Conflict Resolution

Erica was night supervisor in ABC company. Her job is to assign the staff and make sure that all blood units are process for the respective components without loss of any product. One night she started her shift with so much of pending work. She delegated the night staff their task so as to get the maximum work done. She then started her own routine work. After sometime she noticed that staff were talking to each other and not paying attention to the work. As it was busy night and she had a lot to finish ,she came on the floor and asked the staff to go back to workstation. Her tone and approach was very wrong. She was aggressive and bossing to them as she is supervisor.

The staff did not like her approach but they did not argue initially and started their work. Erica was under stress as she was aware about the work load. She did not move from their and continued to keep an eye on the staff as she did not have trust on them. One of staff,Robert mentioned to her that she can continue her work and do not worry about the work. They will definitely concentrate on the job. She did not believed him and again started arguing with him as she was a boss. Robert and other staff they did not like her behavior so they started giving back answer to her. The whole lab atmosphere was charged up and end up in the big discussion and argument. Erica mentioned to them she has licence and authority to watch them as she is their supervisor and they have to obey her commands.

This statesmen of her escalated the whole issue and continued for a long time. This situation turned in to a big arguments and conflict that it had a great impact on the productivity of work. There was a big loss of components as they were not able to process in a timely manner.

Next day the staff meeting was called on by Manager and all the night staff were called to attend the meeting. Robert with his group was waiting for this opportunity to see directly manager as they can talk to him about Erica's behavior. They all decided to put their concern to him as they wanted to discuss Erica's way of working with them.

In the meeting, the manger was very upset and was blaming them for the loss of product. As per him. the staff did not work efficiently and did not give their cooperation to supervisor so as to finish the targeted work.The staff negative behavior implicated on the conflict escalation and were informed to change the behavior and work in accordance with Erica.

The staffs were very upset and wanted to share their concerns but Manager called off the meeting.

Communication has a big role to play in a conflict management. It has been always observed that poor communication always result in the misunderstanding and eventually in conflict. The above case study is the result of poor communication. The supervisor should have not used the harsh words with the staff. Communication is a process of exchanging information and feelings. It allows us the opportunity to express our view points, share our assumptions and inquire into the other person's mode of thinking. Good communication skills are essential in conflict because they increase understanding and reduce the risk of jumping to conclusion and making the generalizations.

Dysfunctional approach for the conflict resolution: Dysfunctional conflict,consists of disputes and disagreements that hinder company,s performance. This generally involves people who are willing to work together to solve the problem and