Discuss the risks of avoiding confrontation of a problem employee.

Post your Initial response to the Discussion question. This posting should be at least 250 words. 

Respond to at least 2 other students’ responses. Your primary posting can end with a “tag- line” or a related question of your own. 

REPLY – 1 (YASHWANTH KUDIKALA)

Employee issues

A company is built with a lot of enthusiasm and hope and a certain work culture. The employees, however, may not be someone who likes it there and may come up with several grievances with the company. These grievances need to be addressed in order to make sure that the end goals of the company are not affected. The way a company handles these disagreements and different modes of conflict create an impression on whether the management is a potent one or not.

Confrontation of employee risks

Statistics show that nearly 65% of the problems that an employee faces pertaining to performance comes from bad relationships between co-workers (Martin et al., 2012). There are issues which crop up like stress, morale is low and also trust issues when feelings are suppressed. The performance in the workplace suffers and so does productivity when these conflicts go unexplored. There is also normally a very high turnover of employees. Since problems mostly go unnoticed and most workers tend to leave to find a much better work culture. Then there is the problem that arises when people take sides. The parties which are in dispute remain as opponents long after the conflict has been forgotten and may lead to favoritism, the business gets affected, passive aggression and a completely unhealthy work environment. They are unable to communicate properly, have low productivity and are unable to maintain a positive attitude. It is also considered the managers’ fault for not spotting and rectifying the issue on time. Another risk is bottled up feelings that can result in blowups. They can take multiple forms, as a verbal argument with derogatory comments and in sever case even a physical confrontation (Menguc, & Auh, 2010).

It is recommended to use the S-B-I model in order to address such issues. The S-B-I model stands for the Situation-Behavior-Impact model. This type of model is made to increase motivation and create an effective behavior. Explain how a current bad behavior or conflict can lead to them having a lower impact in a workspace. Increase commitment to the organization.

While in contact and a conversation with a problem employee it is important to be very specific of which event it is being talked about so that they can also answer with complete clarity in mind. The actual behavior that was observed which had let to this issue come up to the management should also be explained clearly. There should not be any hint or sense of opinions or judgment in the conversation. It helps if any negative comment can be reinforced with a positive comment, making him feel comfortable boosting his confidence and explaining that it was an open forum where he can talk about his grievances. A good practice is to maintain a 3:1 ratio of positive to negative. It is important that the employee feels he is being provided a space to learn and grow instead of being forced on with opinions (Tang, Mu & MacLachlan, 2010).

In cases when even that does not work it can be escalated to the HR department, supervisor or legal if required. Before an escalation is made it must be sure that the event was handled fairly and there is a written record of the issues he faced and lowers litigation chances or negative repercussions.

References

Martin, R., Muuls, M., de Preux, L. B., & Wagner, U. J. (2012). Anatomy of a paradox: Management practices, organizational structure and energy efficiency. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 63(2), 208-223.

Menguc, B., & Auh, S. (2010). Development and return on execution of product innovation capabilities: The role of organizational structure. Industrial marketing management, 39(5), 820-831.

Tang, F., Mu, J., & MacLachlan, D. L. (2010). Disseminative capacity, organizational structure and knowledge transfer. Expert Systems with Applications, 37(2), 1586-1593.

REPLY – 2 (ANIL KUMAR METHARI)

Conflicts in an organization occur mainly due to not having proper communication among team members if it is not addressed in the early stages it will lead to major issues within the organization as well as organizations performance will decrease over a period of time. In many cases leaders in an organization mistake conflicts with disagreement but in reality, disagreements within organization not always turn into conflict they could be avoided form becoming conflicts. It is always a best practice for the representatives in organization to take steps in avoiding and solving the disagreements which will help organizations perform better. Many organizations do not perform better when there are conflicts in organizations as there are some issues like stress, low morale and also mistrust arise in organizations.

The following are the major issues which arise in organization first is conflicts in organization divide teams, when the disagreement arises between two teams and when it is not handled properly and resolved on time it will grow and many mis understandings arise within teams and will divide teams completely. Second important aspect to take a look at it is the increase in attrition rate which means that when there is no healthy environment to work at and when the conflicts within organization increase which in turn increase the employees frustration and many times employees try to change their work place by looking for better options. Finally all these reflect on to the management ultimately it is managements responsibility to detect and resolve conflicts.

References:

Zapf, D., & Gross, C. (2001). Conflict escalation and coping with workplace bullying: A replication and extension. European journal of work and organizational psychology, 10(4), 497-522.