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Case Study: Claire King

Diana Pena

South Texas College

ORGL: 3311 Issues Organizational Leadership

Dr. Michele Guajardo

10/09/22
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Abstract
Teams' personalities have a role in task conflict as well. Recognizing the many forms of conflict

that arise in social interactions also enables us to choose the best techniques for dealing with

certain forms of conflict. Realizing that a dyadic conflict is necessary for an organization to

occur is a process that takes time. Process disputes therefore revolve around roles and delegation.

Claire never lost concentration while working, despite the sexism that persisted there, and

continued to prioritize the aspects of her career that made her happy. In the case study for Claire

King, in instance, she has not scaled up to the job that is suitable for her despite working there

for at least five years.

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Claire King

Conflict can be found everywhere especially in places you go to everyday like work where there

are individuals with different opinions and ideas to the organization. Conflict can become minor

disagreements or can end up being violence in the workplace between co-workers, employees,

staff, CEOs, and managers. There are three types of conflicts that can arise in an organization:

intrapersonal, interpersonnel, intergroup conflict. Intrapersonal conflict is individuals based on

themselves on their wants and should do. They feel uncertain of making their decisions on

performing a task due to the differences of roles. A manager has to check if the employee is

doing the right tasks and the person may see it as lack of trust. Roles conflict with two different

job descriptions that can’t occur simultaneously. This conflict can arise if you're the leader of the

team or the member of another team. Roles ambiguity given the task to find a trainer for the

company’s business writing training program. You can feel undecided on whom to hire a

professional or local person. If they don’t give you guidance it will be more difficult to find one

individual to do the job( Cox KB,2003).

Interpersonal conflicts are among employees, staff, managers and CEOs. Interpersonal

conflict arises because of the different opinions, personality and competition. The individuals

need to focus on ideas for the organization instead of escalating conflict in the workplace.

Intergroup Conflict is based on the differences of groups such as different departments or

divisions in the company, unions, managers, and competing companies having the same supplies

to customers. Departments can have conflict on the budget savings, management can disagree

over rules, companies may lack supplies for the customers (Cox KB,2003).

The type of conflict being in the case study is Interpersonal conflict since Claire was

feeling discriminated against in the workplace. She had worked for the company QSWR for five
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years and when her managing partner Tom announced to her that she couldn’t become a partner

for the company because she worked so hard and they prefer for her to be a mother and take care

of her family. That is called discrimination because the manager shouldn’t make her decisions

based on what she wants to do with her life ( Schiller, 2017).

A leader or manager needs to have these principles: honesty, hard work , empathy,

respect, fairness, and courage in order to have a successful organization. Ethical dilemmas can

sometimes be involved in the workplace because these leaders don’t have these principles. For

example, Claire, who had worked five years for the company, had led large projects that were

important for the organization. She collaborated with other engineers of different grades and

disciplines. The company relies on Claire to manage flood planning projects to act as technical

lead and to deliver on projects. The company and her were proud that she was earning more

money than the rest of the partners that had more years than her working there in the

organization, but when she wanted something from the company like being a partner for

management they refused to give her the position. They preferred to discriminate against her

because she was a woman and she had more abilities of being at her home and taking care of her

family ( Schiller, 2017).

Some leaders don’t like to give other employees better opportunities since they prefer to

leave them where they are or make them quit the organization. That is why many organizations

fail and don't achieve their goals instead of letting employees become leaders and give them the

opportunities for them to come up with better ideas and opinions towards the organization. Claire

wasn’t treated fairly since she didn’t get the opportunity she wanted because of all of her hard

work and trust she gave to the company. The leader should have empathy towards her and give

her the position instead of telling her to be with her family. She knows that family matters, but
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also her work too. She felt miserable about how they treated her in the company. After all, she

gave five years of her life instead of being in a company that would appreciate her more than this

company ( Schiller, 2017).

Finding

I believe Tom is not being transparent with the decision he took over Claire since it

doesn’t make any sense. Why does he have to mention that Claire should be a mother and take

care of her family? He should have mentioned before that she worked so hard for the company

for five years and did all the projects for the company. Now they want to discriminate against her

because she is a woman not a man or maybe they already have someone that is going to take her

position as a partner of management. Tom is supposed to be aware of what he is doing as a

leader instead of letting go of a hard worker that made the company succeed throughout five

years. Tom needs to feel empathy and appreciate all Claire has done to the company. He should

consider giving her the opportunity of being her partner in the organization.

I recommended Claire to leave the company like she did and hired a lawyer to file against

discrimination towards the company. There are better job opportunities that will take her into

consideration about being a partner of a firm instead of discriminating against her. Individuals

that are not good leaders will never succeed because they don’t have the empathy and fairness to

the employees. An employee wants to feel comfortable in a job that will treat them with equity

and empathy so they can work in an environment that’s not toxic and these can help them

accomplish the goals of the company. Claire did the right thing; she left the job that made her

feel discriminated against and went to look for new opportunities that fulfilled her needs as a

partner in management. She also hired a lawyer to file for her discrimination and glad she did.
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Hopefully she wins the trial so leaders and managers can take into consideration that a firm can

not be run like these in order for it to become successful managers should have their principles.
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References

Cox KB. (2003). The effects of intrapersonal, intragroup, and intergroup conflict on team

performance effectiveness and work satisfaction. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 27(2), 153–

163. https://doi.org/10.1097/00006216-200304000-00009

Lisel, Folks, and Schiller Nancy. Claire's King, 2017. ,https://www.buffalo.edu/navigate-

project/case-studies/claire-king-overlooked-for-promotion.html‌