CASE STUDY (MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR)

These days while it has been difficult for some people to get job, Bridget has been lucky. Only last month her first job interview landed her in a very large publishing company in Accra. Bridget, was hired as a chief administrator. Fortunately, she was to work with five of her former mates, including her senior mate named Alfred. After working for two weeks Bridget and her fellow co-workers went for happy-hour after work. Everybody had a great time and consumed a fair amount of alcohol. When everybody was leaving the bar to head home, Alfred, who had been secretly attracted to Bridget since she started work, hailed a taxi and offered to share the ride with Bridget. Bridget accepted the offer. Once she was inside the taxi, Alfred then suddenly made an aggressive sexual advance toward her. Horrified, Bridget pushed him away and told him to get out of the taxi. Mortified, Alfred slinked out of the Taxi.

The next day, Bridget came to work with some apprehension but never reported the case. She was wondering how she would deal with Alfred. Would the Taxi incident affect her job and her good friendly relationship with him? To her surprise, two days later when Alfred came, he immediately went to Bridgets office and apologized for his extremely inappropriate behavior in the taxi. Relieved at his apology, Bridget decided not to pursue the matter through any formal channels in the office. She figured that since Alfred apologized there was no need to dwell on the incident and rock the boat.

Everything would have been okay if Alfred had stopped at just one sincerely expressed apology. However, whenever he found himself alone with Bridget, Alfred apologized again, and again. This constant apology was awkward and annoying to Bridget. After two weeks of many apologies Bridget became frustrated and unhappy. Consequently, she confided in a few co-workers about her unusual dilemma. Not surprisingly, these co-workers lost respect for Alfred.

While the taxi incident was now common knowledge in the office, Alfred sensed that others knew about it by the way they interacted with him. The incident became the office elephant that the employees in the know saw, but didnt explicitly acknowledge. Later Bridget began to regret her decision for letting others know. Accordingly, Bridget began to seek advice as to how to solve her problem.

REQUIRED:

1. How will you characterize the nature of the conflict in the case? Give two (2) reasons for your answer.
2. Give two (2) reasons why you think Bridget never reported the incident to any one the next day?
3. Give two (2) reasons why after two weeks of many apologies from Alfred, Bridget decided to confide in a few co-workers about her unusual dilemma?
4. Do you think Bridget was right to confide the incident to the co-workers? Give two (2) reasons for your answer
5. Suggest two (2) ways by which Bridget should have handled this conflict initially
6. It was said that finally, Bridget then began to seek advice as to how to solve her problem. If you were consulted by Bridget, give two (2) strategies that you would have given to her.
7. In the case, it was said that Bridget found the persistent apologies of Alfred very annoying. Give and explain two (2) conflict resolution styles that should have been adopted by Alfred at the initial stages in order to avoid the escalation of the conflict.