Abb's Relays Business: Building and Managing a Global Matrix

Identify three places in the dialogue where Jan and Ken missed opportunities to manage conflict successfully. Give specific suggestions (supported by the text material) on how the conflict management strategies could have been incorporated to improve the

You need to be able to actively listen and come to a compromise from this, and above all try to avoid accusations.

A meeting with all involved parties to discuss the issue is also another good way to resolve conflict. Everyone will have a chance to speak; this is a good opportunity to hear all sides of the story and gain a full understanding of the conflict.

26. What can managers do to encourage useful conflict during a meeting to lessen inhibition about disagreeing and make the conflict less personal? Involve others in collaboration

Even when taking this approach some will still want to play the blame game or argue about who is right. The book suggests three different ways to deal with these situations. First, reframing the conversation into concepts the other person can relate to. Second, when the other party persistently puts the conversation off track, by interrupting or denying emotions, explicitly name that behavior and raise it as an issue for discussion. Finally, when all else fails, listen. The authors state "the single most important rule about managing the interaction is this: you can't move the conversation in a more positive direction until the other person feels heard and understood.” (Stone, Patton, & Heen, 1999, p. 206)

The business that I chose to research is General Electric. GE is one of the oldest and largest businesses in the United States. They are ranked #26 largest firm in the U.S and the 14th most profitable. GE is a massive, diversified and profitable conglomerate with a lot of very good but unrelated businesses. GE has expanded to incorporate television, airplane engines, medical devices, household appliances and commercial financing. Analyzing GE’s business-level strategy is somewhat difficult being that GE has so many different divisions. Any of these products would serve as a large and viable business on its own but

* What organizational structure, management processes, and philosophy will foster superior performance from the company’s business units?

In 1963, with the purchase of American Cable Systems and its 1,200 subscribers in the city of Tupelo, Massachusetts, Ralph Roberts founded Comcast. By 2016 Comcast is one of the nations leading providers of entertainment, communication as well as cable products and services. Nationwide Comcast has over 100,000 employees; each day the company provides over 142 million phone calls, over 136 million emails and over 12 million received voicemails. To date Comcast is the leading cable provider in 19 states nationwide. Since 1963 Comcast has continued to grow with monumental purchases as well as mergers that were blocked by the government in efforts to stop a potential monopoly. Throughout the company’s history, it has grown in three categories Cable, Phone and internet.

According to the text the “what happened conversation” is where most difficult conversation develop from, which is the heart of what is going wrong between individuals. They may agree on the basic facts but have different interpretations of what it means. We often play the blame game where we think they are to blame and they think we are to blame. To defuse the situation the authors suggest adopting the “And Stance,” which acknowledges that both parties have different views on the situation but both views matter.

The initial conflict was started due to an incompatibility of goals by the two parties. Michael wanted to fulfill his work obligation and prioritized that over study hours while the executive board was concerned for obtaining those study hours. Tensions got heated when they confronted him head on after returning home from work, which lead to finger pointing and bickering. The initial conflict interaction ended relatively shortly, but the conflict seemed to push forward over the span of a couple weeks. Evaluating the goals on both sides is crucial to apprehending the communicative process (Berger, 2005). Due to the goals being misconceived, it lead to a standstill. Another important proximal context aspect that directed this conflict was the rules that were at play. Since this conflict was an organizational conflict instead of a social conflict, it created little room for Michael to justify his actions through emotions or other strategies. The organizational goals were not aligned with Michaels prior to the conflict itself, which our textbook would explain that Michael was challenging the rules of the organization through the use of conflict in desire to change the rules and or create new ones (Cupach, Canary & Spitzberg, 2010). It goes without saying, that this conflict did not lead to a successful resolution; but understanding the proximal outcomes and how they shaped the individuals experience is worth noting for future

Provide a detailed explanation of the various components existing in the management environment that can influence or impact Brinker International. (25)

Based on the development of the event, the possible scenarios are 1) The dispute is taken to the JV Committee and Ellen is expelled from the group, taking the blame of being the ineffective leader; 2) recruiting new consultants for the project who have the required qualification and skills to do the job; 3) Jack is replaced by other consultant from JVI with relative more experience in project management. 4) Ellen and Jack communicate the problem and find a way to compromise.

An organisation is a defined and stratified entity composed of people, who are united by association (e.g. through employment) toward meeting a specific goal (Business Dictionary, 2017). The foregoing definition lends insight into the existence of diverse roles and responsibilities expected from members of an organisation, which roles interface with supervisory, subservient and inter-personal interactions.

Although there are signs that the company has a matrix structure in place, they do not follow a programme management approach and numerous failures within the structure exist. Their approach to management is still that of a traditional organisational approach, which tends management to lack both strategic purpose and customer focus.

     The five steps used to complete a conflict resolution are diagnosis, goal setting, negotiation, future strategies, and follow-up.  During the diagnosis and goal setting stages, we would establish the nature, source, and scope of the conflict to better aid us in finding and setting a goal.  During negotiation and future strategy stages, we would enhance individual skills, facilitate meetings, and ensure constructive resolution is reached and then, help the students establish new model and behaviors for resolving future conflicts.  Finally, the