MGMT 570 SESSION PROJECT GUIDELINES The purpose of this preparation guide is to provide you with some direction concerning the content, process, and structure of your final class project. In the sections below is some helpful information that will prove valuable with respect to facilitating your completion of a Course Project reflective of the high standards of quality work and personal learning that should be the aim of each participant in the course. ASSIGNMENT Members of the class are required to prepare a session project, not to exceed 12 pages in length (excluding appendices), on the broad theme of workplace conflict resolution. Within this broad theme, the project is intended to be an opportunity to explore in some depth a topic related to the course that is of specific significance to you. In developing the project, select a specific conflict situation of interest to you. Think of yourself as a conflict resolution consultant and assume that a key manager has requested a thorough analysis and recommended course of action to resolve an actual conflict that will make a difference to the future performance of the organization. The project should develop on the following time line. WEEK ACTIONS REQUIRED 1 Prepare a draft project proposal. 2 Refine the project proposal. 3 Submit written project proposaldescribe conflict situation and organizational setting. [Note: get a jump start on your literature review NOW] 4-6 7 Continue to work on class project. The completed project is submitted to the instructor. Optional: post your executive summary in Doc Sharing for the class. As should be evident, this Course Project is not designed as a make-work type of exercise. Rather, it is aimed at affording students the opportunity to bring major course concepts to life via their application to \"realworld\" conflict resolution situations. To maximize the prospects for success with this project, it behooves each student to carefully deliberate on the overall project and component tasks as defined in the section below. Your paper must include, but is not limited to, the following sections. SECTION POINTS DESCRIPTION Title Page 5 Title of your conflict resolution paper Your name, class, instructor, e-mail address, and date Background 30 Provide an overview detailing the background necessary to fully understanding the context of the conflict scenario you wish to study. Present background and facts that will enable the reader to clearly understand the conflict situation and what is to follow. Literature Review 50 Connect the conflict situation you are studying to scholarly work in managing conflict in the workplace. Review at least six scholarly or professional studies or articles that seem relevant to your study. Be sure to cite all your sources in your paper. See specific guidelines below. Analysis 50 Provide an identification and description of the causes of the conflict situation. Be sure the causes you identify relate directly to the conflict under study. A critical element of the strength of this section is to apply conflict resolution concepts and models from our text, from class discussions, and from your literature review. Discuss the concepts, ideas, or insights that are most valuable in helping you make sense of the causes of the conflict resolution. Support your analysis with reference to appropriate research and to illustrations. Conflict Resolution Recommendation 40 Suggest consequences, if nothing is done differently or no actions are taken to address the causes of this conflict. Recommend a more desirable state of affairs (behaviors); compare this state to what happens if no changes are made. Describe exactly what should be done and how it should be done, including by whom, with whom, and in what sequence. Reflection 25 Think about this assignment and write a well-thought-out reflective statement about how this assignment influenced your personal development in better understanding how to better manage conflict in the workplace. References 20 You must use no less than six resources outside your textbooks. Cite all sources. All references must be cited in two places: within the body of your paper and on a separate reference list. Choose references judiciously and cite them accurately. Citing an author's work within your text documents your research, identifies the source for readers, and enables readers to locate the source of information in the alphabetical reference list at the end of the paper. To use the ideas or words of another person without crediting the source is plagiarism. Plagiarism in its purest form involves copying passages either verbatim or nearly verbatim, with no direct acknowledgment of the source. The most common (and unconscious) form of plagiarism is to paraphrase a direct quotation. Paraphrasing does not relieve you of the conflict resolution to provide proper identification of source data. The best way to avoid plagiarism is to make sure all quotes, ideas, or conclusions that are not your own are given proper acknowledgment in your text. All of your papers should be written with proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation. All references and format should be in proper APA format. Total 220 Note: Grammar, syntax errors, and failure to properly use citations or failure to cite resources will result in point deductions from the total points earned. A Few Final Suggestions for the Session Paper Use the section headings in this guide as subtitles for your project. It makes it easier for the reader to find all of the elements of your project. Use this guide as a checklist. Make sure that each item is included and is located in the right place. This will ensure that you don't leave things out and it will make reviewing your drafts and your final project much easier. Review the Project Grading Rubric posted in document sharing. Review the Literature Review Guidelines below. LITERATURE REVIEW GUIDELINES A literature review is a written discussion of published or unpublished research, commentary, and information on a topic. The literature refers to books, journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles, company records and documents, and even personal interviews with knowledgeable industry conflict resolution experts. Your task is to search the management and conflict resolution literature to (1) discover the most common underlying causes of the type of conflict symptoms you have uncovered; and (2) discover the various solutions to conflict resolution that may apply to your particular situation. You should supply some commentary on what you find. Don't just describe what's written in six articles. You should talk about the concepts, ideas, or insights that have the most value for helping you make sense of your project. What theories can you use? What writers say something of value, and why? Which models are the most helpful, and why? You should cite at least six sources in addition to the course text (six is B level work, A level work would cite more). You must use the author-date citation system described in the Writing the Research Paper handbook. While newspaper articles can be excellent sources of information, it's important that not all of your citations be newspaper articles. You should access articles in management and conflict resolution journals as well. A good place to start your review is in the course text and in the chapter notes at the end. Then you can access Keller's online library and its search engines. You can enter key words, such as perception and conflict, and you will access recent articles on the subject. Scan the titles of the articles that come up and look for interesting ones to read in full. Also, be sure to check the references of interesting articles or books. They will lead you to others. If your initial searches don't produce what you're looking for, try using different key words. If you find yourself totally spinning your wheels, send me an e-mail and ask for help. ***** Inappropriate and exclusionary measures from members of management in the workplace. Managing Conflict in the Workplace- MGMT 570 Introduction Conflicts in workplaces are inevitable situations in any environment when more than one person is involved. Dealing with conflicts can be difficult if proper conflict assessment is not learned and implemented within the setting of a traditional customer service office space, particularly those a company uses within their organization, and those that they offer as services to clientele. This proposal will explore and consider the way that managers within this type of organizational structure employ negative tactics to \"spreading malicious rumours, or insulting someone, ridiculing or demeaning someone picking on them or setting them up to fail, exclusion or victimisation, and preventing individuals progressing by intentionally blocking promotion or training opportunities (Field, 2006).\" Avoiding the conflict or hoping that the situation will get better and eventually go away is not the best way to handle any disagreement. Everyone is subject to express some emotion every now and then. It is part of being human. But when the conflict is left unresolved for long periods of time, everyone get more and more frustrated and will eventually snap when they reach their limit or boiling point. The only way that this will be prevented is to face and handle the situation by confronting it head-on. Just remember to keep your feelings and emotion in check and be ready to sincerely listen to the other party. Hearing is not listening. Taking in what the other person has to say and repeating it to the other person to confirm what you heard shows the other party that you are really listening. Letting them speak until they finish is very difficult especially when you are already upset. Listen with an open mind and paraphrase what the other person said. Do not assume that you already know what the other person is about to say. The need exists for any company to manager their products, support services, and brand reputation by offering a resource to customers, which is convenient, but also client-centered. This department exists solely to support the resolution of customer complaints and the successful suggestion of sale of additional services to existing and potential customers. The challenge of this position is it relies heavily upon successfully diverting potential conflict scenarios into positive contacts for the business. The expectation for each customer service representative is to 'avoid disaster', all the while maintaining the company expectation to sale and support new business. Problem The workplace conflict to be solved is how to prevent harassment and bullying tactics being used in the DCMS Management Department, specifically those used to deny or block and employee from promotion within their job. Clear performance metrics will be used to demonstrate constructive ways to evaluate a candidate's readiness for promotion, in addition to the negative tools employed by managers intending to discriminate a staff person into underperforming. Analysis In everyday life, whether at work or at home, there is always going to be some type of conflict because of the nature of two people's difference in opinion or needs and how they are met. According to HelpGuide.org, a non-profit organization, conflict could be turned into opportunities for growth especially if they are handled properly. Improving overall employee with morale is a chief aim of the study, more singularly, identifying the root instances in which negative interactions occur between direct reports and their managers. On the other hand, if mismanaged or left unresolved, it could cause \"great harm to the relationship.\" Conflict could arise at any moment. Whenever two or more people disagree over their values, ideas, wants or needs an argument over which side is better or correct need to be resolved. The longer the conflict lingers, the worse both people feels and the situation gets even more contentious. The goal of this approach will be to determine the needs of the organization based on reducing negative occurrences between managers, but also finding a communication and development platform which will meet the needs of each supervisor, and use this system to support a trust-based relationship in support of employee development. Socially there is also a benefit to employees, which is to have a company which engages them in legal and corporate responsibility insights that may not only be useful to the company, but outside of the organization. Conflict Resolution Conflicts are not something that cannot be avoided or swept under the rug. If left unresolved, it becomes a much bigger issue over time. There are several ways conflicts could be handled. What I found as the most useful approach in any situation is the \"Interest-Based Approach\". With the growing expanse of technology and competition, staffing is the greatest advantage this firm has over other companies. This is an interest they must continue to respect and protect. To this end, each level of the departmental and organizational structure will be looked at to identify where opportunities for growth exist, also where potential 'bottlenecks' may impede a lateral or vertical move. In the case of our study, strong leadership and development of promising staff is vital to the companies continued competitive advantage; which can clearly be diminished by poor and negative management theories, principles, and practices. Many businesses rely strongly on partners that help them provide the best value for their customers. Organizations have become increasingly reliant on strong professional relationships to provide the best quality people, processes, and products at the optimal value for their customers. In addition to studying the behaviors of our firm in particular, we will identify best practices in staff development from similar companies like ours to strengthen the need for a comprehensive business approach to workplace environment. References Field, T. (2006, April 19). Workplace Bullying and Harassment. Retrieved November 18, From http://www.managedchange.co.uk/workplace_bullying.php Brigham Young University. (2010). Listening--A tool for resolving conflict. Retrieved from Center for Conflict https://ccr.byu.edu/content/listening-tool-resolving- conflict Resolution