The Most Common Known Organizational Issues Always Result in Conflicts in a Workplace.

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The most common known organizational issues always result in conflicts in a workplace. Such problems cause several disparities especially between employees and their managers. Consequently, this results in worker demotivation and a significant decline in the overall productivity. It is worth noting that disparities could occur in several forms including relationship, task, and process conflicts (Abiodun, 2014). Relationship disparities arise when there are interpersonal disagreements, especially among group members while task conflicts are a result of inequalities in tasks and work goals. Process disparities, on the other hand, are developed when there are disagreements on the implementations of various functions. Furthermore, conflicts could be grouped as either functional or destructive. Functional disparities support company goals while destructive forms limit group performance and productivity. Several organizational issues occurred in the Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant. It is worth noting that all the problems were tied to the motivation and remuneration of employees in a bid to promote productivity. Furthermore, the Scanlon plan was at the center of all these organizational challenges.

Organizational issues could either be instigated by internal or external factors. Internal elements are constituted within the framework of a subject organization while sources outside the structure of a company motivate foreign issues. It is worth noting that the organizational issues in the Engstrom Auto Mirror Company Plant were internal and they constituted disparities between the company management and the employees. Structural and personal factors majorly cause the known organizational issues. Notably, these reasons are connected to the human behavior within organizations.  The individual goals and aspirations majorly contribute the personal problems. In the case of the Engstrom Auto Mirror Company Plant, some employees personally felt that Scanlon plans were not fair to them quoting an unfair rate of compensation.

The structural factors in a human behavior perspective could be further split as specialization, shared resources, goal differences, interdependence, authority relationships, roles and jurisdictional ambiguities. First of all, in cases where employees are highly specialized in specific fields, they may tend to lack knowledge on the job responsibilities of other employees. Specifically, this often results in unrealistic expectations among workers which causes interpersonal conflicts. Authority relationships produced a significant portion of the organizational issues at the Engstrom Auto Mirror Company Plant. In particular, this refers to the tension that was evident between managers and employees. The management-worker tension was highly elevated in the company especially when the executives resolved to lay down some of the employees in mid-2006 (Beer, 2008). The development profoundly compromised the confidence of the workers on the Scanlon plan and the management at large. Individual employees felt that their jobs were threatened and were consequently demotivated resulting in reduced productivity levels. The organizational issues arising from the set roles and expectations were also evident in the Engstrom Auto Mirror Company Plant case. At a point, the employees of the company felt a level of distrust on the management regarding the implementation of the Scanlon plan. Some of the workers were under the impression that the remuneration policies employed by the administration were unfair and failed to meet their required expectations. With this pressure, the management boosted the worker rewards in a bid to motivate such employees. Eventually, this led to an unmanageable compensation policy whereby an average worker earned 150% of the daily pay rate (Beer, 2008). Such failures in the Scanlon plan formed a significant organizational issue in the company.

The root causes of organizational issues could also be categorized regarding motivation, environment, knowledge, and skills. Employees play a critical role in ensuring organizational success (DePaul University). Therefore, it is crucial for employers to understand the dynamics of worker motivation. The Engstrom Auto Mirror Company Plant manager, Ron Bent focused on developing good relationships with the company workers as his primary role (Beer, 536). He had noted the existing poor connections as the significant organizational issue in the organization. The internal and external environments could further escalate to limit the conflicts in a company. For example, the downturn in 2005 resulted in layoffs that highly demotivated the Engstrom Auto Mirror Company Plant personnel. Managers should also define the employees’ roles and responsibilities along with their respective skills to prevent organizational conflicts.