Complete Case 3 for Power and Influence Course (TRIDENT)

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Business Finance

Grantham Univercity

Description

Module 3 - Case

CONFLICT AND NEGOTIATION

Assignment Overview

For this Case study, we will be looking at a fictional case of a manager caught between a rock and hard place. Nick Cunningham is a manager at Synergon, a high-powered company involved in purchasing poorly managed companies and then restructuring them to become more profitable. However, Synergon has now purchased Beauchamp, Becker, and Company, which is a well-managed and highly profitable company.

Nick is in an awkward position because he is in charge of managing this merger, but he also knows that the success of the merger is dependent on Beauchamp’s managing director and other top leaders remaining in their positions and continuing their solid work. However, Nick’s bosses are not known for taking a conciliatory approach towards companies they purchase and usually force major changes on any company that they acquire. Predictably, Nick is faced with a threat of retirement by Beauchamp’s managing director Julian Mansfield due to Synergon’s strict policies and approach.

Before beginning the Case Assignment, make sure you have thoroughly reviewed the tutorial and textbook readings from the background materials. Pay special attention to readings on causes of conflict, types of conflict, and conflict management styles. For this assignment you will need to apply concepts from the background materials to this fictional case.

Case Assignment

Once you have finished reviewing the background materials, take a look at this following article and think about how the concepts from the background materials apply to this fictional case:

Cliffe, S. (1999). Can This Merger Be Saved? Harvard Business Review, 77(1), 28-44. [EbscoHost]

Then write a 4- to 5-page paper addressing the following questions:

  1. Do you think this conflict that Nick Cunningham faces is functional or dysfunctional? Explain your reasoning, and cite Bauer and Erdogan (2011) or Luthans et al. (2015) in your answer.
  2. What is the source of this conflict? Use the terminology from Bauer and Erdogan (2011), or Luthans et al. (2015) in your answer. For example, is this conflict a result of relationship/interpersonal issues? Or from tasks/roles? Other?
  3. Of the five styles of conflict management discussed in Shearhouse (2011) or Bauer and Erdogan (2011) which one do you think would be the best approach for Nick Cunningham to take?
  4. What other advice would you give Nick Cunningham based on the concepts discussed in any of the background readings?

Assignment Expectations

  • Follow the assignment instructions closely and follow all steps listed in the instructions.
  • Stay focused on the precise assignment questions, don't go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials.
  • Make sure to cite readings from the background materials page. Rely primarily on the required background readings as your sources of information.

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Explanation & Answer

Attached.

Running head: CONFLICT AND NEGOTIATION

Conflict and negotiation

Name

Institution of Affiliation

CONFLICT AND NEGOTIATION

2

Conflict and negotiation

1. Do you think this conflict that Nick Cunningham faces is functional or
dysfunctional? Explain your reasoning, and cite Bauer and Erdogan (2011) or
Luthans et al. (2015) in your answer.

On reading the case study, Nick is said to be facing functional conflict. By description,
functional conflict refers to a disagreement that is healthy and constructive between individuals
(Bauer and Edrogan, 2011). In this regard, it is noted from the case study that Nick does not like
pushing for major changes in merging with other firms. This is unlike the management of entities
such as Beauchamp. The reason as to why the conflict in the case study is functional and not
dysfunctional is because there is no disagreement between Nick and the leaders from the
merging entities. All that happens here is that Nick falls into their idea of bringing major changes
without posing any resistance. If there were any elements of resistance reported from Nick, then
this would be termed as dysfunctional conflict.

On the other hand, the other reason as to why functional conflict perfectly fits in the case
study scenario is that there is awareness of both sides. Nick is aware that he does not like
impl...


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