Contemporary Issues in Leadership

Leadership is regarded as the process used to influence other people’s behavior for working enthusiastically and willingly to achieve the predetermined goals. It is also characterized by various contemporary issues in business, such as technological advancements, legal landscape, in addition to changing the business environment of the lending market. 

Part 1-Identifying a Critical Crisis Situation 

From a personal perspective, I once witnessed an organization in which there was poor communication between some of the employees and the manager. The employees knew little about the English language, and therefore, there arose difficulty in communicating between the manager and such employees and between the workers themselves. As a result of this poor communication, there was unclear messaging, lack of team cohesion, wasted resources and time, low employee morale, damaged relationships, lost revenue, higher rates of turnover, and ultimately reduced business reputation and profitability ( Folger, Poole & Stutman, 2017). On the same note, it is crucial in understanding that workplace communication is of considerable significance to business organizations as it allows companies to be productive in addition to operating effectively. For instance, it will enable employees to experience an increase in morale, commitment, and productivity, particularly if they have the capability of communicating up and down the chain of communication within an organization. 

Part 2: Leader’s Role in Addressing the Situation 

An organizational leader can play a significant role in addressing the issue of poor communication within an organization by following critical steps. They are such as diagnosing the situation, interpreting, acting, prescribing, taking action, and assessing the outcome. 

Diagnosing the underlying communication issue within an organization would first require a leader in determine whether or not there is a constructive, honest, as well as open dialogue concerning the communication styles, behaviors, skills, and practices of the team members. 

Interpreting would mean trying to translate the nature of the communication issue orally so that it can well be understood by employees and other relevant individuals within an organization. 

Acting on the issue of poor communication within an organization is also important for the organization, particularly in this situation. A company leader should utilize an acting approach for advising on the likely solutions for poor communication and possible risks that this may cause to an organization. It would also help in informing the organization that the issue of poor communication must be dealt with as soon as possible. 

Prescribing is also imperative as it would assist an organization in laying robust solutions for the possible causes of poor communication within an organization. For example, an organizational leader can decide in establishing a baseline as a prescribed solution towards having an effective communication within an organization ( Yirik, Yildirim & Çetinkaya, 2015). It is because the baseline would significantly assist in measuring the progress and success of the communication strategy put in place. 

Assessing the outcome of the prescribed strategy is also an imperative solution towards solving the issue of poor communication within an organization. For instance, an assessment should seek to determine whether the issue of poor communication have been dealt with completely in the organization or not, and it should always be conducted by top management of an organization. 

Part 3: Conflicts between Participants 

A significant conflict that arose between the participants was a value conflict between some organizational employees. Such type of conflict emerged as a result of fundamental differences in values and identities, which included differences in religion, ethics, politics, norms, in addition to other deeply held beliefs. Even though the discussion of religion and politics is always a taboo in companies, the conflicts of value emerged within the context of work policies and decisions ( Folger, Poole & Stutman, 2017). For instance, it appeared as a result of involved participants debating on whether to take on a business client with the ties to the corrupt government, or even whether to implement an affirmative action program. As a result of this value conflict, there was a heightened distrust, defensiveness, and alienation. It is because the involved parties felt strongly about standing by their own values, which resulted in them rejecting trades that would only satisfy other interests they might have. 

Importantly, this value conflict was managed by moving beyond demonization towards mutual respect and understanding through dialogue. It means that the management leader aimed for a cognitive understanding in which he allowed the involved coworkers to reach an accurate conceptualization of each person’s perspective ( Yirik, Yildirim & Çetinkaya, 2015) . It is a type of agreement that did not require emotional connection or sympathy, but only needed the ability of “values-neutral” for accurately describing what is believed by someone else concerning the situation. Additionally, this conflict was also managed through appealing to other values being shared by the involved parties. 

Part 4: Emotional State of the Participants 

During the value conflict situation, as mentioned above, the emotional state of participants involved the usual feelings of fear, anger, frustration, and hurt. Such perceptions of emotional state and the threat circumstances that were presented by value conflict resulted in the participants’ bodies in fighting stress response. As a result, there was a complete discomfort that required the participants to be instinctively prepared in protecting themselves, managing the situation, in addition to competing with their adversary through taking a defensive or offensive stance ( Folger, Poole & Stutman, 2017). It is essential in understanding that this situation was characterized by power differential based on the position, role, personality, and other factors that compounded this conflict among the involved parties. It implies that there was a lack of a competitive situation that could be utilized to solve this value conflict since it could not be capable of promoting the use of collaboration, compromise, and cooperation. 

It would be necessary to develop an emotionally committed relationship as a strategy for mitigating the discomfort that emerged as a result of this conflict. However, it was upon an organizational leader to ensure that such a relationship is established among all the participants who were engaged in the conflict. It is because this would assist in fostering engagement between the involved parties in conflict, thereby providing a more prosperous and productive resolution to the value conflict being addressed ( Yirik, Yildirim & Çetinkaya, 2015) . The management leader, in this case, would always act as the emotional mediator between the involved people. 

Part 5: Reflecting on Personal Emotional Response 

From a personal perspective, I was never happy with how the participants quarreled against one another due to political and religious differences. It was an issue that I feel that should not have been brought to the workplace as this ultimately lowered employees’ morale towards working productively. Besides, I also felt very angry with the manner at which other colleagues were handling the issue. Instead of seeking the solution to end the conflict, they were busy cheering the occurrences of that conflict, which only made the situation to become worse than was expected. 

However, I decided to utilize the decision-making process or rather the conflict resolution process for mitigating this emotional response. For instance, I first clarified what the disagreement was all about by getting into the heart of the conflict between these two parties. The goal of such a step is to get both participants in agreeing about the disagreement ( Yirik, Yildirim & Çetinkaya, 2015) . Through this, I discussed the organizational needs that were not being met by both parties in addition to ensuring mutual understanding. Thereafter, I decided in establishing a common goal for both the involved parties since both of them were ready to agree to the desired outcome of their conflict. When employees realize that they are working towards a common goal, then they would always be more pertinent in participating truthfully for ensuring that they can reach that end goal collectively. 

Part 6: Summary 

Since I was personally involved in this situation, I would consider providing significant recommendations for how I could have managed the situation differently. First, I would recommend agreeing on the best ways that could be utilized in resolving the conflict among the involved parties. As observed by Folger, Poole and Stutman (2017), it is essential for both parties to come to a solid solution to the best resolution. Therefore, in this case, I would have considered starting by determining solutions that could be accepted by both participants by having a common ground comfortable to both of them. After that, I would have regarded as the responsibility each party has towards maintaining the recommended solution. It could have also been essential in using this opportunity to get to the root cause of the conflict and ensuring that it would not emerge again in the future. 

I would also recommend acknowledging the agreed-upon solution in addition to determining the responsibilities that each participant is having within the resolution. It is because both the involved sides have the obligation of owning their responsibility within conflict resolution as well as expressing aloud what they have agreed upon ( Yirik, Yildirim & Çetinkaya, 2015) . After a win-win situation has been acknowledged by both parties, they should be asked if they agree to work with the agreed terms or not. 

References 

Folger, J., Poole, M. S., & Stutman, R. K. (2017).  Working through conflict: Strategies for relationships, groups, and organizations . Routledge. 

Yirik, S., Yildirim, B. I., & Çetinkaya, N. (2015). A study on conflict management and conflict resolution in hospitality organizations.  International Journal of Arts & Sciences ,  8 (8), 77.