BHR 3108: FINALS COMPILATION

A Matter of Miscommunication

The purpose of the case study is to identify the problem happening between

Allen and his immediate supervisor. In reading the case study, it was said by Allen

before the cold treatment of Mr. Martin to him that he views Mr. Martin as his second

father since Allen’s father died 3 years ago. This means that Mr. Martin and Allen had a

very good relationship with one another. But based on what I found out, there’s no

specific reason written as to why Mr. Martin is giving Allen cold treatment. Allen thought

maybe it’s just the effect of age because he observed it happened to his dad years ago,

so he tried sending various apology letters despite not knowing what he did wrong. And

to no avail, Mr. Martin ignored all his apology letters.

Based on the findings gathered, this problem worsens because of the lack of

communication between two parties. There is a possibility that Allen might have said

something offensive to Mr. Martin without realizing that it was offensive. But for Mr.

Martin’s side, he could have been more professional in approaching Allen if ever he
really said or did something wrong to him. Not to mention, he is a supervisor, and it’s

expected in his position to act as a role model, but he took it unprofessionally. It also

affects other employees, as they see the tension between the two. Allen did try to

approach Mr. Martin but received an aggressive reply that Mr. Martin refused to talk to

him. It also worsens because Mr. Martin is spreading ill comments about Allen to other

employees. Which in turn made Allen stressed and uncomfortable at work. Seeing how

things turned out, this is because they were not trying to formally solve the conflict

between the two.

In terms of the manager’s decision to transfer Allen to another department, that is

just avoiding conflict, which means it didn’t resolve the main issue at all as to what

made Mr. Martin treat Allen differently in recent days. If I were to decide the solution, I

would want HR to serve as the mediator between Mr. Martin and Allen. Provide a formal

and private meeting with the two, and from there, ask each side how and why the issue

happened. Like every other solution in conflict, it’s important to emphasize having an

honest conversation to solve the problem. Although it’s not guaranteed that Mr. Martin

would comfortably explain what made him upset, HR can also accommodate and give

confidential constructive feedback to Mr. Martin and Allen separately. This gives a

chance for HR to provide guidance to both of them. Give them a chance to work one

more time in the same department. Collaboration is another strategy to let Mr. Martin

and Allen get involved in a task that forces them to set a common goal and agree on a

solution to the task at hand. By the time for the performance review, we can follow up on

the performance done by Mr. Martin and Allen; if both have positive outputs, then that

assures the issue is already solved. If the conflict persists, I want to schedule a
reconciliation meeting so that Mr. Martin can formally express his issue to Allen. This

time, there will be consequences for Mr. Martin if he continues to keep up the bad

performance he has with his team.

In conclusion, this issue arises because of the lack of communication between

Mr. Martin and Allen. This caused a negative effect in the workplace and tension

between Mr. Martin and Allen. Workplace conflicts should be taken seriously by

management, and they should find ways to solve them immediately. There are various

ways to solve the problem, but we have to take note of what the best solution is.

From my gathered suggestions of how to solve the problem, I can say one of the

best solutions is to have private communication in the office between Mr. Martin and

Allen. This can solve the major problem of Mr. Martin’s treatment of Allen because, in a

private setting, both parties can openly share their thoughts, grievances, and concerns

with one another. And the next thing to do is to monitor them by putting them on a

collaborative task followed by a performance review. It may be forceful, but letting them

find a common goal to look toward will encourage them to cooperate with one another.

In the meantime, be able to monitor their performance to see if the conflict has already

been resolved. All of this should be done by HR and also by their manager.

Source links:
https://online.champlain.edu/blog/top-conflict-resolution-strategies
https://www.mindtools.com/aj565hn/resolving-workplace-conflict-through-mediation
https://www.betterup.com/blog/why-communication-is-key-to-workplace-and-how-to-
improve-skills
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages
/managingworkplaceconflict.aspx
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/conflict-resolution-strategies