We have covered many topics during the last five weeks, including decision-making models, fallacies and their significance to critical thinking, analyzing work-related situations, and tools and techniques that we can use to solve, fix and head off problems. I would like to sum up the course reviewing how ethics influence our daily decision-making as well as touching on the impact technology has had on work-related stress.
The Influence of Ethics on Decision-Making
Most businesses that offer leadership-training courses stress the need for human skills throughout all managerial levels. One of these skills is the ability to successfully deal with conflicts and disagreements that occur within departments. Many companies, like Daslos Inc., who have a large numbers of employees, are moving more towards the trend of having employees working in smaller subcultures, or departments. With this trend also comes a higher occurrence of conflicts and disagreements among workers.
There are many causes for conflicts among coworkers, as was witnessed in previous writings from Team A’s assignment “Problem Analysis Summary” paper. Some of these causes can come from within the organization through unethical or unprofessional behavior among management, or outside environments, such as clients or vendors. When the problem arises from management, a subordinate may feel helpless in dealing with conflicts and disagreement. For this reason, it is important to have a bipartisan resolution team in place. Daslos Inc. has a free 1-800 employee dispute resolution hot line set up for employees. The employee is guaranteed anatomy and will have a dispute resolution team assigned to work on resolving the problems employees are experiencing with management or coworkers. Daslos Inc. also has an Ethics Hotline set up for all employees to report unethical behavior. The following is found on our intranet under Code of Ethics and is available to all employees:
• Ethics Helpline
To report violations of the law or the Code of Business Conduct you may call the Daslos Inc. Ethics Helpline. The Helpline is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and is operated by an independent company. You may remain anonymous and translators are available. (Daslos Inc., 2006)
The Ethics Helpline lists phone numbers in the US, the UK, Indonesia as well as including a number that be used for all countries. (Daslos Inc. Intranet)
Previous to the problems that the Houston department experienced, this company’s management team as well as the entire organization, has provided a friendly, upbeat, and positive atmosphere and continue to do so today.
Critical thinking occurs when a person thinks about a subject or problem to where the improvement of the quality of ones own thinking using skillful analogies, then assessing and reconstructing them. A few important skills that is learned through critical thinking is learning how to discipline oneself in thinking, understanding the world as well as learning themselves. Critical thinking in the business world has many benefits in the process of decision making by employers as well as employees.
Lipsky, D. B., Seeber, R. L., & Fincher, R. D. (2003). Emerging systems for managing workplace conflict: lessons from American corporations for managers and dispute
Look up the word conflict in the dictionary and you will see several negative responses. Descriptions such as: to come into collision or disagreement; be at variance or in opposition; clash; to contend; do battle; controversy; quarrel; antagonism or opposition between interests or principles Random House (1975). With the negative reputation associated with this word, no wonder people tend to shy away when they start to enter into the area of conflict. D. Jordan (1996) suggests that there are two types of conflict: good, which is defined as cognitive conflict (C-type conflict) and, detrimental, defined as affective conflict (A-type conflict). The C-type conflict allows for creativity, to pull together a group of people with different opinions or ideas, to combine and brain storm all thoughts to develop the best solution for the problem. The A-type conflict is the negative form when you have animosity, hostility, un-resolveable differences, and egos to deal with. The list citing negative conflicts could go on forever. We will be investigating these types of conflicts, what managers can do to recognize conflict early, and what strategies they can use to resolve conflicts once they have advanced.
Conflict can be perceived in different ways of positively communicating about a topic or negatively, but one thing that can’t argued is that conflict occurs in everyday life and there’s no way of escaping it. One form of conflict that occurs frequently due to constant interaction is in the workplace. Many people see workplace conflicts as just disputes between coworkers, when there are many forms of personal conflicts between those coworkers and bosses such as
Every day, living creatures are making decisions. Whether the decisions are big or small, they have to be made. As the decisions are performed, there is a process that one goes through. Different types of thinking styles and thought processes are available. The way one feels, believes, attitudes, and relating ideas can play a big part in their thinking styles. Various methods of thinking and thinking styles are used. In this paper the subject is to discuss is three different types of thinking styles. The three different styles discussed will be creative, pessimistic, and optimistic thinking. Creative, pessimistic, and optimistic thinking are three different ways a person can critically analyze any situation. This paper will compare and contrast the three different styles and discuss how each affects the critical thinking process. It will also include critical thinking in the decision- making process by incorporating the discussion on workplace examples that entails the three different types of thinking styles examined. After reading this paper, one will have a full understanding of these thinking styles and the decision making process. Lastly how one may think and how that contributes to their decision process will also be evident.
At the start of this semester I wasn’t sure what to expect. The last attempt I made to take Psychology 101 was eighteen years ago, just out of high school, fresh into junior college. That class was overwhelming, not to mention boring, and I was not able to wrap my head around the information. I did end up withdrawing from the class. So, at the start of this semester I was nervous that this experience might be similar. I can honestly say it was not! My instructor made the material interesting, fun, and left me excited to return to class the next week. There were many topics that were covered throughout this semester. And a few of the chapters, Learning, Life Span Development, and Motivation and Emotion really resonated with me. Concepts I learned within in these chapters really got me thinking and some I am even trying to apply to my life now.
While our organization prides itself in a well-defined and thorough code of ethics, there are occasions where situations arise, but the solution is not clearly defined within our code. In such a case, it is critical to develop a decision making framework that allows our employees to make a decision while operating within the moral guidelines of our corporation. In the hope that we can eliminate discrepancies, Royal Dutch Shell has created an ethical decision strategy that will make clear the ethical standings of our corporation and ensure a consistent decision making process. Our decision making process is focused on our stakeholders, and how we can maximize their benefit.
While the semester is over and the deadline has expired, I thought I would write this to express my true intended thoughts.
Thomas, K. W. (1992). Conflict and conflict management: Reflections and update. . Journal Of Organizational Behavior, 13(3), 265-274.
Huan, L. & Yazdanifard, R. (2012). The Differences of Conflict Management Styles and Conflict Resolution in Workplaces. Business & Entrepreneurship Journal. 1(1), 141-155.
...he who, what, where, why and when methodologies of conducting reprimands, redirects and reinforcement of motivation. Chapter 7 showed me how to manage any type of conflict within the workplace regardless of the situation in an expedient, safe, and effective manner. I also enjoyed learning more about conflict management, strategies used in handling conflicts, and the relationship between each level of conflicts and organizational outcomes.
Many people enjoy working or participating in a group or team, but when a group of people work together chances are that conflicts will occur. Hazleton describes conflict as the discrepancy between what is the perceived reality and what is seen as ideal (2007). “We enter into conflicts reluctantly, cautiously, angrily, nervously, confidently- and emerge from them battered, exhausted, sad, satisfied, triumphant. And still many of us underestimate or overlook the merits of conflict- the opportunity conflict offers every time it occurs” (Schilling, nd.). Conflict does not have to lead to a hostile environment or to broken relationships. Conflict if resolved effectively can lead to a positive experience for everyone involved. First, there must be an understanding of the reasons why conflicts occur. The conflict must be approached with an open mind. Using specific strategies can lead to a successful resolution for all parties involved. The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument states “there are five general approaches to dealing with conflict. The five approaches are avoidance, accommodation, competition, compromise, and collaboration. Conflict resolution is situational and no one approach provides the best or right approach for all circumstances” (Thomas, 2000).
workplace include greater total resources, greater knowledge band and a greater source of ideas. However, these advantages can also bring on conflict within teams and the entire workplace. Varney (1989) reported that conflict remained the number one problem within a large company. This was after several attempts were made to train management in conflict resolutions and procedures. However, the conflict remained. The conflict possibly remains because the managers and leaders did not pay attention to the seriousness of the issue. In order to maintain an effective team, leaders and team members must know and be proactive in the conflict resolution techniques and procedures.
Critical thinking is a significant and essential topic in recent education. The strategy of critical thinking skills helps identify areas in one's courses as the suitable place to highlight, expand and use some problems in exams that test students' critical thinking skills.
In the workplace, disagreement or arguments may arise due to several reasons. This can further result into a state of antagonism or opposition, resentment, avoidance, verbal assaults, and inability to work together. Such may arise due to personality clashes, differences in style, differences in leadership, interdependence conflicts and differences in the background or gender. With reference to the conflict between Norm and Norma, disagreement arose due to differences in styles. This is because Norma was after quick result from the initiated project while Norm believed he could work from home and still meet the expected standard. However, Norma expected full commitment from all the staff under her. For good working relations, conflicts should always be resolved and hence improve good working relationship among the employees both the juniors and seniors. Professionally, conflicts can be solved via two models; circle of conflict and triangle of satisfaction (Susan Holton, 1998).