HRM 624 Assig. Urgent idea solution required
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:55 pm
Case
A famous Pakistani organization in the textile business recently established a quality control
department to address some of its concerns about the decreasing quality of its products and processes.
Of late, there were several complaints by the customers and retailers about the decreasing quality of
cloth. These growing complaints also increased the concerns of top management about the expected
success for some of its new brands which are yet to be introduced in the market. So, a new manager
was appointed as the head of quality control department who was well qualified and had very useful
hands on experience of quality matters in the same sector. The quality control manager developed a
new strategy for incremental enhancement in the quality through operational efficiency and internal
monitoring mechanism. The top management also approved his new plan.
As part of its newly developed TQM strategy, quality control department started a training program
for all the departments of the organization and the sole purpose was to enhance the quality of all of
the operational processes – performed in the different departments. It was the first phase of quality
enhancement plan when the Quality Control Manager gave a detailed briefing about the plan to all
departmental heads; and all of them accepted the new plan of quality enhancement except the
Marketing Manager. Both managers (the quality control and the marketing) developed a conflict over
the new plan of quality enhancement – which they were to teach the employees through training
sessions. Marketing Manager was unwilling for those changes which were recommended by the
Quality Control Manager. None of the managers was ready to accept the view point of other. Even
the top management was worried with this new incident because they wanted to address the quality
matter on urgent basis.
Now, a buzz about this conflict has started within the organization’s employees, which poses a
potential threat to the internal and external repute of this organization. The CEO of organization is
allergic from such situations and rarely tolerates such matters. Of course, it is an internal matter of
the organization which the management does not want to be leaked out in the market where
competition is tough; and, therefore, they have to solve it as a priority matter.
Questions
1. Considering this scenario, what do you suggest about the solution of this conflict through the
Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) approach? (5 marks)
2. In the first phase of resolving this conflict, the HR manager performed interest analysis of
both the disputants and found that superficial interests of both the managers were different
from deeper interests. Which one of the two types of interests is more important to be
addressed for perfectly resolving this conflict? (5 marks)
3. Discuss whether a Cooperative Approach or a Competitive Approach would be more suitable
for resolving internal conflict in this scenario? (5 marks)
A famous Pakistani organization in the textile business recently established a quality control
department to address some of its concerns about the decreasing quality of its products and processes.
Of late, there were several complaints by the customers and retailers about the decreasing quality of
cloth. These growing complaints also increased the concerns of top management about the expected
success for some of its new brands which are yet to be introduced in the market. So, a new manager
was appointed as the head of quality control department who was well qualified and had very useful
hands on experience of quality matters in the same sector. The quality control manager developed a
new strategy for incremental enhancement in the quality through operational efficiency and internal
monitoring mechanism. The top management also approved his new plan.
As part of its newly developed TQM strategy, quality control department started a training program
for all the departments of the organization and the sole purpose was to enhance the quality of all of
the operational processes – performed in the different departments. It was the first phase of quality
enhancement plan when the Quality Control Manager gave a detailed briefing about the plan to all
departmental heads; and all of them accepted the new plan of quality enhancement except the
Marketing Manager. Both managers (the quality control and the marketing) developed a conflict over
the new plan of quality enhancement – which they were to teach the employees through training
sessions. Marketing Manager was unwilling for those changes which were recommended by the
Quality Control Manager. None of the managers was ready to accept the view point of other. Even
the top management was worried with this new incident because they wanted to address the quality
matter on urgent basis.
Now, a buzz about this conflict has started within the organization’s employees, which poses a
potential threat to the internal and external repute of this organization. The CEO of organization is
allergic from such situations and rarely tolerates such matters. Of course, it is an internal matter of
the organization which the management does not want to be leaked out in the market where
competition is tough; and, therefore, they have to solve it as a priority matter.
Questions
1. Considering this scenario, what do you suggest about the solution of this conflict through the
Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) approach? (5 marks)
2. In the first phase of resolving this conflict, the HR manager performed interest analysis of
both the disputants and found that superficial interests of both the managers were different
from deeper interests. Which one of the two types of interests is more important to be
addressed for perfectly resolving this conflict? (5 marks)
3. Discuss whether a Cooperative Approach or a Competitive Approach would be more suitable
for resolving internal conflict in this scenario? (5 marks)