Problem Solving and Conflict Management

Introduction 

John Francis “Jack” Welch Jr. is one of the most successful corporate leaders in the United States. As a CEO and Chairman of General Electric (GE) for about twenty years, the company’s value increased by over 5000%. Jack Welch was able to drive the company to this success because of his problem-solving and conflict management skills, methods, tools and strategies. This essay discusses Jack Welch problem-solving and conflict management strategies and one that I can use or emulate and those that I can avoid. 

Jack Welch problem-solving and conflict management skills at General Electric 

When Jack Welch became the CEO of General Electric, he focused on the need to solve the problems that he believed the company had. Jack Welch believed that conflict management at the organization was critical to its growth. He believed that a bloated bureaucracy and a hierarchical management structure at the firm was a recipe for future decline (Zafar et al., 2014). Therefore, he prioritize the elimination of bureaucracy, inefficient processes, and obstacles to free flow of ideas in his management style for over twenty years at a top executive at the firm. He created a vision for the company by stating that it should be a market-leader through effective teams. Therefore, Welch sought to lead more and manage less, build a winning organization, harness people’s capabilities, and develop a market-leading company. 

Imperatively, Welch reorganized GE’s business units, executive and functional teams. The former CEO also reorganized GE’s culture to allow the firm to tap into its greatest assets, its people. When he realized that creativity, elimination of bureaucracy, and efficient processes could only take the organization that far, Welch decided to address the problem and stop the variations that led to the fluctuation of GE’s performance over time by adopting Six Sigma program or approach. It follows that Welch is a creative thinker and most of his conflict management and problem-solving skills are based on using the creative thinking process. Welch was personally skilled such that he could identify, dissect, and simplify a matter and from here create a solution to address the problem. It follows that Jack Welch’s problem solving and conflict management strategies were founded on increasing productivity, having strategic decision making by involving all employees, and retaining the most critical asset to a business, the employees (Thomas, n.d). As demonstrated, Jack structured the team at GE to reduce bureaucracy, and transfer strategic planning and decision-making to the unit leaders. These unit leaders made decisions through a consultative process where all employees participated. Jack Welch believed that managers can only make their employees to participate effectively in such deliberations if they build trust and tell the truth to the employees (Goodman, 2012). Welch also adopted a consultative and participative leadership approach aimed at building an effective team at GE and harnessing the potential of these people. These strategies were aimed at instilling trust and confidence, creating a learning organization, cultivating leaders, eliminating boundaries, and prioritizing values. While, Welch’s leadership and management approaches were criticized, he helped build General Electric into one of the biggest multinationals in terms of value and revenue generation, albeit at the expense of many employees that were sacked for missing set targets (Goodman, 2012). 

Using the Clifton Strengths test, I believe that I can be an effective leader by emulating some of the skills, tools, and strategies used by Welch to build General Electric. Based on these tests, I believe that I am an achiever, competitive, context-focused, team-player and seek efficient use of resources. Like Jack Welch, I am aggressive, overbearing, commanding, and alternately charming where there is need. I love fun and working from such a perspective motivates me. I hate strict bureaucracy but bureaucracy must entail some level of flexibility since people need to be flexible to be effective in their duties. As context-focused, I can assess the things that Welch did well and improve or build on their attributes. Conversely, I can also consider the things that he did not perform so well like having high employee turnovers and improve while executing same concepts but using a different approach. I also believe that Welch was analytical in his steps and decisions (Clough, 2017). Therefore, I need to build on these analytical attributes, particularly when analyzing individual employee performance. I am a competitive and aggressive person, just like Welch, and with a strong desire not only to win and achieve but through a certain degree of perfection. Unlike Welch who fired poor performer, I believe that such people require more time and as the CEO I should be patient, nurture them and give them certain amount of trust and chance to offer their best. Imperatively, consistent poor performers can go, but if an employee is striving to better their performance, they should be given a chance. I also agree with Welch that human resource capital is the most valuable asset to an organization, and these people must have trust and confidence in their leaders to be effective performers (Clifford, 2017). As demonstrated, leaders who cultivate confidence and trust create effective and productive teams. 

Conclusion 

Jack Welsh built one of the greatest companies in the United States because of his abilities to solve problems and manage conflicts. The essence of this approach is to increase productivity and retain employees. While Welch did not retain some of the employees, he achieved productivity through efficient processes and increased bottom line at GE. Welch remains one of the most productive business personalities not just in the United States but also the world worth emulating. 

References 

Clifford, C. (2017) Jack Welch: This is the No.1 key to success as a leader. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/17/former-ge-ceo-jack-welch-how-to-be-a-great-leader.html 

Clough, R. (2017) Jack Welch’s Handover at GE Triggered a New Generation of U.S. CEOs. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-13/welch-handover-at-ge-triggered-a-new-generation-of-u-s-ceos 

Freeburg, N. (2014) What is the Clifton Strengths Finder? Retrieved from http://www.leadershipvisionconsulting.com/what-is-the-clifton-strengthsfinder/ 

Goodman, N. (2012) Jack Welch on How to Manage Employees. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224604 

Thomas, K.W. (n.d) Making Conflict Management a Strategic Advantage, White Paper; Retrieved from https://www.cpp.com/download/item/1bdeda1d8d1b4e4d80dabc66ec2d8309 

Zafar, F., Ashfaq, H., Ali, A. & Imran, M. (2014) Conflict Resolution in Organization through Strategic Management, International Journal of Sciences: Basic and Applied Research , Vol.14, No.1, pp 1-15.