of fiber optic infrastructure to enable efficient communication between departmental heads and the top management. Additionally, the company may consider developing and building software programs that will help manage conflict by providing platforms where the employees can easily air their grievances to the top management without necessarily being identifiable.
Execution of Plan
The essential step in the change process is the implementation of the plan. The implementation process will include taking the workers and the managers out for team-building activities. These activities, such as playing games together, enhance the team members' workflow while increasing their teamwork skills. Monthly training sessions may facilitate a continuous process of learning basic communication skills without affecting the working time (Silva et al., 2019). The training is also essential for leaders to learn leadership skills and appropriate styles to ensure that employees relate well with their managers and team leaders. Also, the new policies in line with workplace ethics should be explained to the workers by team leaders to ensure that there is strict adherence (Whelan-Berry & Somerville, 2010). Notably, the rules include restricting intimate relationships in the workplace. Additionally, rearrangement of office sitting arrangements to ensure all employees working in the office use one open hall to allow interaction is a crucial example of an approach that is crucial in providing better relations.
Monitoring and Managing Resistance
There is a need to monitor team members' resistance to changes. The monitoring may be done through questionnaires and observation. Resistance to changes in policies and office arrangement may be managed through an explanation of the importance of the changes and delegation of roles in the change process to individuals who appear resistant (Mäkikangas et al., 2019). This move will help the employees and leaders to own the process.
Follow-Up and Continuous Improvement
Change is an ongoing process and must be reviewed and revised appropriately for desired outcomes to be achieved. The team leaders who are in charge of the implementation process must present monthly reports on the progress of already implemented and ongoing operations. For instance, the team managing the infrastructural development may present their analysis on the effect of fiber optics and software programs. A follow-up exercise should be done one month after implementing the plan (Silva et al., 2019). This exercise will help to identify unwanted outcomes and areas that need improvement.
Some of the ways of collecting data for the review exercise are peer to peer review and observation by management. Improved productivity may also indicate a reduction in conflicts (Bligh et al., 2018). In case of failure to achieve this outcome, the implementing committee may make changes to the initial plan to suit current needs.
References
Bligh, M. C., Kohles, J. C., & Yan, Q. (2018). Leading and learning to change: the role of leadership style and mindset in error learning and organizational change. Journal of Change Management , 18 (2), 116-141.
Holman, D., Johnson, S., & O'Connor, E. (2018). Stress management interventions: Improving subjective psychological well-being in the workplace. Handbook of well-being. Salt Lake City, UT: DEF Publishers. DOI: nobascholar. Com .
Mäkikangas, A., Mauno, S., Selenko, E., & Kinnunen, U. (2019). Toward an understanding of a healthy organizational change process: A three-wave longitudinal study among university employees. International Journal of Stress Management , 26 (2), 204.
Nielsen, K., & Miraglia, M. (2017). What works for whom in which circumstances? On the need to move beyond the ‘what works? ‘Question in organizational intervention research. Human relations , 70 (1), 40-62.
Silva, L. V., Anholon, R., Rampasso, I. S., Silva, D., Quelhas, O. L. G., Leal Filho, W., & Santa-Eulalia, L. A. (2019). Critical analysis of organizational change process: evidences from a steel company. Business Process Management Journal .
Whelan-Berry, K. S., & Somerville, K. A. (2010). Linking change drivers and the organizational change process: A review and synthesis. Journal of Change Management , 10 (2), 175-193.
