Free Essay Sample on Developing Management Capability

Introduction

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Development of capacity for management serves as the heart for the growth of any business. Nevertheless, it is vital to note that organizations realize growth when individuals grow. Serving as a manager within an organization entails more than assuming additional duties, resource allocation, or decision making (O'Rourke & Collins, 2012, p. 16). It entails having the capacity for nurturing talent in its diverse forms to ensure that people remain inspired to exercise their level best. In case managers are not in a position to develop team members, organizations encounter the risk of decline or stagnation. In case successful individual in a company leave because of inefficient capability by the management, the bottom lines impact becomes significantly high to ignore (Doherty & Gyler, 2012, p. 27). The current business environment requires companies to consider emphasizing on building the capacity for the management now, mostly because of the widening competition, easy access to rates of growth and technology, and commoditized services in diverse organizations which seem to go past their expectations. One of the major ways that businesses can manage to develop management capacity is through focusing on conflict and negotiation (Masters & Albright, 2013, p. 57).

Literature Review

Conflict and Negotiation Overview

Conflict and negotiation serve as key aspects involved in operating a business. Owners of businesses encounter conflict with managers, partners, public, and employees. Talk is usually essential in creating ideal solutions in the case of the parties affected by a conflict. Most home-based and small businesses, for instance, focus on avoiding conflict and negotiation, mostly because the owners handle the duty of completing the activity of the organizations. Nevertheless, outside negotiations and disputes take place for diverse organizations in the business setting (Raines, 2012, p. 34).

Facts: Conflicts within an organization occur whenever individuals have distinct beliefs, ideas, and theories concerning the operations of an organization. The owners of the businesses might also encounter conflicts in case they bargain with other firms or individuals. Attaining economic resources or assets from other companies usually revolves around bargaining (Goldman & Shapiro, 2012, p. 27). Negotiation entails the process of discussing the position of individuals regarding a particular topic or aiming to come up with a solution, which leads the two parties to realize benefits. Conflicts, as well as negotiation, usually become highly apparent in the case of big businesses since more people take part in the activities of the organizations (Falconer, 2011, p. 16).

Features: Conflict and negotiations might result in the development of several options for addressing challenging situations. Owners of businesses might consider following some steps when processing the options for discussion as well as the solution. These might comprise of problem identification, issues analysis, unique strategy creation, or act on certain ideas or outcomes. The steps, in this case, offer a logical process worth following when addressing issues related to conflict and negotiation (Signh, 2014, p. 47).

Function: Owners of businesses might consider utilizing conflict negotiation to allow them develop ideal outcomes when confronted by stronger parties. Small businesses lack sufficient purchasing power or positions for negotiating when compared to bigger companies (Poitras & Raines, 2013, p. 18). The lower purchasing power usually leads owners of businesses to consider devising the best ideal situations to save the company from wasting significant resources when improving the quality of product or production process. They ought to utilize negotiation to allow them develop relationships, which offer their organization competitive advantage over other firms in the marketplace (Cloke & Goldsmith, 2011, p. 29).

Considerations: Organization owners should consider developing a BATNA (best alternative to negotiated agreement) mostly because they might not realize all their requests in the event of the process for conflict and negotiation. Having a BATNA allows business owners to gain considerable concessions during the process of negotiation. Nonetheless, the alternatives might end up creating additional conflicts whenever they require the organizations to surrender extra benefits (Gramberg, 2015, p. 37).

Warning: The process of conflict and negotiation might result in an incidence whereby a single party would participate in unethical business practices. Owners of small businesses might find themselves in this situation especially if they do not have sufficient experience concerning coping with conflict and negotiation (Ayoko, Ashkanasy, & Jehn, 2014, p. 86). They would need a resolve that would permit them to avoid conflicts or even negotiations, which might lead to an unfavorable situation for the firm. Failure to reconcile or negotiate conflicts might pose challenges for organizations looking forward to advance or boost their operations (Eisaguirre, 2011, p. 39).

Coping with Organizational Workplace Instances

In any enterprise, the conflict might disrupt productivity, thus result in severe employee turnover. Human resource experts and managers should consider emerging proficient in managing the crisis, while conflict negotiation serves as a major area of emphasis. Comprehending the diverse ways through which conflict in the workplace develops would be used as an ideal tool for understanding the excellent tools for addressing the conflict negotiation issue (Kolb & Porter, 2015, p. 46).

Guidelines Clarification

During certain times, clashes in the workplace require clarification of the policies governing a company or the duties that employee undertake. For example, in the case of employees start engaging in disputes over the obligation of taking a particular role, the management would need to clarify the various job duties (Cloke & Goldsmith, 2011, p. 57). Negotiating a conflict end that results from policy or duty misinterpretations serves as a companys opportunity for developing clear guidelines that hinder conflicts from occurring at a future date (Doherty & Gyler, 2012, p. 39). When negotiating for guidelines, it is vital to ensure that the departmental manager and the employees, as well as a representative of the human resource, provide the clarifications carried out via negotiation emerge as part of the duties of the company (Roche, Teague, & Colvin, 2014, p. 19).

Workload

Conflicts within an organization might emerge within a group due to severe workload, which leads the staff to develop stress. The management should consider adopting a proactive approach for negotiation whenever levels of work elevate. Here, the anticipation of annual peaks planning within the organization, including customer increase or holidays becomes critical (Goldman & Shapiro, 2012, p. 62). The employees need preparations in such a way that they would manage to cope with the rise in workload through the provision of overtime of shifts that can assist in dealing with the levels of stress among employees. In case workload conditions are not addressed adequately in advance, conflict negotiations serve as ideal tools for coming up with solutions to reduce the additional work burden among employees. Extra breaks among employees or introducing part-time workers would play a fundamental role in addressing the conflicts prevalent in an organization (Roche, Teague, & Colvin, 2014, p. 37).

Exchanging Information

Individuals within an organization typically communicate in unique ways. Several people need minimal information to gain an understanding of a particular subject, whereas others require additional information in line with explicit elaboration to allow them to understand the meaning. In case employees portray diverse ways of processing and conveying information, conflicts might emerge (Allwood, 2012, p. 59). Negotiating any form of misunderstanding that result from information might be simple, such as allowing every side to state its position, while the manager would then serve as a facilitator responsible for assisting every team in understanding certain concepts. Before allowing the parties to come together to address the conflicts that exist between them, the manager needs to take considerable time in discussing the problems the various groups encounter individually to ensure that upon reaching an understanding, no other conflict would emerge (Roche, Teague, & Colvin, 2014, p. 82).

Diagnostic Tools

In developing management capability within an organization to facilitate in addressing the conflict and negotiation issue, organizations can deploy several diagnostic tools, which comprise of Johari Window, Thomas Kilmann Conflict Model, and Belbins Team inventory.

Johari Window Inventory

The Johari Window Inventory serves as a simple as well as useful tool ideal for boosting personal improvement and self-awareness of people within teams as well as groups based on the broader context in which they undertake their operations. The model is utilized by organizations to assist in improving interpersonal relationships, communications, inter-group relationships, and group dynamics, thereby facilitate in handling the conflict and negotiation issue efficiently (Jordan, 2016, p. 34). The major strength of the framework is that it can serve as a self-assessment tool for boosting the understanding of people concerning themselves through service as an evaluation of the diverse skills they possess or their professional or personal traits. It encourages reflection through making it possible for teams and individuals to lay emphasis on their weaknesses and strengths from the viewpoint of their managers, their own, customer feedback, and colleagues. Nevertheless, the fundamental weakness of the model is that it deserves utilization within a team or group context. It results to particular drawbacks in case it is not facilitated in a broad manner, such as when individuals to not share things they feel uncomfortable sharing, hence leading to distrust among the team members (The Ultimate Guide, 2014, p. 56).

Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument

TKI (Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument) serves as an inventory for a conflict whose goal is to measure the way that individuals respond to situations characterized by conflict. The model comprises of thirty statement pairs while each respondent gets the opportunity for selecting either item A or B, designed in such a way that they emerge as socially desirable. It allows individuals to note whether they are underusing or overusing low scores or high scores respectively of the five modes of handling conflict including collaborating, compromising, accommodating, avoiding, or competing (Gelfand & Brett, 2011, p. 43). The key strength affiliated with TKI is that it is possible to administer and interpret it since it demands around 15 minutes for answering questions while a trainer would need about an hour to explain. The materials for interpretation assist respondents in identifying how they can utilize the styles more efficiently while supporting them in being comfortable with the styles they do not feel are familiar. Regarding weaknesses, certain respondents might find the questionnaire choice of style as forced, thereby leading them to be frustrated. It would emerge due to bias that results from minimized social desirability, thus posing challenges in selecting the answers that appear better (Allwood, 2012, p. 82).

Belbin Team Inventory

The Belbin Team Inventory tool serves as a test meant for analyzing behavior through focusing on nine roles for teams. The major function of the inventory is to concentrate on assessing the ways in which individuals behavior while in an environment characterized by groups. It comprises of a 360-degree observers feedback in line with the individual evaluations of people concerning their practices while contrasting the ways they [perceive their unique behavior with the ones of their colleagues (Belbin, 2012, p. 14). The major strength associated with the Belbin Team Model framework is that it makes it possible to address the ideal team roles while ensuring that potential managers handle the weaknesses and tensions apparent among team members adequately. Nevertheless, the tool would be ineffective in case the teams are unbalanced in such a way that it becomes challenging to identify any similarities or weaknesses they protract, thereby posing challenges concerning identifying strategies that can address their natural styles (Belbin a, 2012, p. 26).

Areas for Improvement

When focusing on developing management capability, in particular through targeting the conflict and negotiation issue, the major area worth improving would be the one related to the input of employees. Understanding the contribution of employees would play a vital role in leading to the development of a realistic plan of initiatives that would facilitate in boosting knowledge and skills during the coming six months. One of the primary areas worth focusing on is ensuring that employees feel involved in the organization's success to avoid the emergence of conflicts. In case staff feels alienated for not being provided opportunities for participating in the decision-making process of the company, they would start portraying poor behavior. Therefore, within the next six months, it is crucial to ensuring that the management negotiates with the employees who feel alienated from the operations of the organization. The managers should not only focus on telling the workers what they are supposed to do, but also develop avenues, which the employees can allow employees to raise their views concerning operations within the company. The ideal ways that the managers can realize the initiative within the next six months would be through establishing an open door policy or introduce a suggestion box for the employees to use in raising their opinions concerning the operations of the company. The move would play a significant role in reducing incidences of conflicts within the organization considerably.

References

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Ayoko, O. B., Ashkanasy, N. M., & Jehn, K. A. (2014). Handbook of Conflict Management Research. New York: Edward Elgar Publishing.

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Kolb, D. M., & Porter, J. L. (2015). Negotiating at Work: Turn Small Wins into Big Gains. New York: Wiley.

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