What Outcomes Are You Hoping to Achieve in the Meeting with Other Party?

1. What outcomes are you hoping to achieve in the meeting with other party?

        The outcomes I hope to achieve in the meeting are to manage conflict and make it clear the disrespectful behavior must stop. From my observation I conclude the conflict is people/me focused. The reason, Larry and I had a civil work relationship before but after my promotion there has been a strain on the relationship. Since my promotion Larry has openly disrespected my ability by telling fellow colleagues my promotion is a reflection of affirmative action. I understand his frustration as he has more seniority and years of work at the company over myself but blatantly disrespecting me is unacceptable. His attitude has forced me to assign him to an undesirable project as our customers complain about the treatment they last received from him. His behavior is getting hard to manage, affecting the teams productivity and may potentially harm relationships build with Thai staff.

1. What is your plan for achieving these outcomes?  

• Explain what skill concepts/techniques you plan to use to better understand the situation, accurately identify the problem(s), and recognize the causes.  
• What is your analysis of this situation (problems, causes) and what solution(s) are you going to propose to the other party? Justify your proposed solution(s).  
• What will you do if your proposed solution encounters push back from the other party?  What is your alternative course of action if you run into resistance or lack of cooperation?  Justify your alternatives using concepts learned in class.  

My plan for achieving these outcomes is to ask questions. I want to determine if the personal conflict is from personal differences, lack of information, role incompatibility or environmental stress. To understand Larry’s position I utilize the collaborative conflict management style. The reason, I do not want to be uncooperative discussing how we can work together but I do want to be assertive on the topic of disrespect.

The problems are: the disrespectful demeanor toward the Thai staff and myself and adjusting to change. I believe the cause of the disrespect for the Thai staff stems from his personal desire to be someone’s boss (being in charge). Larry believes because he is dealing with junior staff he’s in charge and forgets his role is to be a supportive mentor. I believe the cause of his disrespect toward me partly stems from his anger of not getting promoted and partly because I am a female. I believe the cause of the inability to adjust to change comes from traditions enforced by previous managers but not policy. Larry feels he should receive certain projects but needs to understand although that has been common proactive it is just that, practice not policy. As the manager if I determine his skills are needed elsewhere that’s where he needs to go.