Education Pension Investment (EPI) is a prosperous company that operates in the investment segment (Whetten and Cameron 333). Thus, apart from the absence of support, Dan Richardson, one of the founders and CEO, made a decision to hire Mike Roth due to his outstanding performance and aggressive tactics (Whetten and Cameron 333). Unfortunately, these beneficial intentions created polarization in the company while questioning whether Mike’s autonomy still had to be respected.
I believe that Dan made a mistake when promising Mike freedom of decision-making, but the founders have to consider this situation as an opportunity to encourage positive changes in the organization. Using a collaborative approach will help restore integrity and prioritize vision and corporate culture while continuing its rapid development.
To understand the nature of the conflict, it is of paramount importance to review its source, and in this case, it pertains to personal differences (Humphries and Gibbs 72; Whetten and Cameron 308). Before hiring Mike, EPI prioritized conservative approaches in making investments and cherished safety and stability as the key values. Mike entirely changed organizational traditions and historically-established corporate culture by making investments risky and aggressive.
Apart from having quickly escalating profit margins and growing Return on Investment (ROI), his actions changed the whole philosophy and increased tensions due to the polarization of opinions among the employees. Speaking of focus, conflicts can be issues or people-focused, and it is linked to either significance of relationships or problem (Whetten and Cameron 308). In this instance, the issue is of higher importance than interpersonal accusations, as these tensions have a clear impact on the organizational integrity and working environment.
Nonetheless, this conflict may have a positive impact on organizational performance and cultivate change. Overall, the source of the conflict was a substantial gap between Mike’s and senior management’s opinions concerning the company’s investment policies and philosophy while it was issue-centered due to its gradual importance in optimizing corporate culture and financial performance.
It could be said that the company attempted to resolve it by using Dan as a mediator to negotiate and find a solution. Forcing the response by means of assertive communication was not effective, as Mike’s arguments were rather strong and rational (Mosley et al. 380; Whetten and Cameron 312). Meanwhile, finding a compromise may not be efficient since Mike has a well-established viewpoint and attitude, and being a maverick in the investment business provides a clear rationale that he will not consider changing his strategy.
Thus, in this instance, senior management has to consider pursuing a collaborative method, as only relying on this strategy can help reach a beneficial consensus for both sides (Whetten and Cameron 312). Using this approach will have an advantageous effect on the organization in the long-term by not only increasing its ROI and maintaining contracts with techno-projects but also recreating its corporate strategy and vision.
In the end, the issue seems rather complicated, and, to resolve it, Dan may consider involving a third person with an unbiased opinion, who can carefully review both sides of the issue and propose an exceptional mutually beneficial solution. One of them may be attempting to find integrity between Mike’s and Dan’s perceptions and use these findings to establish a unique corporate culture to pursue growth, where Mike will be responsible for the innovative side while others will pay attention to maintaining relationships with the loyal customers. Overall, both parties have to understand that they are working together as a team, and only this method can enhance their possibilities in diminishing internal tensions.
Works Cited
Humphries, Andrew, and Richard Gibbs. Enterprise Relationship Management. Gower Publishing, Ltd, 2015.
Mosley et al. Supervisory Management. Cengage Learning, 2014.
Whetten, David, and Kim Cameron. Developing Management Skills. Pearson Education, 2012.