Project Plan

Project Plan

Abstract

Conflict is inevitable hence organizational leaders should embrace it rather than avoiding it. The study deals with interpersonal conflict among supervisors working in S.R.E Transportation. The study considers a non-experimental descriptive research design by sampling the implications of employee conflict as far as the organizational performance is concerned. Through synthesizing theories of conflict management, goal interdependence, and social identity, the study formulates a theoretical model towards exemplifying that worker’s conflict is detrimental hence need for immediate response. Besides, the study considers theories concerning the factor influencing worker’s attitudes at work, motivation, and foundations of behavior to give an insight into the best approach to resolve the problem.

Company Description

Superior Reliable Efficient Transportation (S.R.E.T) is a truckload carrier operating fleets on American roads. As a private fleets company, S.R.E.T considers the provision of quality services to various clients as a strategic move towards maximizing profits. S.R.E.T is committed towards the provision of quality services. It provides processed and readily available information to avoid inconveniencing clients. The corporation considers the improvement of service delivery, through the adoption of technology, to improve customer service (Superior Carriers, 2020). S.R.E.T has its mission as providing various clients with dependable, capable, and safe transportation at the lowest charges possible. As such, it is critical to address the problem of employee conflict, which may hinder the company from delivering quality services.

Leadership Problem

Conflict among supervisors is a significant risk which exposes S.R.E.T to ultimate failure. Supervisors play an essential role in facilitating an efficient flow of services. They are tasked with various functions which are at the centre of the company’s continued success. First, the supervisors lead and manage driver availability which is crucial in ensuring that customers get their services efficiently. The development of high-performing drivers by engaging them through positive reinforcement and coaching is another vital role played by the supervisors in enabling the company to achieve the desired goals. Thirdly, they are at the centre of decision-making since they guide senior managers on the best approaches to facilitate successful operations. Precisely, supervisors are at the centre of the continued success realized by the company. The fact that there are conflicts among supervisors shows that the company is exposed to an unpredictable future. Lack of cooperation among employees hinders organizations from attaining their set goals (Banaeianjahromi & Smolander, 2019). Employees hired by the company at the supervisory level are at constant conflicts hence dictating the essentiality of conflict resolution to help resolve the matter.

Power conflict is one of the significant factors translating to the continued confrontations among the supervisors. According to scholarly articulations, power conflicts are detrimental to an organization because they translate to a decrease in productivity (Abiodun, 2014). The company considers the formation of small working departmental groups as one of the strategic measures towards enhancing team-work and efficiency. Since its establishment, the strategy has been successful hence a significant factor associated with the continued growth realized by the company. As such, the continued power conflict risks the company to ultimate failure. The supervisors conflict when reporting to the senior managers concerning the continued performance of the organization. Each of the supervisors wants to act as the leader in presenting final decisions to the top management. Another major challenge associated with such power conflict among supervisors is the distraction of the primary purpose of the company. Their continued conformations lead to lack of motivation among junior workers.

Literature Review

1. Leadership Theories

The study of leadership, which is traceable back to the Ancient Egyptians, is an essential consideration when responding to various functional problems. Scholars look into leadership theories and how managers can utilize them to achieve organizational goals. Expectancy, goal-setting, equity, and the Great Man Theory are some of the theoretical frameworks considered when reflecting on the aspect of corporate progress. According to the expectancy theory, an individual’s expectations play a critical role in influencing their actions (Lloyd & Mertens, 2018). The theory points out that a leader should consider the motivations behind employees’ behavior to enable them to formulate excellent measures to counter operational challenges.

Secondly, the goal-setting theory looks into the essentiality of formulating the targeted outcomes to guide employees’ day-to-day actions. Setting goals is significantly impactful in influencing continued organizational performance (Locke & Latham, 2012). The argument is linked to task performance and denotes that the formulation of challenging and specific goals translates to better performance of diverse organizational tasks. Theorists who adopted this framework argue that practical purposes are those that are challenging, have feedback, have clarity, and evidence task complexity. Equity theory is a framework that reflects on the implications of rewards as far as organizational performance is concerned. The theory argues that most workers remain sensitive to the number of awards earned by others in the workplace. Such a comparison is critical in influencing their attitude to work.

2. Conflict resolution

Dealing with employee conflict is part and parcel of any successful organization. According to scholarly reflection, the diversified nature of the workforce leads to opposing points of view among employees, thus translating to conflicts (Kerga & Asefa, 2018).  Successful leaders should consider the factors translating to the disputes and formulate measures to restore normalcy. Conflicts among workers may curtail the attainment of the desired functional goals (Al Qawasmeh, 2016). Various procedural steps can enable leaders to address conflicts among workers. Understanding the nature of the conflict forms the initial step in conflict resolution. Leaders should analyze the situation and understand the factors behind the differences. Secondly, leaders should encourage conflicting workers to resolve their disputes. Thirdly, leaders should analyze both sides and understand each of the worker’s points of view to find a consensus. Finding a solution and writing it up to forms the last fundamental steps in conflict resolution. Leaders should try and resolve the conflict in a manner leading to the satisfaction of each of the confronting employees.

Resolving the conflict facing S.R.E Transportation

The literature review above gives an insight into some of the approaches that can enhance the response to the problem facing the company. As briefed earlier, the company’s continued success is risked by the persistent conflicts among the supervisors. Cooperation among the supervisors will enable the management team to get the best information hence leading to the formulation of faultless operational decisions. A consideration of the procedural steps of conflict resolution is critical in responding to the problem. Situational leadership is one of the most effective approaches in resolving conflicts in an organization (Rahim, 2017). Managers should use this theory and follow the steps of conflict resolution to resolve the matter. Similarly, goal setting is critical in solving the problem. Setting the goals will keep all the employees aiming towards the same direction. This will minimize the confrontations since all the operations will be towards the achievement of similar goals. Equity theory is similarly crucial when resolving the problem. Workers are always concerned about how other employees are treated and their payment (Park et al., 2017). Conflict among employees may result due to the subjection of some workers to unfair treatment. Fair treatment among all workers is a move that can enable senior management to resolve the problem.

Summary and Overview

The paper reflects on some of the theoretical frameworks guiding leaders on the best approaches to achieve the set goals. Leaders are at the centre of any organization’s success. They guide junior workers and influence their day-to-day performance. While working at S.R.E Transportation, I realized that conflicts among supervisors were a detrimental problem that risked the company to ultimate failure. Through the literature review, the paper reflects on some of the best approaches towards enabling the company’s management team to resolve such conflicts and restore normalcy. Managers to the company should consider theoretical frameworks and procedural steps guiding conflict resolution to allow them to respond to the confrontations.

References

Abiodun, A. R. (2014). Organizational conflicts: Causes, effects and remedies. International Journal of Academic Research in Economics and Management Sciences, 3(6), 118.

Al Qawasmeh, R. (2016). Corporate Governance and Conflict Management. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 7(6).

Banaeianjahromi, N., & Smolander, K. (2019). Lack of communication and collaboration in enterprise architecture development. Information Systems Frontiers, 21(4), 877-908.

Kerga, A. B., & Asefa, A. (2018). The Effect of Workforce Diversity on Employee Performance (The Case of Ethio-Telecom South West Addis Ababa Zone). Asian Journal of Economics, Business and Accounting, 1-27.

Lloyd, R. A., & Mertens, D. (2018). Expecting more out of Expectancy Theory: History urges inclusion of the social context. International Management Review, 14(1), 28-43.

Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2012). Goal-setting theory. In Motivation: Theory and research (pp. 23-40). Routledge.

Park, T. Y., Kim, S., & Sung, L. K. (2017). Fair pay dispersion: A regulatory focus theory view. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 142, 1-11.

Rahim, M. A. (2017). Managing conflict in organizations. Routledge.

Superior Carriers. (2020). Truck Company – Bulk Solution Provider | Superior Carriers. Retrieved 9 February 2020, from https://superior-carriers.com/