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An Insight into The Interpersonal Issues in Northwest Sales Division

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An Insight into The Interpersonal Issues in Northwest Sales Division

A. Issues

a) Lack of lacks self-management on the part of Melissa

The leadership by Melissa is deficient for lacking some important aspects of emotional

intelligence. Specifically, her leadership lacks self-management and social awareness. She is

unable to manage her emotional responses and impulses to issues at the workplace. If the

comments by Renee about Melissa are true, then it can be said that Melissa allows her emotional

reactions and impulses to influence and cloud her judgment (Anderson, 2018). Renee complains

that Melissa deliberately frustrates her by reducing the sales commission expenses in Renee's

department. Renee argues that Melissa seeks to frustrate her team because she's jealous of Renee,

and she hates the fact that Renee earns more money than she does. If these damning allegations

are even remotely true, then the NorthWest Sales Division gas a fundamental leadership problem

that needs urgent redress. Besides, in her interview with Neil.

b) Lack of social awareness and relationship management by Melissa

Melissa makes some comments that demonstrate a lack of social awareness and relationship

management skills. She states that she doesn't care about the colleagues' complaints that she is

unhelpful. An emotionally intelligent leader ought to properly handle interpersonal relationships

and ensure that other people's concerns, feelings, and needs, including the juniors, are addressed.

Such a leader is empathetic and willing to engage with other people, especially the juniors, to

understand their frustrations to address them. However, Melissa is indifferent to the concerns and

frustrations of others, and she does not care (Anderson, 2018). This makes the junior colleagues

hate her, and with her diminished liability, her degree of influence is fundamentally low.
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c) Abuse of the position power by the operations team

The operations team tends to abuse their power. To the extent that the operations team

specializes in putting the purchase orders through the system and that all other teams depend on

it to put their sales orders through the system, it can be said to wield expert power. From Al

Perez's remarks, the operations teams have abused this power with the effect that other teams feel

disrespected and treated as children. Perez states that the operations teams unreasonably return

an average of 75% of sales orders when they rectify minor errors with minimal effort (Anderson,

2018). Sometimes all that is required is a click of a button to rectify the errors, but the operations

team tends to return the sales orders. This behavior strains the relationship between the

operations team and Perez team, and probably some other teams. Compromise and collaboration

are needed for teams to work together effectively.

d) Lack of an effective procedure to develop and implement new rules

The Northwest Sales Division suffers from a lack of a clear framework to develop and

implement changes to rules. Al Perez complains that some rules do not make any sense meaning

that other employees are not consulted in deciding the content of the rules. Equally, Renee

complains that the rules change every day, making them hard for her team to follow. She

complains that she is required to comply with rules randomly and unilaterally made by Melissa

(Anderson, 2018). This shows that the rules are not publicized, and Renee feels that the erratic

change of rules is an intentional attempt to remove barriers in her way. Management of change is

key to the success of any company. Dictating changes to rules like Melissa ignores the concerns

of other people involved with the inevitable consequences that the people affected by the rules
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will have negative emotional responses to the application of those rules and even express

resistance.

B. Action Plan

a) Train the workforce on emotional intelligence

The Northwest Sales Division should roll out a training program on emotional

intelligence targeting all members of the division, especially those in management positions such

as Melissa. The training programs should focus on training the members on the core

competencies of emotional intelligence. This is the ability to recognize, understand, and

empathize with other people's emotional needs and feelings. The second is the ability to use one's

judgment to resolve disputes and problems that arise in the workplace (Gilar-Corbi et al., 2019).

Study shows that interventions through training programs in the work environment effectively

improve the emotional intelligence of senior managers and junior colleagues (Gilar-Corbi et al.,

2019; Dyer et al., 2007). These programs are essential for the Northwest Sales Division. They

will not empower the persons in management positions and positions of control to inculcate

social awareness, self-management, and relationship management. This will, for example, enable

Melissa to recognize that her indifference to the concerns and needs of other work colleagues is

deteriorating the quality of interpersonal relationships with them and ultimately diminishing her

influence as a leader. Besides, other junior employees like Renee will also learn to address their

issues without emotionally hurting their colleagues. The division members will be able to work

in harmony with each other as they will solve the conflicts between them amicably.

b) Adopt a viable framework for developing and implementing changes

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The Northwest Sales Division should adopt Beer's six-step change management model to

implement changes to the established rules or develop new rules. The first step requires an

accurate and objective diagnosis of the problem situation. The second is developing a change

vision specifically directed at addressing the identified problem (Stouten et al., 2018). The third

is communicating the proposed change vision to the relevant stakeholders. The fourth is the

collective implementation of the change with the participation of all of the concerned

stakeholders. The fifth step is integrating the change into the organization's formal structures.

The last step is monitoring and modifying the change to suit the evolving needs of the workplace

but with adequate and meaningful participation of all the stakeholders (Stouten et al., 2018).

Beer's six-step model is appropriate to address the issue of an erratic and unilateral change of

rules. The model allows all members affected by the changes to participate in developing,

implementing, and modifying the rules, which enhances the legitimacy of the rules. It also

required that changes are directed at addressing specific identifiable problems. This ensures that

rules change is not used by a few powerful members to prejudice other workers.

c) Institutionalize team building programs

The Northwest Sales Division should integrate team-building activities and programs into

the core of its organizational structure. Team building involves pulling the members of an

organization towards a common goal. Team building programs should ensure that the team

members have sufficient complementary skills and that they understand and are committed to a

common meaningful purpose (Fapohunda, 2013). Further, it should ensure that the members

have a sense of mutual accountability reinforced by a proper and effective leadership structure.

Team building programs are needed for the Sales Division because there is evidence that the
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division is not united towards a common goal. This is evidenced by the attempts to frustrate each

other and reduce some teams' sales expenses. Team building will address this challenge to ensure

that the organization members pull together towards a common meaningful goal. Besides, it will

also address the perceived abuse of the position of control by the operations team. They will

acquire complementary skills that enable them to rectify errors and put the sales orders from

other teams through the system.

References

Anderson, D. L. (2018). I Can't Work with Her:” Team Conflict in the Northeast Sales Division

Case. SAGE Publications, 12(2), 752-788. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781526429360

Dyer, W. G., Dyer, W. G., Jr., & Dyer, J. H. (2007). Team building: Proven strategies for

improving team performance (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. (n.d.).

Fapohunda, T. M. (2013). Towards Effective Team Building in the Workplace. International

Journal of Education and Research, 1(4).

Gilar-Corbi, R., Pozo-Rico, T., Sánchez, B., & Castejón, J. L. (2019). Can emotional

intelligence be improved? A randomized experimental study of a business-oriented EI

training program for senior managers. PloS one, 14(10), e0224254.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224254. (n.d.).

Gilar-Corbi, R., Pozo-Rico, T., Sánchez, B., & Castejón, J. L. (2019). Can emotional

intelligence be improved? A randomized experimental study of a business-oriented EI

training program for senior managers. PloS

one, 14(10). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224254
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Stouten, J., Rousseau, D. M., & De Cremer, D. (2018). Successful organizational change:

Integrating the management practice and scholarly literatures. Academy of Management

Annals, 12(2), 752-788. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2016.0095