Imagine You is a non-profit organization dedicated to volunteering to help the unemployed and those looking for a new career. The company’s operations include a variety of seminars, networking opportunities, courses, and training in job-critical skills such as computer use and effective interviewing. As the CEO of this company, we need to evaluate the professional behavior of three employees and decide based on their ideas about the annual fundraising. Each employee has their point of view while having different experiences both in terms of the term of work and in terms of their competencies.
Jim is the most experienced person with extensive community knowledge and project management competencies. Nan is the most experienced community resident but has never participated in this event. Laura has only been working for two months, but she has been a community resident for half a year and can bring a fresh perspective on this issue. A dialogue took place between the four actors, during which various ideas were voiced. However, the group was unable to reach a consensus. This work offers an in-depth analysis of the problem of the panel discussion, various proposals for its solution, and an analysis of who should take the lead in this situation.
Problems
The first problem that emerged in the course of the dialogue was the closed non-verbal signs of employees. Jim starts the conversation by making his strong position clear as he makes eye contact with the other employees. Laura also enters into a dialogue with a severe face without showing her openness right away. Finally, Nan frowns at Jim and Laura’s proposals, causing her disagreement to escalate into annoyance, and she leaves the conference room. Despite the CEO’s upbeat tone, this hostile climate of lack of non-verbal communication certainly did not help the negotiations move forward. In the absence of agreement and conflict escalation, the team’s effectiveness is low.
The second problem is the lack of participation and desire to listen to each other. Nan expressed her disagreement, but no one asked why she did not see the implementation of two plans simultaneously, although she did not voice them. Each indirectly defended his point of view. Jim, in his experience, did not see the possibility of the existence of the Imagine You company without funding, only on donations; however, he did not reveal the full range of reasons, mentioning only computers. Between Laura and Jim, contact took place in agreement on the idea of the opportunity to try two areas of work at once, which they confirmed with their smiles as if immediately excluding Nan from the team. Nan’s crossed arms signaled this even before she left the room. From this point of view, the team’s effectiveness was not extremely low since the company’s primary needs were identified. However, no consensus has been reached on the mechanisms for obtaining them.
The third problem is the non-intervention of the CEO. The optimistic tone he adopted to calm the conflict did not play a role in the dialogue. Jim and Nan’s unprofessional behavior was not stopped by a specific decision or an invitation to dialogue by the CEO. Having initially taken the initiative into his own hands, Jim ignored her words instead of considering Nan’s opposite point of view, responding with a smile to Laura. Nan, in turn, gave vent to emotions in the workplace. The CEO, for his part, did not take any action to intervene in these negotiations and prevent the negative consequences of the escalation of the conflict within the team. However, the positive side of these negotiations’ effectiveness lies in the director’s understanding of the necessary goals and conditions that led to the conflict being resolved.
Suggestions
The first suggestion to the team is to establish a code of ethics, which the CEO should initiate. The company is engaged in socially essential activities; therefore, it is socially responsible in all internal processes (Bansal et al., 2019). Under the code, the kind of behavior demonstrated by Jim and Nan is unacceptable. First, each employee should be allowed to speak out, even if they have an opposing point of view, while other employees should listen carefully since listening promotes communication (Gordon, 2018). The second suggestion is the correct delegation of specific tasks by the CEO. Nan could handle reputational and social issues as the community’s most experienced resident. Jim, with his experience, could initiate projects, while Laura could gain experience and be the link between Nan and Jim. The third proposal includes recommending a solid position for the CEO, who must demonstrate that neither experience nor competence in any matter makes it possible to behave in an unprofessional manner towards other employees.
Leadership Solution
In this situation, the CEO should take the lead since this person should have the appropriate competencies in managing and resolving conflicts. The leader has assembled this team, and now it is the leader who must bear responsibility for the atmosphere inside it. The CEO could stop this behavior and give every group member a chance to speak without taking the commentator’s position of ideas. Jim has a penchant for managerial decisions, as it was he who seized the initiative at the beginning of the dialogue. However, the CEO has more of the power to deal with substantive issues. In this situation, I would have intervened in the conversation at the moment when Nan expressed her dissatisfaction for the first time, asking her to express her point of view. Moreover, I would like to ask Jim to explain in more detail to everyone here the reasons why funding is critical in this matter.
Strategies
For the primary strategy of the CEO for establishing teamwork, I would choose the delegation of labor according to the competencies of the selected three employees. Each employee would know the goals and objectives identified in this unsuccessful dialogue as part of the delegation. Negotiations of the performance reporting team will be held by ethical standards of professional communication, where the most excellent attention will be paid to the ability to listen to the interlocutor, regardless of the point of view. As CEO, I would encourage and highlight each employee’s strengths in the first place, only then pointing out possible shortcomings in operational activities.
Conclusion
In the non-profit company Imagine You, a dialogue took place in which there was a conflict in the team. Specific unsuccessful behavior patterns were analyzed for each participant in the dialogue, and appropriate solutions to the problem were proposed. By implementing the main strategies of teamwork, effective leadership, and communication, this case has received a meaningful direction for further activities to restore a healthy atmosphere in the team and come to the correct operational decision that is most beneficial for the company.
References
Bansal, S., Garg, I., & Sharma, G. D. (2019). Social entrepreneurship as a path for social change and driver of sustainable development: A systematic review and research agenda. Sustainability, 11(4), 1091.
Gordon, J. (2018). The power of a positive team: Proven principles and practices that make great teams great. John Wiley & Sons.