¶ … workplace conflict in the educational environment. The selected organization is a large educational institution, specifically its independent learning department, where there is tension and workplace conflict among the staff members. Specifically, there is tension between the full-time staff and part-time student staff, due to mismanagement and misunderstandings. One manager favors student staff over the full-time staff, since she was once a student worker herself, and it has driven a wedge between staff members, and several staff members have left or transferred to other departments.
First, it helps to define leadership, and what a good leader hopes to accomplish. One author notes, "Leadership means influencing people beyond routine compliance with directives and orders" (Levinson, 2005). Organizations employ leadership in many different ways. Author Levinson continues, "Leadership provides the key dynamic force that motivates and coordinates an organization to accomplish its objectives" (Levinson, 2005). Good leaders are examples to their staff, and they are effective because they know how to motivate, empower, and encourage their staff members to attain goals and objectives, and they mentor and coach their employees, as well. Author Levinson notes the qualities of a good leader. He writes, "Psychologist Daniel Goleman's extensive research indicates that most effective leaders share one essential quality. They have a high degree of Emotional Intelligence (EI) -- the ability to manage one's emotions and one's relationships effectively" (Levinson, 2005). On the other hand, poor leaders manage by less successful techniques, such as favoritism or intimidation, and that can ultimately be harmful to the organization and its morale.
Many classic motivational theories apply to this situation. For example, classical conditioning indicates that natural responses occur when certain stimuli invigorate and direct the desired behavior. When there are incentives, the desired behavior increases. Thus, a good manager could use a form of classical conditioning that stimulates and motivates the employee to complete tasks effectively, such as rewarding the employee with a gift or other type of reward when tasks are completed effectively. This classical conditioning stimulates the employee to complete the task successfully, because they expect a reward if they do. It is similar to the Pavlov experiment where the dog began to salivate when Pavlov rang the bell, because it anticipated the food reward coming after the bell. The staff member anticipates the reward at the end so they complete the task.
There are also many cognitive theories that apply to motivational leadership, as well. One is attribution theory. This theory believes that individuals will use certain "attributions" in an attempt to explain their successes or failures. The attributions can be external or internal, and they can be in control or not in control. A good leader helps their staff members gain internal control through effort and determination when completing tasks. If the leader leads effectively, staff members will feel they have control over their own actions and will complete tasks more effectively, and stay motivated longer.
Regarding organizational leadership in this specific situation in the educational setting, it was limited at best. Specifically, the department manager handed over most day-to-day leadership to her assistant, a newly hired assistant manager who had recently been a part-time student worker. The assistant managed the office staff, including full-time and part-time employees. She made it clear that she thought student workers had been "mistreated" by a previous manager, and that she felt they were "equal" in all respects to full-time staff members, many of whom had been with the department for many years. This angered the full-time workers and alienated them, which drove a wedge through the department. The part-time workers banded together, the full-time workers banded together, and it became a very tense and uncomfortable situation. There was very little display of organizational leadership, as the department manager sided with her assistant. In fact, they became friends...
Conflict, Decision-Making, Organizational Design Conflict, Decision Making, Organizational Design Publix Company How to apply negotiation strategies to address potential conflicts in workplace Conflicts in the workplace are a common experience that many mangers encounter. Conflicts are categorical of the nature where organizations are able to relate with each other together with personnel interaction. Within an organization or company as Publix Company, conflict resolution measures should be undertaken as part of the restructuring, growth and
The author points out employees will "give in to demands, even unreasonable ones, to avoid disagreement." Finally, some employees choose collaboration to resolve problems. The author asserts that collaboration involves being interested in ensuring that the desires of all team members are met. Employees that implement this type of conflict resolution tend to be solution oriented and the resolution to the conflict often results in a remedy that neither
Building Trust and Respect through Constructive Conflict Resolution One of the most significant advantages of genuine conflict resolution (i.e. through effective communication, validation, and specific methodologies that address underlying causes of conflict) in the workplace is that it typically generates increased mutual respect and trust among coworkers (Blair, 2003; Kinicki & Williams, 2005; Wisinski, 1993). Whereas superficial (i.e. supervisor-imposed) solutions to isolated conflicts tends only to resolve those specific conflicts in
This naturally tends to exacerbate the tension and increase the potential for conflict; as with many competing visions and views there are bound to be differences of opinion and consequently conflict between different individuals." As a result many people in many organizations are forced to invent their own corporate vision. When you have different versions of goals, direction, and values among different individuals and groups, you increase the probability
Educational Situations List 4 examples of opportunties you have given students to listen to language at school. Ensure that you include one example that reflects the relevance to the student's culture and background. A Jewish student, who attends Hebrew School classes in the evenings, shared information about the Hebrew alphabet and history about the Hebrew language with the class as part of a student-directed learning session. The entire class practiced reciting the
This researcher obtained a majority of the relevant, scholarly research through Questia, which advertises itself as the world's largest online library. During the third chapter of this research effort, the methodology segment, this researcher relates techniques utilized in the Literature Research Methodology to manipulate information which later contributed to the verdict of the hypothesis for this study. Information related to implementing and retrieving the bullying questionnaire is shared during the
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