CASE STUDY – MANAGING A CONFLICT SITUATION
(Promoting a Junior Man)
Assume that you are a repairman for a large utility. Each day you drive to various locations in the city to do repair work. Each of you drives a small truck and you take pride in keeping in looking good. You have a possessive feeling about your trucks and like to keep them in good running order. Naturally, you like to have new trucks too, because a new truck gives you a feeling of pride.
Here are some facts about the trucks and the men in the crew that reports to Mohinder the MANAGER of the repairs:
1. GEORGE MATHEW: 20 Years with the company has a two years old Ford Truck
2. BALWANT SINGH 10 Years with the Company has a five year Dodge truck
3. RAMAN 8 years with the Company has a four year old Fort Truck
4. RAO 5 years with the Company has a three year old Ford truck
5. HARRISON 3 years with the Company has a five year old Chevrolet truck
Raman and Rao have a log of distance to cover in the suburbs while the other three do all of their driving within the city.
MOHINDER
You are the Manager of a crew of repairmen each of whom drives a small service truck to and from his various jobs. Every so often you get a new truck to exchange for an old one and you have the problem right now of being in a conflict situation viz. deciding to which one of your men is to be given the new truck. Often there are hard feelings, because each man seems to feel he alone is entitled to new truck, so you have a tough time being fair. As a matter of fact it usually turns out that whatever you decide, most of the men consider wrong. You now have to face the issue again because a new truck has become available for allotment.
GEORGE
When a new Chevrolet truck becomes available, he thinks that he should get it based on seniority and does not like his present truck. His own car is a Chevrolet and would prefer a Chevrolet truck such as the one he drove before he got the Ford.
BALWANT SINGH
He feels that he alone deserves the new truck. His present truck is old, and since the more senior man is a fairly new truck, he should get the next one. He has taken excellent care of his present Dodge and has left it looking like new. He is of the opinion that he should be rewarded for having treated a company truck like his own.
RAMAN
He has to do more driving than most of the other than because he works in the suburbs. He has a fairly old truck and he feels that he should have a new one.
RAO
Since Harrison backs into the door of his truck it has never been repaired to fit right. The door lets in too much of cold air, and he attributes his frequent illness to his. He wants a warm truck since it will serve him well as he has a lot of driving to do. As long as it has good tyres, brakes and is comfortable, he does not care about its make.
HARRISON
He has the poorest truck in the crew. It is five years old and before he got it, it has been in a bad condition. He has been putting up with it for the last three years. He feels that it is the right time to change the truck and the next allotment should be his. He has a good accident record the only blemish being when he sprung the door of Rao’s truck when he opened it as Rao was backing out of the garage.