Conflict management [Case Study]

Conflict management [Case Study]

 

Written by Allen Lee

Case: Yitong Network

Yitong network is a Sino-Japanese Joint Venture specialized in communication product production and computer network services. Since its establishment in July 1991, the company has developed rapidly, with annual sales increasing by more than 50%. At the same time, there are many internal conflicts in the company, which affect the continuous improvement of the company's performance.

• Because it is a joint venture, although Japanese managers have brought about many advanced management methods. However, the Japanese-style management model may not be perfect for Chinese employees. For example, working overtime in Japan is not uncommon, but it is not paid. Yitong often gave Chinese employees a long time to work overtime, causing dissatisfaction. Some outstanding employees also left Yitong.
• The organizational structure of Yitong is a linear rank system, which makes coordination between departments very difficult. For example, the Sales Department often complains that the products developed by the R & D department deviate from the customer's needs. The efficiency of the production department is too low, and the production department misses the sales opportunity. The production department complains that the products developed by the R & D department do not conform to the production standards, the order of the Sales Department cannot meet the cost requirement.
• Although the R & D department's manager Hu is second to none, he is narrow-minded and afraid that others will surpass himself. Therefore, other engineers are often squashed. This makes the engineering department feel relaxed and down.

1. What are the conflicts between Yitong? Why?
2. How can we solve the conflicts with Yitong?

 

Analysis:

The survey shows that Enterprise Managers spend 20% of their time dealing with conflicts. Therefore, the ability to manage conflicts is considered one of the key factors for the success of managers.

Conflict refers to the process in which one party (including individuals, groups and organizations) recognizes that the other party is or is about to take actions that impede or harm itself to achieve its goals. Conflict conditions include:

1. The two sides have different interests;
2. Both parties believe that the other party will harm their own interests;
3. Notice that the other party is taking actions that are not conducive to itself or that the other party will take similar actions.

Conflicts can be divided into interpersonal conflict, intergroup conflict, and interorganizational conflict based on the scope of the conflict ).

First, let's take a look at the conflict between the management of Yitong and its employees in China. This type of conflict exists between different organizational layers. We call it vertical conflict, which is an inter-group conflict. There are many reasons for this conflict, including:

• 1. Power and position: the management layer uses administrative power to require employees to work overtime, but does not assign any compensation. The employees do not have (adequate) power to protect their own interests.
• 2. different values: Chinese employees have different values than Japanese employees and require them to work overtime (For A Long Time). If there is no corresponding reward, it is generally difficult to motivate them, over time, it will weaken employees' motivation.
• 3. Lack of resources: the importance of management is largely reflected in the rational allocation of resources, and the available resources are always limited. Employees are required to work overtime, and reasonable overtime is usually required as compensation, while supervisors want to maintain labor costs at a low level.

In this way, employees without the ability to escape will show weak motivation and low productivity, while competent star employees will find ways to change to a better working environment. If the situation is not controlled and improved for a long time, the company will become a filter, and the talented people will be directed to the competitors, and the mediocre Shi Bao will be left. I can't imagine a worse situation. It may be better to close the company. If managers can only copy the so-called "excellent" method, but cannot adapt to local conditions to use various management methods, the fate of enterprises will be broken.

The solution has been clearly presented. The management should design a compensation system based on specific conditions to motivate employees and strike a dynamic balance between labor costs and employee performance.

Next, let's look at the conflicts between different departments. This kind of conflict exists between different departments at the unified organization level. We call it horizontal conflict, which is another inter-population conflict. Yitong adopts a straight-line rank structure. This type of conflict is strange.

Organizational Structure

On the basis of a straight line, a straight line employee sets up corresponding functional departments under the administrative directors at all levels to engage in professional management and serve as the adviser of the leaders of this level, implements the organizational structure that combines the unified command of supervisors with the adviser and guidance of functional departments.

Advantages:

1. Detailed division of labor, clear tasks, and clear responsibilities;
2. At the same time, it has the advantages of centralized and unified command in Line System and the advantages of professional management in the rank system;
3. High structural stability.

Disadvantages:

1. Centralization of power and the lack of necessary autonomy at lower levels;
2. Horizontal connections between different functional departments are poor, which may lead to disconnections;
3. It is not easy to unify the objectives of each adviser and command department;
4. The information transmission route is long and the feedback is slow;
5. Low environmental adaptability.

 

The main causes of this conflict are:

• 1. task interdependence: Due to task dependencies between departments, the inherent defects in the organizational structure weaken the necessary communication between departments, resulting in task inconsistency. Interdepartmental relationship is a team relationship ).
• 2. goal imcompatibility: Each department has its own performance goals. For example, the sales department wants to increase the breadth of product lines to meet diversified market demands, the production department wants to reduce the breadth of the product line to save costs, that is, the goal of the sales department is customer satisfaction, and the goal of the production department is production efficiency.

The solution is also obvious. enterprises use the information management system to promote the circulation of information, so that all departments can obtain useful data in a timely manner. At present, a small number of enterprises want to use ERP projects to make full use of information technology to enhance their information management capabilities. However, the root cause is that the target is incompatible. Each department belongs to the same enterprise, but the unified goal of the enterprise is not seen, but the performance goal of each department is seen. Enterprises can conduct performance evaluation on relevance and associate the performance of dependent departments. If some Departments only achieve their own performance, regardless of the performance of the relevant departments, they cannot achieve the overall balance and achieve the overall optimal performance. In this way, even if your performance is the best, the performance rating will not be high. However, there is another small problem with this practice, that is, if the overall idea of the supervisor is not strong, the implementation effect will be disappointing. Enterprises can consider conducting appropriate training for their supervisors. If this is not the case, they must consider replacing their supervisors.

Finally, let's look at the conflicts between Manager Hu and his subordinates. This kind of conflict exists between two or more individuals, which we call interpersonal conflict ). There are also many reasons for this conflict, including:

• 1. personality traits: Good employees may not be good managers. Galop provides two explanations: one is related to the unique advantages of the clients and the other is related to their motivation to become managers. Let's take a look at some examples:

Jeff is very competitive. When he is a sales representative, he wants to win anything. Under the impetus of this desire to survive, Jeff achieved remarkable results year after year. After jeff became the manager, he made every effort to promote his subordinates to the first place. On the surface, this is understandable. However, as a manager, Jeff not only competes with other regions, but also with his own sales representatives. He always exceeded them. When he encounters a major account, he always wants to be the speaker; he cannot stand to be a bystander. Every time he talks with an employee, he will always overwhelm the other person. He was talking to employees about his personal development, but he could not help but boast about how he was doing it. As a result, such arrogant words and deeds have gone through many sales experts.

A logo of Troy is "unified rate ". People with this topic are good at controlling the process of dialogue. Troy's trick is to make a deal. After he presented the demo to the customer, it was hard for the other party to say no. However, after Troy became a manager, his subordinates had difficulty enduring his "unified rate" style. Troy does not discuss indicators with his subordinates, but prefers to "promote" new quotas to sales representatives and then force them to accept them. As a result, his subordinates were fooled. When traye made the sale, he had benefited from the deal, but did not help him become a manager.

Susan believes that when the manager is used, the indicator pressure will be reduced. However, she soon discovered that what she wants to worry about now is not her own indicator, but her eight subordinates are up to standard. If they do not meet the standards, she will be under great pressure. "As a sales representative, I only need to go out and grab a major account ." "As a manager, things are not that easy," she said. Not only are the indicators fail, but you are in a hurry and have no plans. I am really angry ."

• 2. Lack of trust: the more people trust each other, the more they trust each other. The more they trust each other, the more they can cooperate with each other. Manager Hu is narrow-minded and always suspicious of others surpassing himself and robbing him of his job. This will greatly affect the team cohesion, resulting in low team efficiency.
• 3. Attribution mistakes: when an individual's interests are infringed by others, he/she will find out why the other party is doing so. If you confirm that the other party is intentional, conflicts and hostility will occur. If the other party does not mean it, the probability of a conflict will be very small. Without (benign) competition, there will be no progress. If we make a mistake to blame benign competition for vicious competition, There will be various misunderstandings and conflicts. Attribution behaviors depend largely on personality traits and behavioral motives. In addition, attribution mistakes can also weaken trust. Manager Hu's worries are not necessary.

In all these three reasons, personality traits are the most critical. If Mr. Hu is really not a manager, it will certainly be a problem to keep him in this position. Therefore, the company had to consider replacing manager Hu, but manager Hu had the technical skills and was a star employee of the company. If not handled properly, Manager Hu may be directed to a competitor. There are multiple ways to replace Mr Hu with decent solutions. Companies can test his motivation and combine it with the strengthsfinder) grasp his personality traits (in the words of galop, it is the "logo theme") and design an appropriate reward mechanism to attract and motivate Mr. Hu.

Bibliography:

1. Li Jianfeng; organizational behavior management; Renmin University of China Press, 2000
2. Liu zhijian, Xu beini; management-Principles and cases; China South University of Technology Press, 2002
3. [Us] Benson Smith, [US] by Tony Rutigliano; [medium] Fang Xiaoguang; discover your sales advantages; China Machinery Industry Press, 2004