Navigating Conflict in Leadership: A Case Study in Military Leadership and Team Morale

This is the situation I plan to talk about in the 5-6 minute video. Please write the 2-3 pages as required in the below instructions to build around my answer.

“Throughout all the jobs and positions I’ve held while being active duty and pre-military, I have had the most conflict being in the Army. Mostly due to generational differences, age, social norms, socio-economic dynamics and upbringing. I had a leader who no matter what you did he would constantly put the team’s morale down with every task. For the sake of this discussion and protect his privacy we will call him Jake. Jake was a 42year old man who, at the time, had 6 years of service. He was from a small town in Wisconsin and has never left his town prior to joining the military. There was a situation where we were tasked by him to conduct some work on our assigned vehicles on a hot summer day. About an hour into the task which takes about 3-4 hours of manpower to complete, he gets angry at everyone for the task not being completed and started belittling everyone. I immediately spoke up and told him that its inappropriate to talk down to us and how its been an issue since hes being on the team. He told me to stop whining and that he’s more upset that I “undermined his leadership” by speaking up. He made us do corrective action, which includes doing various physical exercises until exhaustion. He continued to do this until one of my teammates passed out from heat exhaustion. He told us after he was evacuated by the ambulance that if we say a word about what happened he would make sure we were processed out of the Army. I persuaded my team to collectively talk to the company commander to explain what was happening. The outcome of what I did when I stood up and persuaded A few days later he was removed from the team and from what was told to us that he was punished and will be pending separation if we all agreed to write sworn statements against him.”

 

Module 4 – Case

BUILDING WORKPLACE RELATIONSHIPS

Assignment Overview

In this assignment you are an applicant who has been asked the following question during a job interview for a supervisory/management position:

Tell me about a time you had to deal with a conflict and discuss its outcome.

In your video, describe what led to your involvement in the conflict, what actions you took to resolve the situation, the results of your actions, and what you will do differently when faced with the same situation in the future.

After watching and reflecting upon the video below, prepare your response following the principles learned in this video.

· Prepare a 5- to 6-minute video of you responding to that question.

· Also prepare a 2- to 3-page outline of how you addressed the ideas found in the video. Include a Reference list of at least two sources you utilized to prepare your submission. At least one of these references must be a high-quality (peer-reviewed academic journal) reference found in the Trident Online Library.

Upload your video to the dropbox by the module due date.

Note: If you have difficulty uploading your submission, it could be because the internet connection is too slow and because of the size of your video, and the upload may time out.

However, these files can be uploaded to YouTube and the link shared. Set as public or unlisted, NOT PRIVATE. Unlisted means your video/slide presentation will not come up in search results. Only those who know the link can view it, even if they do not have a YouTube account/username.

Important: Put the link to your video in a Word document and submit your Word document along with your outline document in the drop box.

AccelaCoach. (2017).  How to answer: Interview questions on resolving conflict  [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqssla8dazc

Case Assignment Expectations

Your submission will be assessed on the criteria found in the grading rubric for this assignment:

· Meets assignment requirements

· Critical thinking

· Writing and assignment organization

· Use of sources and mechanics.

· Timeliness of assignment

 

 

Module 4 – Background

BUILDING WORKPLACE RELATIONSHIPS

A start to maintaining good employee relations is to comply with the employment laws. (Look back to the Module 1 Background for a quick review of some of the major compliance issues.)

Even if activities in the workplace do not rise to the level of noncompliance with laws, it is important that workplaces are perceived by all parties to be efficient, equitable, and open to employee voice.

Let’s continue with this topic of building workplace relationships by viewing the following video:

Ash, E. (2019).  Building relationships [Video]. Alexander Street: A ProQuest Company. Available in the Trident Online Library, Academic Video Online database.

Employee Relations in a Union-Free Environment

Many times, employee relations break down because of interpersonal conflicts. The video below encourages employers to take a proactive approach to employee relations so that problems and issues are resolved at the lowest level.

So, what can we do as individuals to handle disagreements at work? View the following video that provides you the simple STABEN model on how to work through disagreements amicably.

Byrne, J. (2013, April 22).  Conflict resolution in 6 simple easy steps  [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSGy5yvC0hM

Not surprisingly, sometimes at work employees and supervisors disagree and cannot get past the issue.

The video below encourages supervisors to take a proactive approach to employee relations so that problems and issues do not escalate. The video about a supervisor-employee relationship displays two different outcomes with one obviously being the desired outcome:

Review the following video:

Handling Workplace Bullying  – From LinkedIn Learning

And, if the issues continue, the three basic types of dispute resolution available are mediation, arbitration, and litigation. Read the following for a summary of each. There are also links to good sources in this article.

Staff. (2020). What are the three basic types of dispute resolution?  Program on Negotiation. Harvard University.  https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/dispute-resolution/what-are-the-three-basic-types-of-dispute-resolution-what-to-know-about-mediation-arbitration-and-litigation/

Resolving Differences with Union Help

There are times when the relationship between the employer and groups of employees breaks down and one or both sides feel they need help from a third party. This is when a labor union might appear attractive to employees in their attempts to improve workplace conditions.

Let’s briefly look at some of the reasons people seek unionizing their workplace and join unions. For instance, they may feel their economic needs are not being met with their current wages and benefits and believe that a union can help them receive better economic prospects. Fairness in the workplace is another reason why people join unions. They may feel that scheduling, vacation time, transfers, and promotions are not given fairly and feel that a union can help eliminate some of the inequity associated with these processes.

Note: In MGT412 we have a Module devoted to the development of union influence in the U.S. In that course we discuss the history of unions, reasons for decline in union membership, union labor laws, and the process employees go through to form a union. But for our purposes in MGT407 taking a look at current union challenges helps us to understand that there are other ways to solve issues, especially in light of knowing the challenges of unionization.

Current Union Challenges

As you learned in previous HR courses, employment relations concern the relationship between organizational leadership and employees via union group representation and collective bargaining.

In decades past, most employment terms were confined to basic employment relationships, such as individualized, informal, or based on verbal agreements. These situations give employers almost complete discretion (or “managerial prerogative”) over the main elements of employment relationships: hiring; firing; remuneration; work scheduling and duration; work intensity; work breaks; discipline; and workplace health and safety.

In the absence of labor market protections for workers—through unions, collective bargaining, works councils and state labor market regulation—employers have faced very few, mostly weak, constraints on their choices to abuse that power. Such constraints derived from societal norms, religious law, labor market exigencies—such as skill shortages—and forms of early collective regulation of skilled work through and within organizations like craft guilds (Deakin, as cited in Wilkinson, Dundon, Donaghey, & Colvin, 2018).

The advent of industrialization brought to the forefront the need for worker protections, and thus the creation on unions and collective bargaining. In the early years of industrialization, workers were often abused, underpaid, fired without warrant, and overworked. Therefore, and keeping in mind that there were no employee protection laws in place in the U.S. at that time, there was a need for some sort of organization to develop that protected workers from these and other types of abuse.

The formation of unions was itself fraught with challenges, corruption, and abuse. For instance, in the early 1940s in Flint, Michigan, non-union workers were often beaten and sometimes killed by union members in an effort to get them to join the local union. This caused some people to join the union, but it also caused others to leave the industry for other positions, such as joining the military or the Michigan State Police.

Since those dangerous days, things have changed to the good for a lot of workers in the United States and this is because of the many laws enacted that protect all workers, not just those in factories or other union-backed industries, such as teaching and police officers. Just six of these laws (DOL, n.d.) are:

Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act: Workplace safety and health.

Workers’ Compensation: Covered by laws in each state, not a federal law.

Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA): For employee benefit security and it regulates employers who offer pension or welfare benefit plans.

Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (Landrum-Griffin Act): Deals with the relationship between unions and its members.

Family and Medical Leave Act: Requires employers of 50+ employees to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to eligible employees.

Veterans Preference: Gives veterans and eligible persons special employment rights with the federal government.

This is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to protections provided by state and federal agencies within the United States. You can read more about each of these as well as the other 12 areas of protection found on the Department of Labor web page, Summary of the Major Laws of the Department of Labor:  https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/majorlaws

 

Sources of the above:

U.S. Department of Labor. (n.d.)  Summary of the major laws of the Department of Labor.  https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/majorlaws

Wilkinson, A., Dundon, T., Donaghey, T., & Colvin, A. J. S. (2018).  The Routledge companion to employment relations [Books 24×7 version]. http://library.books24x7.com.ezproxy2016.trident.edu/toc.aspx?bookid=137778.

 

Module 4 Summary

In this final module, we examine the topic of resolving differences in the workplace so that positive work relations result. Most employers want to create work environments that are attractive to potential and current employees. At times, however, the relationship between employer and employee is unsteady. Sometimes, there are significant differences between the needs and wants of the two sides.

We hope by taking this course you have learned that Human Resource Management with a Human Capital focus is a dynamic, multifaceted, challenging field of study that melds together several different disciplines. If you decide to pursue a more in-depth study of HRM, the Bachelor’s in HRM is offered at Trident as well as the Master of Science in Human Resource Management. If you pursue the Master of Business Administration, there is a concentration in Human Resource Management offered.

In all of our HRM courses, we pursue topics introduced in this class as well as other people-related topics. Compared to undergraduate study, at the graduate level, the topics are presented with a larger critical thinking component, enabling students to explore in more depth some of the many HRM strategies that contribute to overall business success.

Required Readings

Ash, E. (2019).  Building relationships [Video]. Alexander Street: A ProQuest Company. Available in the Trident Online Library, Academic Video Online database.

Addressing and resolving conflict  – From LinkedIn Learning

Conflict Resolution For Beginners  – From LinkedIn Learning

Conducting investigations  – From LinkedIn Learning

Make a Dent Leadership. (2019).  5 types of conflict in the workplace and how to handle them [Video]. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7-bbd1F9bk

Staff. (2020). What are the three basic types of dispute resolution?  Program on Negotiation. Harvard University.  https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/dispute-resolution/what-are-the-three-basic-types-of-dispute-resolution-what-to-know-about-mediation-arbitration-and-litigation/  Shareable content per Harvard website.

Urban Vids. (2019).  Massive fight at their workplace  [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wePI6cYHoHQ

Backward: Getting it Right from the Start (p. vii-viii), Chapter 1: When All Else Fails: Terminating the Employment Relationship (p. 1-17),  Chapter 2: Document, Document, Document (p. 19-38), Chapter 3: Coaching, Counseling, and Correcting (p. 39-56) in:   Walters, C. (2017).  From hello to goodbye: Proactive tips for maintaining positive employee relations. Society for Human Resource Management. Available in the Trident Online Library.