Change, Conflict, Negotiation
Principles of Management
Mayville State University
Jamal Branco
December 4, 2014
Author Note:
This Research Paper on Influence, Power, and Leadership is being submitted to Professor Robert Johnston on December 5, 2014, by Jamal Branco as part of his studies in Principles of Management at Mayville State University
2 Hours
In the business world everyone handles situations differently; you may handle situations in a positive way or a negative way, everyone has their own ways of dealing with things. Different situations in the business world fall under change, conflict and negotiation. As a manager there are certain reasons why change occurs and certain ways your employees may react. Change, conflict, and negotiating are things that really challenge managers and put there managerial skills to the test.
Change is something that can be good or bad, something that can make things harder or can make things easier. Change is simply defined as the act or instance of making or becoming different. According to the book there are four types of change which are anticipatory, reactive, incremental, and strategic. Anticipatory change is changed that is planned based on the expected situations in the work place. Anticipatory changes are often the easiest changes to implement, given the time allowed in advance to form prepared responses to any issues that may arise from these changes. Reactive change is a change made in response to unexpected situations. Being reactive to change doesn’t mean you would react in a positive way it simply means due to the change in the situation will determine how you react to it. Incremental change involves subsystem adjustments needed to keep the organization on its chosen path. Strategic planning is the change altering the overall shape or direction of the organization. An example of how this works is in a company that has decided its primary goal is to become more employee-centered. One way strategic changes might be implemented is in training its management/leadership team on new policies in order to ensure a more consistent management (Kreitner, Robert, and Carlene Cassidy. Management.). With change comes different types of reactions depending on who it is and how the situation affects them personally. Employees can react can at two different ways to change. They can respond to it in a positive way or in a negative way. When going through a change that an employee likes they hit stages. The first is the unrealistic mind set, which basically is them being positive towards the change and excited about it. The second stage involves a shocking moment to the point where they just get overwhelmed and think that they can’t handle it and as they get encouragement from their co- workers and manager they realize that the change is not that bad and it is actually working out for the better. When employees act towards change in a negative way they tend to stress out and get all worked up until they realize that getting all stressed out only makes it worse and they begin to work to treat it in a positive way by laughing things off to make it easier but they still begin to have self-doubt. As time goes on they begin to get used to the change and turn it all in to positive thoughts and positive outcomes.
To employees that don’t agree or like the idea of change are usually due to some reason. According to the book there are some specific ones such as surprise, inertia, lack of skill, emotional side effects, lack of trust, fear of failure, personality conflicts, poor timing, lack of tact, threat to job status, and competing commitments. Employee who resist change due to surprise or change that is brought up in the spur of the moment. An example of this is simply the employee was asked to stay and work another shift after working a double already. Inertia is simply denying the act of going along with the change with the mind set of “We don’t do things that
