Organizational culture reflects the firm’s strategic plan, which in turn contains the vision, mission, and values of the company. These parameters are the main drivers of organizational operations and any decision-making processes. A leader’s behavior must conform to corporate culture to be effective in influencing organizational proceedings in the market environment. According to Lewicki et al. (2015), the resolution of conflicts engages three fundamental elements: interests, rights, and power. A leader can draw on one or a combination of the three to influence their decision when resolving disputes. The consideration of interests requires understanding the gains realized from the decision to the disputing parties and the organization. The element of rights emerges when employees feel unsatisfied with the working environment due to poor management or abuse. On power, the leadership retains the right to exercise authority over the conflicting parties and impose on them a solution that favors one over the other, or the company.
When selecting a strategy for resolving disputes, a leader must ensure that it aligns with the interests of the company. Even in situations where the decision requires ceding ground to employees, it must reflect the inherent benefit to the organization. In most cases, the resolution of conflicts intends to motivate employees and improve their satisfaction, with direct effects on organizational performance. The happiness of employees is synonymous with enhanced performance and productivity and the reduction of turnover. Many organizations operate on visions and missions that emphasize on quality products or the provision of services and cost-efficiency. Leaders have the responsibility to integrate these aspects into their decision-making during conflict negotiation and resolution.
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Understanding of organizational culture aids the selection of effective negotiating strategies that address impasses and assumptions that deviate from the vision, mission, and values of the company. Leaders draw from organizational culture to diffuse exploding situations, implement collaborations, and solve shared problems to generate and claim value. An organizational culture may focus on one or more of the disputes criteria advanced by Lewicki et al. (2015) namely: transaction costs, satisfaction with outcomes, the effect on relationship, and reoccurrence . Depending on the criterion that advances the company’s vision, mission, and values managers, who function as negotiators, adopt behaviors that manifest authority, rationality, sensitivity, and influence in its realization (Lewicki et al., 2015).
The objectives and goals in the organizational strategy determine the leadership style with the leadership behavior that reflects strong negotiation skills and tactics. The need for such an approach is evident from the case of Amazon, whose CEO, Jeff Bezos, strongly believes in an organizational culture that encourages critique and polite praise. Bezos requires Amazon employees to disagree and commit, and recommends criticism of colleagues’ ideas, and providing blunt feedback, before agreeing on the decision (Association of Psychological Science, 2015). Bezos’ perceives harmony as overrated, a behavior stemming from the ambitious vision and mission of the company to develop quality innovation for improved customer experience. While Bezos’ leadership style may be effective for transaction costs and satisfaction with outcomes criteria of disputes resolution, it has a negative effect on employee relationship. It shows the lack of servant leadership required to nurture positive and productive relationships among employees and the leadership at all times.
Amazon CEO’s leadership style and behavior towards conflict resolutions tends to decrease productive conflict but increase interpersonal conflict (Association of Psychological Science, 2015). Friction between employees increases as they become weary of expressing divergent views due to fear of criticism or ridicule (Association of Psychological Science, 2015). The dispute resolution approach that encourages uncompromising competition among teams unexpectedly fostered a form of interpersonal conflict that killed worker innovation. Amazon’s vision, mission, and values encourage focus on the customer at the expense of the company’s employees. The leadership fails to recognize that not all conflicts are beneficial, and its approach to resolution of disputes by encouraging them, affects employee motivation and performance, and organizational productivity negatively. One can argue that Amazon lacks servant leadership, which requires
A leader must express the behavior that is synonymous with the leadership style appropriate for resolving the prevailing conflicts. Depending on the organization’s vision, mission, and values, it is critical to demonstrate situational leadership behavior. Such a leadership style allows adaptability to different situational factors that may be involved in the conflict. Some organizations have frameworks for conflict resolutions as part of their culture, and a leader must demonstrate apprehension to aid their decision-making when managing conflict negotiations. It is important to understand that organizations whose visions, missions, and values favor employees are likely to influence positive leadership behavior. The integration of such practice into management can transform the firm by improving the value of its human capital base.
In the article I posited for discussion, the authors contend that conflict is natural (Jit, Sharma, & Kawatra, 2016). The choice of the article stems from the observations made in the case in respect to the leadership of Amazon to conflict management and resolution. The article’s focus is on servant leadership, which is critical for positive employee relationship. I believe that the article provides clarity of the influence of organizational culture on leadership, and the effects the resulting behavior has on disputes’ resolution.
References
Association of Psychological Science. (2015). Amazon’s mistake: Mixing creative conflict with animosity. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/minds-business/amazons-mistake-mixing-conflict-with-animosity.html
Jit, R., Sharma, C. S., & Kawatra, M. (2016). Servant leadership and conflict resolution: a qualitative study. International Journal of Conflict Management , 27 (4).
Lewicki, R. J., Bruce, B., & David, M. S. (2015). Negotiation: Readings, exercises, and cases. ( Seventh Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
