HRM624 Assignment No. 1 Solution

Conflict Management (HRM624)

Assignment No. 1 Marks: 10

Knowledge Sharing

(Case Study)

Knowledge sharing is the blessing for any organization but specifically for research and academic institutions, where concepts, theories and knowledge generation are the best sources of Human Resource Development. Here is a case of an organization in which a very constructive and productive activity is converted into a useless and downbeat activity. All employees of this organization have started an activity of daily presentations and magazine.

The main objective of this activity is to improve the communication and presentation skill of an individual. But they have observed that the By-Product (Knowledge Sharing) of this activity becomes more fruitful and more dominating as compared to the main objective of this activity.

Now people are more concerned in attending the presentation and this builds a responsibility on presenter to make presentation more fruitful and better than before. This situation is ideal for presenter, people who are attending the presentation as well for the organization During this time, some of the culprits among employees try to deceive the management by writing their names on presentation attendance sheet but actually they left office for the entire period of session. This creates trouble and management takes a decision that nobody is allowed to get entrance in the presentation without prior intimation. For that purpose, different groups are made by the management and this division is random, without any logic and irrational. Also people are not allowed to attend any presentation of other group. Complicated procedure of intimation, emails, perplexity among supervisor, creates a chaotic situation. As a result, in the presentation of very able and senior most people, only five people were there.

All know the fact that, before the implementation of this new policy, presentation room used to jam-pack. It is very sad situation for so many people who are supporting this new idea of presentation. But some of the advisors of higher management do not want this activity to run smoothly because they don’t have the capability to participate. Now at this stage two pools are formed, one is supporting the old practice of knowledge sharing with “open doors” (comprises of more than 96% of the total work force) and second group, which is very small group of people (4% of the total work force) is in the favor of this new practice. Note that there are some people who are in favor of old practice of “open doors” but they have no courage to express their feelings. But after informal interviews and group discussions, they show their consent of being a part of larger group.

With the passage of time, majority get frustrated and they start feeling so many related which are not highlighted ever before. Like one of the employee highlighted the discrimination while selecting the best presenter. Also people start criticizing the criteria and its transparency. Some of the employees have reservation on the participation and topic selection. Some are saying that few people are manipulating whole situation in their favor and get benefited. Some are raising the issue of EEO (Equal Employee Opportunity). So there are lots of other issues raised (which did not exist ever before) after this new policy. One can say that this is the retaliation and in the response of this “Close Door” phenomena.

When people were asked about the solution of this issue, majority suggest that those culprits should be highlighted and punished rather to make new policy which is not acceptable for the majority of the people. They said that punishing whole organization due to malicious activity of few people is not fair. This creates a mind set that all employees are deceptive and they are being punished. But that’s not the intention of the higher management.

Question:

Consider yourself as the higher management of the organization, what will you do to resolve this conflict? Either to continue this practice of “Close Door” policy or go with the majority who is in the favor of “Open Door” policy. Give solid reasons to support your answer.

Note: Try to write your choice clearly (in bold) at the top and then write reasons in the bulleted form. Please note that your choice and supporting points should be rational and brief. Unnecessary details will result in marks deduction.

Schedule

Opening Date and Time January, 24, 2011 At 12:01 A.M. (Mid-Night)

Due Date and Time January, 28, 2011 At 11:59 P.M. (Mid-Night)

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Solution:

Reasons are as follow
· In open door policy, employees have direct access to the senior executives
without going through several gatekeepers.

· In open door policy, presentation room used to jam-pack. But in close door, few peoples are attending the presentation, and employees have so many complain after that.

· Because of the close door policy, a very constructive and productive activity is
converted into a useless and downbeat activity.

· In open door policy every manager's door is open to every employee. Open door policy encourages open communication, feedback, and discussion about any matter of importance to an employee.

· This productive activity should not be restricted with close door activity because of few culprits, who deceive managers by not attending presentations.

· When a company has an open door policy, employees are free to talk with any manager at any time.

· Open door policy helps to develop employee’s trust.

· Open door policy is the best method to immediately solve the problems of the employees.

· As in the higher management of the organization, I have to think about my employee’s suggestion as most of them supported open door policy.

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One more Idea solution

Open-door policy
An open-door policy (as related to the business and corporate world) is a policy in which a manager, CEO, president or supervisor leaves their office door "open" in order to encourage communication with the lower employees of that company. As the term implies, employees are encouraged to stop by whenever they feel the need to speak. Such a practice is viewed as a morale booster by letting employees feel as if they're able to openly speak with their boss about numerous issues face-to-face, rather than by other means, such as e-mail or voice mail.

Close Door Policy
Time is money, and hence when you have time you want to make use of most of it as much as possible. The amounts of hours we have in a day are very limited, so those who want to achieve something in life will treat time as such, PRECIOUS. But sometimes, unforeseen occurrences happen to interrupt our activities of the day.

Even so, there are other incidences we can avoid. For example, one of your valued customers may just decide to pop in to simply say hello or a long lost friend may have arrived in town and then decides to pass by your office during working hours. While at it, some of these kinds of unexpected visitors, might have long stories of what they have been up to of late hence disrupting your schedule.

The big question is how do you avoid this and still not risk losing a valued customer or appear to be rude to a friend. The secret is to draw a line from the start by applying the closed door policy especially when you do not want disruptions. Alert the secretary or colleagues whenever you want to avoid interruptions. You can decide not to pick phone calls or attend to any visitor. During this time ask the receptionist or colleague to take down your messages, marking the urgent ones.

Note that five minutes of disruption can affect a whole days input and hence affect the general

Question:Consider yourself as the higher management of the organization, what will you do to resolve this conflict? Either to continue this practice of “Close Door” policy or go with the majority who is in the favor of “Open Door” policy. Give solid reasons to support your answer.

Note: Try to write your choice clearly (in bold) at the top and then write reasons in the bulleted

I am in the favor of Open-door policy because of the following reasons

• This style is more open, more talents are attracted to the pool. The style will flourish and enrich
• Encourage open communication, feedback, and discussion about any matter of importance to an employee
• Employees are free to talk with any manager at any time
• By helping to solve problems, managers benefit by gaining valuable insight into possible problems with existing methods, procedures, and approaches
• Company's employees have the opportunity at all times, through the open door policy, to be heard.
• Addressing grievances or complaints should be handled very carefully
• The preferred method to immediately solve the problems of the employee.
• Open door policy focuses on majorities interests
• This policy involve in devoting the full consideration on work
• It’s a very constructive and productive activity

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