Conflict Resolution and Mediation Final Exam CRM 272 - Prof. Wendy M. Alias Spring 2017 Due date: April 27, 2017 at 1:00PM in class via printed hard copy. Email will NOT be accepted and equals a zero (0) Part I: Essay (100 points) Read the following scenario and use the questions at the end to analyze the conflict and design an intervention. Your essay should be approximately 4-5 pages, double-spaced. Use the questions at the end to structure your paper. The Betacore Manufacturing Company You are the senior vice president of operations and chief operating officer of Betacore, a major producer of office furniture. Jose Gonzalez, your subordinate, is a vice president and general manager of your largest desk assembly plant. Jose has been with Betacore for 38 years and is two years away from retirement. He worked his way up through the ranks to his present position and has successfully operated his division for five years with a marginally competent staff. You are a long-standing personal friend of Jose’s and respect him a great deal. However, you have always had an uneasy feeling that Jose has surrounded himself with minimally competent people by his own choice. In some ways, you think he is threatened by talented assistants. Last week you were having lunch with Kenya Stewart, assistant vice president and Jose’s second in command. Upon your questioning, it became clear that she and Jose were engaged in a debilitating feud. Kenya was hired last year, largely at your insistence. You had been concerned for some time about who was going to replace Jose when he retired, especially given the lack of really capable managerial talent on Jose’s staff. Thus you prodded Jose to hire your preferred candidate – Kenya. Kenya is relatively young, 35, extremely tenacious and bright, and a welltrained business school graduate. From all reports she is doing a good job in her new position. Your concern centers on a topic that arose at the end of your lunch. Kenya indicated that Jose is in the process of completely a five-year plan for his plant. This plan is to serve as the basis for several major plant reinvestment and reorganization decisions to be proposed to senior management. According to Kenya, Jose has not included Kenya in the planning process at all. You had to leave lunch quickly and were not able to get much more information from Kenya. However, she did admit that she was extremely disturbed by this exclusion and that her distress was influencing her work and probably her relationship with Jose. You consider this a very serious problem. Kenya will probably have to live with the results of any major decisions about the plant. More important, Jose’s support is essential if Kenya is to properly grow into her present and/or future job. Jose, on the other hand, runs a good ship and you do not want to upset him or undermine his authority. How would you handle this? Conflict Analysis (50 points) ▪ What are the potential interests and goals of all three parties? ▪ ▪ ▪ o Jose, Kenya and you( senior VP) What power currencies are at play and how should they be addressed? What identity and social issues need to be considered? What is the impact of this conflict on the company as a whole?  Conflict Resolution (50 points) ▪ Identify a plan for intervening to resolve this conflict Can you serve as a third party to resolve the issue between Jose and Kenya? o What are the pros and cons of you taking on this role? ▪ What steps should you take to resolve this conflict? o Provide a rationale for each step. o Relate to the goals for each party. ▪ Assuming that a resolution is reached regarding the 5-year plan, what can you do foster reconciliation between Jose and Kenya? Or if reconciliation cannot be achieved how can there be a cooperative work environment for all parties involved and what is your role in the facilitation of these processes? o If the there is no resolution reached and someone had to be terminated who would you chose and what is your justification?