HR Planning

Explain why it is vital for organizations to have HR plans. What might be the problems if they do not?

The HR department is responsible for planning a number of things including; recruitment and selection, training and re-training, career progression, transfers and redeployment, early retirement, expected skills shortages, anticipated redundancies and many more. It is for this reason that it is absolutely fundamental for all organizations to have a HR plan no matter how large or small a scale they operate on.

The HR plan is a key management tool that helps improve an organizations control over certain aspects of their operation. The HR plan enables companies to predict actual competencies required, assists in responding to supply and demand, and helps to understand how to meet the organizations needs. Also, the plan helps in understanding the HR problems and how to tackle them. For example, if there was a shortage of skills within the workforce the HR plan would identify this problem and encourage managers to take appropriate action such as providing training, recruiting overseas, and changing contracts for more flexibility.

HR planning is also vital in helping management understand what kinds of duties are required of them, what tasks need to be carried out and how many employees would be required in order to complete those tasks. Not only this, but the plan also provides the organization with an indication of the validity of the action they plan on taking.

If a business does not carry out a HR plan they are likely to encounter problems concerning their staff. Without one, managers wouldn’t know what qualities to look for when recruiting staff and are therefore more likely to end up hiring unsuitable candidates who lack in the very skills that they require.

Using Rodger’s seven point person specification (in Foot and Hook) draft a person specification for a university lecturer.

· Physical make-up: Good communication skills, smart appearance, well organised.

· Attainments: suitable qualifications i.e. degree level as well as specialized teaching requirements and previous experience in teaching.

· General intelligence: innovative approach to both teaching and learning.

· Special aptitudes: evidence of extensive knowledge and experience within field/ subject

· Interests: must have a strong passion for education and be willing to learn as well as teach, must enjoy teaching.

· Disposition: must have good characteristics i.e. open mind, confident speaker etc…

· Circumstances: must be 100% committed to the job without any interference from external factors.

Key labour questions Waitrose would ask themselves when considering opening a new store in High Wycombe:

1) Who are the competitors?

2) Local demographics?

3) Do we need to invest in training new staff?

4) Population of High Wycombe?

5) Unemployment rate?

References:

Business Open Learning Archive, (2009). Alec Rodger: Seven Point Plan [online] Available from: http://www.bola.biz/recruitment/rodger.html [Accessed 18 April 2010]

IES, (1996). Human Resource Planning: an Introduction [online] Available from: http://www.employment-studies.co.uk/pubs/summary.php?id=312 [Accessed 18 April 2010]

Role of the HR and Line Manager

‘The key fact about a policy of good human relations at work is that it is not primarily concerned with the nature of the work which the employee does but with the state of mind, the spirit in which he or she does it. A policy of good human relations at work is not about jobs it is about people.’ ((Lord) Marcus Sieff, 1991).

‘If the HRM function is to be effective there has to be good teamwork and co-operation and consolidation between the line manager and the HR manager.’ (Mullins, L.J 2007, Management and organizational behavior, Prentice Hall)

Benefits of a line manager being more involved in HR activities:

· Improves employee relations i.e. communications with staff, consultation and negotiation, trade union relationships, participation and involvement etc.

· Improves ability to deal with day to day issues such as lateness and any other problems.

· Provides a link to higher management.

· Line Managers involvement in HR activities is likely to result in a stronger workforce with more suitable candidates, as the Line manager has a greater understanding and knowledge of exactly what attributes to look for in potential staff during recruitment and selection.

· Line managers see and deal with employees on a daily basis meaning that they have a thorough understanding of the staffs needs. Based on this, line managers would be more effective and constructive for the organization and workforce in certain aspects if they were more involved in HR activities. For example, they would know what skills are lacking in individual employees therefore enabling them to decide on the appropriate training and development to improve employee performance. This is beneficial to the organization as they would have a more qualified and skillful workforce.

Drawbacks of a line manager being more involved in HR activities:

· A possible drawback of line managers being more involved in HR activities is the fact that line managers are not specialists in Human Relations. This may result in line managers not being as effective as HR managers as they don’t have as much knowledge, understanding or experience.

· It is possible for line managers to make bias decisions rather than fairly looking at the whole situation before coming to a conclusion as a HR manager most likely would.

· Line managers are more suited to operations management and therefore are less likely to possess the skills necessary to deal with HR matters.

·

What skills do you think that line managers need to develop in order to effectively manage people and why?

One of the most vital skills a line manager needs to develop in order to effectively manage people is a strong employee relationship, an essential tool in being a successful line manager. Certain basic steps must be taken by the line manager in order to develop strong employee relationships, for example; establishing a clear and fluent communication within the workforce, employee participation such as involving staff in more important aspects such as decision making, and generally making the workforce feel more valued and motivated. In order to achieve these objectives, line managers must be able to do several key things; effectively lead employees, develop excellent listening and communication skills, allow employees to make recommendations/ voice their opinions and respond to these suggestions in a fair fashion. Furthermore they should increase the value of their workforce by doing things such as training and development which increase employee performance making them better at their jobs, thus motivating them as well. Another important trait and skill which line managers must acquire according to CIPD (2009) is a strong sense of self confidence and security within the organization.

Go on to the prospects website and research the job roles of a HR manager. Do you feel your skills are more suited to the role of a line manager or a HR manager?

After researching the job roles of a HR manager on the prospects website I believe that my skills are more suited to the role of a line manager rather than a HR manager. What I learnt was many job descriptions for the position of a successful HR manager stated that candidates are required to control all HR aspects such as payroll administration, recruitment, writing reports etc...I believe that due to my skills being more suited to the line manager position, I would not feel motivated in this job as the tasks that would be required to do are tedious, repetitive and don’t make a difference to workers on a personal level in my opinion. The role of a line manager however is something which I think I would connect with more. This is due to the opportunity it offers to be involved in having a positive influence on staff performance and being able to see the effects. These are all things which genuinely appeal to my personality.

In conclusion I now have a clear understanding of the differences and comparisons of the roles between HR and Line Managers. Something I have learnt from this study is that organizations reap more benefits by operating with a combination of expertise from both managers.

Teamworking

Give an example of a time when you have worked in a team and you were successful. Identify why you feel this team worked so successfully using relevant theory bases.

Thinking back, one of the most successful teams I have been a part of is when I worked in a group of 4 people to organize a youth workshop during school holidays, consisting of a week filled with both fun and educational activities for children aged between 11 and 16.

The theory I have identified as being most relative to this group is Belbin’s Team Roles. This concept is based on certain combinations of behavioural traits that people display when working in teams. Belbin believed that individuals were better able to respond to the demands of the team environment when they were aware of their strengths and abilities that define the roles they play within the team.

The reason I feel we succeeded as a team is because we had the right combination of team roles, strengths and skills. For example; one of us fit the role of an ‘Implementer’ whose strength was in converting ideas into controllable and realistic tasks. Another member suited the description of two roles; the ‘Team worker’ and the ‘Evaluator’. The team worker is good at listening and communicating as well as considerate of others views. The evaluator is said to have good judgement and the ability to construct strategic plans of action. The third member of our team had the skills of a ‘Planter’ as his strength was in problem solving skills when difficulties arose. In my view the role which I was most suited to is the ‘Shaper’. The shaper has a strong sense of direction and focus towards tasks. The shaper is also skilled in working under pressure environments and an ability to push barriers.

Using tuckman’s theory on group development, review the group you worked with for your first assignment for People and Orgs. Did your group progress through all of the key stages? Relate this to the success, or otherwise of the group.

Bruce Tuckman’s “team stages model” analyses human behaviour in the workplace, focussing on aspects of teamwork that detail essential stages of group development. Tuckman’s theory suggests that newly formed groups do not have the capability of functioning at their full potential without experiencing four clearly defined stages in order to learn, grow and evolve from a group of people, in to a task focussed team. Tuckman labelled these four stages as ‘Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing.

‘Forming’, describes the initial stage of a group’s development, this is the stage in which individuals lack vision and guidance. Aims and objectives are often unclear and member’s responsibilities are still uncertain. Tuckman believed that in the forming stage, there is a low level of independence within the group as members tend to rely on one individual to provide leadership and direction. Stage two of Tuckman’s model is known as ‘Storming’. ‘Storming’ portrays the phase in which individuals acknowledge their role as a team and begin to take responsibility for the task at hand. However, conflicting ideas or opinions between individuals at this stage often effect performance or sway focus away from objectives.

By the Norming stage individuals should have a clear understanding of their goals within the group; this provides the team with a greater sense of direction. It is in this stage that individuals learn the importance of effective communication, which allows the development process to be more efficient as opinions are more openly considered. “Finally, the group attains the fourth and final stage in which interpersonal structure becomes the tool of task activities. Roles become flexible and functional, and group energy is channelled into the task. Structural issues have been resolved, and structure can now become supportive of task performance. This stage can be labelled as performing.” (Smith, M.K. 2005)

Tuckman’s model is useful in that it helps us to acknowledge that teams change and develop, and also helps to understand where, why and what problems they may encounter. However, although the concept of this theory may be useful, it is important to bear in mind that not all teams follow such a linear growth pattern. Some may not evolve as smoothly as shown in the four step model, alternatively they may sway back and forth, usually between storming and norming, until they eventually are able to perform efficiently.

The outcome of our group task was poor, as reflected by our mark of 40%. Nevertheless, I feel that this exercise has helped me enormously in understanding where and why we went wrong, and what is required in future tasks in order to improve.

I feel that our team building skills were lacking at first, partially due to poor communication and understanding of each other’s roles. As a result, the outcome was a confusing report which didn’t flow or read as one piece of work, but rather seemed like four separate reports rolled in one. A consequence of this was that there was a lot of unnecessary repetition resulting in lack of clarity and focus.

I believe we wasted too much time in the forming and storming phases of the four stage model. It wasn’t until near the end of the task that we started to show small signs of entering the ‘Norming’ phase, in which we gained a clearer vision of our goals and understanding of each other’s roles. I also noticed an overall improvement in communication. Despite these improvements, I don’t feel that we progressed to the final stage known as ‘Performing’. The performing stage is when the team knows what they are doing, with a strategy aimed at excelling and a strong accent on teamwork, effective communication, synergy and being completely independent and task-focussed. In my judgment, our team did not express these traits enough to qualify for the final stage of Tuckman’s model.

We soon found ourselves under stressful circumstances as it became apparent that certain individuals were nowhere near completing their contribution to the task. By the time these members realised that the deadline was drawing near it had become nerve-racking for the group as these individuals had to resort to rushing their work on the actual day of submission. Overall I think that our lack of knowledge and understanding of the task itself caused us to lose valuable marks. I believe one of the main reasons for this is that we did not make use of the vital information provided through assessment criteria and the assignment brief. This was a flaw as the assessment criterion is an essential tool in providing direction and information in terms of weightings, expectations and instructions. These two documents will certainly play a very important role for me in future assignments.

Overall I feel that there were two main factors that let down our performance as a group. Firstly, a poor management of time, and secondly a lack of knowledge and experience in team based environments, for example we failed to understand one another’s strengths, weaknesses and suited team roles before we began the task.

As a result of failing to manage our time efficiently, we ended up with some individuals doing no work until the last minute and rushing to complete simple tasks on time. This was partially due to individuals underestimating the standard of work that was expected of us, resulting in an atmosphere that was far too relaxed which caused the group to lack pace. Also our limited experience in teamwork scenarios meant that we failed to plan a course of action, consider each other’s roles and assess the potential problems that arise in such situations. As a result, our group’s performance lacked effectiveness and therefore a lot of improvements could be made in the future.

Using the link review 2 companies where teamwork has been identified as a major contributory factor to their success.

The first company I have chosen to review is the Office Angels which is a recruitment consultancy organization. According to The Times Online (2010), Office angels scored its best results in the ‘My Team’ category with 85%, only one other organization (P3) on the Times Top 100 companies to work for scored higher in this category therefore indicating that teamwork has been identified as a major contributory factor to their success. One of the ways in which they support teamwork amongst their workforce is by encouraging competitiveness between different groups who then contend against each other to improve performance in return for highly attractive monetary rewards such as holidays to Dubai, New York and Barbados.

According to The Times Online (2010), The Office Angels employees say they ‘feel a strong sense of family within their teams, giving 86%, the top positive score nationally, for this statement. They believe colleagues care about each other (87%), say working together gives them a buzz (82%) and that team-mates are fun (89%).’

My observations of this review suggest that teamwork is a major contributory factor to the success of the Office Angels. I believe it makes a big difference to the workforce attitude as employees actually enjoy working for the company meaning that they are more motivated to perform to the best of their ability which increases overall productivity, performance and success.

The second company I reviewed is P3 which is a charity run organisation. According to The Times Online (2010) ‘The organisation achieves top results in six of the eight factors in which employees give their views. People are proud to work for it (giving a positive result of 90%), have confidence in the leadership skills of their manager (87%) and say colleagues go out of their way to help each other (also 87%), all top scores.’

The fact that P3 have scored top of the rankings out of 100 of the best companies to work for in the ‘My Team’ category means that their strong sense of teamwork is clearly a major contributory factor to their success.

Conclusion

This blog has been motivating for me as I have been able to reflect on my own teamwork skills and have gained an understanding of how to improve and what makes a successful team using relevant theory bases. Also, I have learnt that there can be disadvantages to working in teams if individuals don’t carry out their roles correctly such as conflict which can lead to objectives not being achieved.

References:

Team Building (2009) Belbin Team Roles [online] Available from: http://www.teambuildingportal.com/articles/systems/belbin-team-roles [Accessed 5 April 2010]

The Times Online (2010.) Office Angels [online] Available from http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/career_and_jobs/best_100_companies/article7030219.ece
[Accessed 5 April 2010]

The Times Online (2010) P3 Charity [online] Available from: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/career_and_jobs/best_100_companies/article7030217.ece
[Accessed 5 April 2010]

Organisation and Management Theory

Taylors Scientific Management theory

Frederick Winslow Taylor developed his theory of scientific management with the belief that there is “one best way” to do a job and that it is possible to use scientific methods to determine that “one best way” as he believed that it would improve productivity. In other words he believed in increasing specialization amongst employees. He emphasized that scientific management methods could be utilized to improve performance and make certain activities and tasks less complicated so that things could be done in the “best way”.

According to NetMBA (2007) prior to scientific management, work was performed by skilled craftsmen who had learned their jobs in lengthy apprenticeships. They made their own decisions as to how their job was to be performed. The introduction of scientific management eliminated the need for workers to have to go through lengthy apprenticeships as jobs were being made simplified which meant that unskilled workers who required much less training to complete the same job.

One thing Taylor felt strongly about is that all workers were motivated by money as he felt that financial incentives were what were most important to employees. He believed that workers should receive fair pay as in they should receive commission determined by how productive they are over a period of time.

One of the drawbacks of this approach that believes money motivates everyone is that not everyone is motivated by financial incentives although many people are. One important factor that he didn’t consider is that some employees are significantly more motivated by aspects other than financial incentive. Also the fact that he believes that there is “one best way” for everyone means that he didn’t consider the reality of it that not all people are compatible to the same way of doing things as all of us are different and unique. This is a major flaw in his theory as his one way of doing things doesn’t suit all people which can result in de motivated workers.

According to NetMBA business knowledge centre (2007) Taylor proposed the following four principles of scientific management:
1. Replace rule-of-thumb work methods with methods based on a scientific study of the task.
2. Scientifically select, train and develop each worker rather passively leaving them to train themselves.
3. Cooperate with the workers to ensure that the scientifically developed methods are being followed.
4. Divide work nearly equally between managers and workers, so that the managers apply scientific management principles to planning the work and the workers actually perform the task.

Taylor also suggested that providing employees with more specialized tasks would also improve overall efficiency as workers would become better at what they which would increase productivity.

Classical school of management theory:

According to BusinessDictionary.com (2010) the classical school of management approach is a Body of management thought based on the belief that employees have only economical and physical needs, and that social needs and need for job-satisfaction either don't exist or are unimportant. Accordingly, this school encourages high specialization of labor, centralized decision making, and profit maximization.

Provide 2 case studies to demonstrate 2 of the key theories discussed in the lecture. How do they relate to the theories? Compare and contrast the 2 organisations highlighting good practice from each.

P and O Ferries

My view of the case study on P&O Ferries is that their management approach coincides with aspects of the scientific management model.

In my opinion P and O Ferries fit into the following Management Theories:

Pros and cons of Scientific Management:
Pros:
· High emphasis on measurement which allows managers to improve their employees
· Very practical and easy to follow.
· Easy schemes for rewarding employees based on the amount of work they have done.
· Focuses on individual tasks so it is easier to monitor each employee’s personal performance can be used for appraisal,
·
Cons:
· Not useful to deal with groups or teams
· No room for individual preferences or initiative
· Loss of skill levels and higher autonomy levels at lower work levels.
· Treats people like machines.
·
Conclusion

From my observations of the different organization and management theories, I have come to learn that a combination of different approaches would result in a better constructed and more efficiently performing workforce than if an organization was to only apply one form of management theory. For example, the scientific management approach adapts the belief that there is “one best way” of doing things which is suitable to all human beings, whereas in reality this is simply not true as not all of us are motivated by just money. Therefore, it would be a wise decision to employ a combination of approaches which are more suitable to the needs of the organization and its employees.

References

Business Dictionary (2010) Classical School of Management [Online] Available from: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/classical-school-of-management.html [Accessed 20 April 2010]

Learn Management (2010) Scientific Management [Online]. Available from: http://www.learnmanagement2.com/scientificmanagement.htm [Accessed 20 April 2010]

NetMBA Business Knowledge Centre, (2007.) Frederick Taylor and Scientific Management [Online] Available from: http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/scientific/ [Accessed 20 April 2010]

Enterprise Week

Our lectures this week were replaced by the Enterprise festival. Enterprise week is organized by the university and is a festival consisting of motivating and interesting events which are intended to be inspirational. One event that I attended during enterprise week which I found interesting was called “Telling it like it is” which was hosted by former Buck’s new university students who provided us with an insight to their lives after graduating, talking about their experiences within the marketing and communications industry.

The thing that I found most relevant and interesting about this is the fact that they communicated how the things they learnt during their degree have actually come in to practice in post graduation as they enter the next stage in their lives; beginning a career. The presentation concluded with a number of questions and answers; this was also interesting as they answered a lot of the uncertainties and questions which were already on my mind. Another useful aspect of this event was the advice which was handed down to us students, concerning how to make the most of our time in university and how to take increase our chances of entering a promising job or career.

I found this event to be very constructive and helpful as a lot of the issues being discussed were directly relevant to me as a student aspiring to find a good job after my degree course. The event also touched on the issue of the recession, which emphasized to me how appropriate and fortunate the timing of me starting this course was. The economic recession has resulted in huge losses of jobs and rising numbers of unemployment, making it increasingly difficult and competitive to find a good job. The fact that competitiveness has dramatically increased means that candidates must be highly qualified and suitable for jobs, therefore the levels of my own standards must increase in order to stand a chance. By educating and qualifying myself academically during this difficult period of time, I would have hopefully achieved and bettered myself enough within these crucial years to be able to pursue a promising career.

One of the aspects that stood out to me in this is event is the relevance to my situation, as I am able to make a fair comparison based on the fact that the graduates who shared their experiences with us actually went to the same university as we are attending. They had done a similar degree to mine and had explained their own ways in which they went about pursuing a career, therefore I can relate to their circumstances. It is for this reason I found myself more indulged in this discussion rather than the “5% idea, 95% effort” event, despite its inspirational and motivational attributes.

The event also allowed me to realize that we are all gifted with the potential to be successful and we all have the privilege and advantage of educating and bettering ourselves at university. However it seems that only a handful of us excel after graduating by taking full advantage of our potential and using it to the best of our ability as only some of us appreciate the opportunities we have. I believe that by educating ourselves and pushing the boundaries of our potentials, we are able to become the best at whatever it is that we do which results in the best employers hunting for us rather than us hunting desperately for work.

I feel that this event was interesting, constructive and highly motivating as its content was vastly relevant to my own situation, and answered many questions which I hadn’t previously known the answers to concerning my future career path. Prior to attending the ‘Telling it like it is’ event, I had doubts and lacked confidence in being able to get a good job due to various factors such as the current unemployment circumstances. After listening to the advice from those who had already experienced what I am yet to encounter, I feel slightly reassured and more focused and determined in terms of pursuing the career that I want for myself, which has resulted in me feeling more motivated to do the absolute best that I can.

Personality

According to Carver and Scheier (2000), “Personality is a dynamic organisation, inside the person, of psychophysical systems that create a person’s characteristic patterns of behaviour, thoughts, and feelings.”

There is much debate centered on whether personality is inherited (nature debate) or developed in response to environmental conditions (nurture debate). These two very different opinions provide conflicting beliefs on how personality is created. They raise the questions of weather personality is something that humans are born with which is genetically passed down to us or weather our personalities are developed and influenced throughout our lives by our environment and other significant factors. It also raises the question of whether or not personality is created as a result of a combination of both nature and nurture.

There are also two views as to whether or not all traits exist in all people. These two different ideas are known as Ideographic and Nomothetic.

Ideographic:

The ideology which supports the opinion that each and every human being has a unique and individual personality and that some personality characteristics are exclusive to certain people, meaning that there may be instances where you cannot compare two peoples personalities as it is impossible for them to possess the same traits as each other. This approach encourages the idea that some people possess certain traits which would be impossible for others to have.

Nomothetic:

The opposing argument to the ideographic is approach is known as the Nomothetic view. This approach still believes that people’s personalities are unique; however it encourages comparability and believes that we all possess the same traits as each other and that the uniqueness lies in the different levels of importance of the traits. For example, the combination of traits may be the same but some people have more of one trait than another. This could also suggest that our traits may differ depending on the situation or position we may be in.

The fact that personality has become such an important aspect of life means that there are a number of different online tests and quiz’s which can be taken in order to determine ones personality preference or type. There are thousands of different personality tests available on the internet and the two that I decided to complete were the BBC’s ‘What am I like?’ and in it for life’s ‘MindFrames’.

The BBC test provides an extensive range of different types or personality outcomes which suggests that there are a wide variety of different personality traits amongst humans, however we can still be compared as two people can have the same outcome on the test which supports the Nomothetic theory. The different personality outcomes offered on the ’What am I like’ test are determined by your individual combination of traits, some of the names given to these outcomes are; ‘Big Thinker’, ‘Counselor’, ‘Go-getter’, ‘Idealist’, ‘Innovator’, ‘Leader’, ‘Mastermind’, ‘Mentor’, and ‘Nurture’ to name just a few. According to this test, I am a ‘Go-getter’. Go-getters are described as Inventive, resourceful problem solvers with a love of life. They can be tough-minded when necessary and think of themselves as enthusiastic, determined and alert. Apparently they may also become frustrated by rules and routines.

The second test I took was the MindFrames test (Initforlife, 2009), which determined that the combinations of traits which make up my personality are best described by words such as control, sociability, insight, proactive, logic and charisma. One thing that was interesting about this test is that it provided me with recommendations on how to develop my skills based on my personality.

I was surprised to discover how accurate both tests were as they both produced very similar results. Both tests determined my personality to be comparable with my own personal view of my personality which is that of an outgoing person who enjoys challenges.

Although on this occasion the tests I conducted produced reasonably accurate results, I believe that it is impossible for any personality test to be 100% accurate as I feel that each and every person has an individual and unique combination of traits. Nonetheless it provides us with a clearer understanding of the different possible variations, traits and types of personality. I also feel that it would be prejudice for personality tests to be the only tool used when determining which candidates to select as personality tests do not tell us everything about a person such as how good they are at handling certain situations. I believe that it is useful to have personality tests as one aspect of the selection process along with many other aspects, however to judge someone’s ability solely based on this would be unfair.

Conclusion

One thing I have learnt this week is that our personalities differ from person to person. We all possess a unique combination of characteristics and traits which stop us from being exactly the same as each other. The tests that I conducted have been useful also as they provided me with a clearer understanding of my own personality and increased my awareness of the different skills I have. The fact that our personalities may change over time make these types of tests worthless unless we constantly take new tests to stay updated. On the other hand, personality tests do assist employers in identifying the most suitable candidate in the selection process.

Power and Conflict within organisations

This was initially a group presentation and was. the group conflict was due to lack of communication and arrangement, the group was to take part in a PowerPoint presentation and was actually unsuccessful because of t8he discomposure of the actual people within the group, it involved the people making wrong decisions and no time keeping, as time had gone on the work task had not been completed and there was limited time left, therefore more and more people within the group were becoming frustrated, and then finally work was done as everybody had decided to work together and agree to dis-agree, the conflicts involved the fact that no one was putting their head down and everyone just wanted the easier tasks, therefore the whole group was under achieving, it was only when the team leader had sat everyone down that people started using their own initiative and made the most of what time they had left, after that the work was completed and we had learnt a lesson for the future.

Conflict within a group can be stopped in many ways, including prevention methods; these would include drawing up ground rules, revisiting the task to draw up the ground rules. Establishing the interest in the roles that the individual member partakes in, communicating in clear context and taking responsibility in any way that deems necessary.


Coercive power – this is power by force, using corporal punishment if not obeyed. For example Adolph Hitler who would punish those who stood in his way

Legitimate power – someone who seems to be right all the time because of the position they are in, tony Blair was a good example, Gordon brown on the other hand has no legitimate power.

Reward power – this implies to those who have been granted power by royalty or by someone of high position, like Sir Alex Ferguson.

Expert power – someone who is known for experience and is very powerful in the category at hand, bill gates would be a good example for computers as he is the director of Microsoft.

Referent power – more to do with the reputation of the person, world footballer of the year Lionel messy would be a suitable candidate for this example as he is spoken out to be the best, automatically there will be a great sense of respect and referent.


Once at the workplace I had witnessed to employees fall out over something petty, it wasn’t a big quarrel however the two people did exchange verbal abuse to one another that was intriguing as we was in a professional environment.

It was only when the third party, I, had entered the dispute and corrected all that was wrong in the conversation, once they had acknowledged the fact that there was a disarray of argumentative behaviour the situation had resulted in a truce.

It is a good method however the actual argument should never have taken place in the first place to begin with. I suppose sometimes in the working environment it sometimes happens.

To be corrective in some circumstances the methods of conduct in a working environment can sometimes be very argumentative, especially in the heat, its human nature to argue and become frustrated but throughout there should never be any unprofessional display of manner,, conflict in cultures in workplaces can take place buts it’s how well they are understood that allows them to become truly successful in the matter.

For any organisation to be effective and efficient in achieving its goals, the people in the organisation need to have a shared vision of what they are striving to achieve, as well as clear objectives for each team / department and individual. You also need ways of recognising and resolving conflict amongst people, so that conflict does not become so serious that co-operation is impossible. All members of any organisation need to have ways of keeping conflict to a minimum - and of solving problems caused by conflict, before conflict becomes a major obstacle to your work.

Three methods of resolving situations that have reached the stage of open conflict are often used by many different organizations. It is important to understand these methods, so that people can decide which methods will work best for them in their specific conflict situation.
Negotiation: this is the process where mandated representatives of groups in a conflict situation meet together in order to resolve their differences and to reach agreement. It is a deliberate process, conducted by representatives of groups, designed to reconcile differences and to reach agreements by consensus.

Mediation: when negotiations fail or get stuck, parties often call in and independent mediator. This person or group will try to facilitate settlement of the conflict

Arbitration: means the appointment of an independent person to act as an adjudicator (or judge) in a dispute, to decide on the terms of a settlement.