Directions: Read the scenario below and use the discussion board to answer the q

Question

Directions: Read the scenario below and use the discussion board to answer the questions that follow.

Scenario

Teshunda, Jamie, and Bob work in the same department of a publishing company. Recently the department has received a large amount of work with strict deadlines. There are only three members in the department, and the employees are feeling pressure to complete all of the assigned tasks. Everyone feels overworked and stressed. While the three employees usually work well together, there have been conflicts about meeting deadlines and completing tasks.

Bob has been with the company for 13 years and has worked his way up in the organization from file clerk to supervisor. Jamie and Teshunda report to him.

Jamie has been the department’s junior editorial assistant for two years and has never received a promotion. She is a reliable worker with a history of completing assigned tasks on time, which is why Bob tends to assign her to complicated, time-consuming projects.

Teshunda has been with the company for eight years and has worked as Bob’s administrative assistant the entire time. She only accepts projects from him, but he hardly ever assigns work to her.

One afternoon, tensions run high while discussing a critical proposal and they find themselves involved in a heated discussion about the uneven distribution of work in the department.

Bob: Jamie, the magazine proposal is overdue. Where is it? I need to review it before tomorrow’s board meeting.

Jamie: I’m still working on it. You just gave it to me yesterday, on top of five other high- priority projects.

Bob: I need it by the end of the day today. Also, can you put together the reviews for the Pratt book?

Jamie: That’s impossible! Pulling together reviews for the Pratt book will take at least a full day to complete. Teshunda, don’t you do any work around here? Just because you are the favorite doesn’t mean you can’t help out.

Teshunda: Don’t yell at me! You’re not my boss. Bob is. Besides, it’s not my fault you have so much work to get done.

Jamie: So can you help me or not?

Teshunda: Why should I help? Bob told you to do the work, not me.

Jamie: Fine. Bob, the amount of work that has been assigned to me is unfair. You are treating me unfairly by always dumping work on me. Teshunda doesn’t do anything, and that’s not right.

Teshunda: Jamie, if there is a problem with your workload, you need to find a way to resolve the issue. I don’t appreciate the lack of respect from a co-worker.

Jamie: Teshunda, since when are you the expert on professional behavior? Bob you need to understand that I am stressed and over-worked. I feel like the more I do the more work I get assigned.

Bob: I think this is getting out of hand.

Exercise

Using examples from the scenario presented in this graded exercise, respond to the questions that follow. Quality responses will address all of the questions and integrate information from the readings and videos with your own personal experiences. Refer back to your notes from the Pre-work as you prepare your thoughts. Please respond to other students’ discussion board posts as well. Feel free to respond to your peers’ discussion board posts as well.

What do you believe are the key conflicts presented in this scenario?

What ways would you recommend to each of the three participants for handling the conflict in a more professional manner?

Share an example of a time when you faced a related conflict in your personal of professional lives. How did you address the conflict? Was the issue resolved? If yes, discuss ways you worked to resolve the conflict. If no, discuss why not.

Explanation / Answer

Ans.1) The given scenario involving Teshunda, Jamie and Bob working in the same department of a publishing company is a case of uneven distribution of workload in a team and poor leadership skills. The case highlights how the three workers of the publishing company are feeling overburdened and stressed out due to the increasing workload. The key conflicts presented in the scenario are discussed below:

Ans.2) In order to avoid the conflict that’s presented in the given scenario, the role of supervisor Bob is of highest importance. As the supervisor of the department, he is expected to motivate his team to work together and meet the deadlines, identify points of dissatisfaction among any of his sub-ordinate (Jamie in this case) and should work on solutions to the given organisational problems. Whenever a team’s workload is not evenly distributed, it is common for the burdened employee to feel frustrated, demotivated and dissatisfied. As a result, it affects the productivity and efficiency of the entire department. The team in such scenarios often miss the project deadlines or deliver an under-quality work which hampers the long term growth of the organisation. Therefore, the roles of all the members are discussed below through which they can handle this conflict in a more professional manner:

Bob (Supervisor):

Jamie and Teshunda:

Ans.3)

In one of my assignments where I was the store manager of a growing fast food chain, I faced a similar issue. Since, it was a comparatively new setup, the processes were not streamlined, scope of duties were not fixed and no one had clear understanding of their responsibilities, therefore, often we all had to work on activities that we were not initially hired for.

On one particular day, our head chef complained that the helper assigned to him is not helping him in the preparation of food. And, in addition to actually cooking the food, he himself had to carry out the mundane tasks like buying vegetables, washing and cleaning them, cutting/chopping them as per the recipe of the dish he was preparing, which left him frustrated and he felt overburdened. There was huge dispute between both the workers and one of them even decided to quit the job.

I, as the supervisor of the store, tried to intervene between them and took the following actions to resolve the issue:

In this way, by properly communicating with the team members, effectively listening to their problems and evenly distributing the work, the issue was resolved and the restaurant continued to function smoothly and has prospered over a period of time.

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