BUSINESS MARKETING

FINAL EXAMINATION
POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

PERFECT TASTE BAKERY PRODUCTS: Run for your life

Perfect Taste Bakery Products is a company that is already on its 12 year of operation.
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A line of Bakery products manufactured by the company is delivered to the different marketing
outlets located in the provinces of Luzon.

To facilitate delivery of its products, the company maintains fifteen mini-trucks. Each
delivery van is manned by a driver and a helper who are both salaried employees. Products are
delivered twice a week on each outlet.

For the past 12 years, the company appeared not to have been affected by any conflict
either between management and employees or between employees. This has been so until just
recently the drivers and the helpers of ten delivery vans went to see the general manager. They
denounced the manner by which the dispatcher makes delivery assignments. They complained
about the easy routes assigned to five drivers whom they thought to be the favorites of the
dispatcher. One of the complaining drivers mentioned that he discovered that the five drivers
and the dispatcher are members of a certain fraternity, another driver also complained that the
newer vans were assigned to the favorites. Some other issues were also mentioned. One of
these is the questionable performance report of the dispatcher which indicated high ratings for
the favorites. The complainants are agitated and become angrier when they were informed of
the performance salary adjustments scheduled within thirty days.

The general manager promised that he will do something. After a month, there was no
indication that the general manager did anything about their complaints. The complaints,
however, noticed that the dispatcher has changed his behavior towards them. He became more
strict with them. It was then that they began to harbor ill feelings toward the dispatcher. They
began to talk about how to get even with them.

Questions:

1. Do you think a conflict is already existing?

2. What should be done by the dispatcher? By the general manager?
3. Do you think conflict in the company has an effect on Marketing strategies of the
company? Why?

Type your answers below:

1. Yes, because of the personal attachment of the dispatcher to the other five delivery van drivers or
the so called favorite. The dispatcher knows the five of them personally, so the favor of the
dispatcher will obviously into the favorites. The general manager must either replace and hire a
new dispatcher or discipline him and give the appropriate sanction for the wrong doings of the
dispatcher.
2. The dispatcher must divide the routes evenly every week and assign it by a different driver
regularly. He must not focus on giving the easy routes to his friends or else the complainants may
find a way how to extinguish him in his position or something else that will not be good to him. The
general manager must inform the dispatcher about the complaints about him, or give a warning. If
he still does it, the general manager may suspend him for a few days, for the dispatcher to notice
that he really is doing something wrong. If he, does it again, after being suspended, the general
manager can have a good reason to fire the disrespectful dispatcher.

3. The more important challenge is to create the space for conflict to occur in a constructive way for
people to raise difficult and contentious issues, and for leaders to be exposed to often
uncomfortable disagreements. Otherwise, problems fester, important views are squelched and
effective communication is inhibited. within an organization can cause members to become
frustrated if they feel as if there's no solution in sight, or if they feel that their opinions go
unrecognized by other group members. As a result, members become stressed, which adversely
affects their professional and personal lives. Conflict can occur in any organization when employees
with different backgrounds and priorities work together. Conflict can be expressed in numerous
ways such as insults, noncooperation, bullying and anger. Its causes can range from personality
clashes and misunderstood communication to organizational mismanagement. The negative effects
of workplace conflict can include work disruptions, decreased productivity, project failure,
absenteeism, turnover and termination. Emotional stress can be both a cause and an effect of
workplace conflict. They find that dysfunctional conflict in the decision-making process has
deleterious consequences for quality of strategy and market performance, whereas functional
conflict improves both quality of strategy and performance.