Sy, Kaira Sy, Mandy Tan, Jannusz Wong, Kassandra HUMANBE K35

I.

Point of View

In this case study, our group chose to judge from the perspective of the supervisor. This mutual decision we made was unanimous due to the agreement that there will be less bias if we came from the point of view of the supervisor. Regardless of what perspective we chose, we were still able to analyze and study the sides of each party. Team Alvarez and team Fredrico. II. Statement of the Problem

What was the cause of the conflict within the employees of Liberty Construction Company? III. Areas for consideration

Noteable concepts discussed in the chapter that were very relevant in the case study was role ambiguity, status symbols, and social system. Role ambiguity was very evident between Alvarez and Fredrico. Alvarez, being the full-time employee was challenge and offended as the supervisor gave the newer backhoes to Fredrico a part timer. Fredrico, with no intention of taking the new backhoe was caught off guard. This later created a conflict between the two. In this case, the backhoes were treated as status symbols in the company. If you have been given the newer backhoe, it is automatically presumed that you are better or more important than of the others. Thus, bringing you up that in that imaginary social ladder. From a more holistic view point, we can observe that a social system is present. Since all parts of the system are interdependent, the change of one part of the system can greatly affect the others. Like in Alvarezs and Fredricos situation, the work balance was affected due to the controversy between the two parties. Leaving the company with two opposing teams, one for Alvarez and the other for Fredrico.

IV. Alternative courses of action and why

1. Through the psychological contract, we want to establish the fact that replacement is inevitable. Such that we judge through the performance of each employee and weigh their differences. Through this implementation, it would be easier for supervisors to cut off those who are unwilling to comply with company standards and easily replace them. Also, as we define this print in the contract, it can also serve as a warning or even become a motivation for the employees to do better and exert more effort. 2. Monthly team buildings. As supervisors, we want to maintain a peaceful working environment. Through monthly team buildings, employee relationship in the workplace will grow and work satisfaction will be achieved. This will be favorable to the organization because of its long term benefits. Since employee relationship is great, work productivity will also be manipulated--thus, resulting to producing better outputs. 3. Rewarding system. To be able to push our employees to do their best, we decided to implement a rewarding system. We believe that through this, our employees will feel that sense of accomplishment and dignification. Although this may build competition in the workplace, the idea of this strategy is to bring out the best in our employees. V. Implementation Strategy (Methodology)

In implementing our strategies, the group has decided to follow the three step course of the three Cs. To clarify, to communicate, and to cascade our strategies. First is to clarify by means of getting straight to the point. There must be no complications and misunderstandings; rather, everything must be clarified. Our framework should be easily understood to be able to implement it properly. Bureaucratization is out of our dictionary in this step. Second is to communicate by disseminating proper information. Discussions are needed to occur at each level, translating the organizations strategy into a more understandable and contextualized form, wherein it will easily connect to the work of individuals and help people understand and realize the big picture. Last but not the least, by cascading the strategy throughout the organization and get to the practical and tactical components of peoples jobs every day. Ideally by having constant team meetings and one on one sessions with the employees. In this step everyone has a say. We want feedback and that is why one on one sessions are made. We believe that to successfully execute an organizations strategy, it must be the focus of every person in that organization. It is up to the leaders to create, monitor, and reward that focus as it is expressed. Through the three Cs step process we can provide the leadership required to implement strategies in a way that allows our employees to come to life in each corner of an organization. Thus, having our way to success in this endeavor.

VI. Expected impact on the companys Financial, Customers, Internal Business Processes, and Learning and growth With the better working conditions, efficiency is expected. Leading to a better financial standing and achieving employee satisfaction. With the implementation of a corporate database, it is hoped that more of the processing can be centralized and automated. So that productivity is reached. Consequently, customer satisfaction is also achieved. With the fast paced service they are receiving from the motivated and work enthusiastic employees, customer satisfaction is already a given. Leading to a fulfilling internal business process wherein we accomplish to serve others with good service. And through the process, the employees are trained and exposed to corporate cultural attitudes related to both individual and corporate self-improvement. Wherein they learn and grow as they serve the company. VII. Guide Question: Discuss this case in terms of the social system, equilibrium, the psychological contract, role, status, and status symbols. As we all know, a social system is a system composed of complex interactions among human beings in an organization. This includes all stakeholders of the organization such as the manager, members, customers and employees. Considering that all parts of a social system are mutually interdependent with each other, the behavior of one member can have an impact on the other members, as well as the other parts of the system, regardless of whether it is a big or small impact. The concept of social system can be further explained through alvarez's behavior, by which his strong dissatisfaction for his current job position affected the other employees of the company. Because of his problem, the employees started to group into two, one supporting alvarez and the other supporting federico, the employee who got the former job position of alvarez. The issue got bigger when the two opposing groups started to cause work problems for one another. Due to this, job conflicts ensued inside the organization, which then contributed to the organization's overall social disequilibrium. A system can only achieve social equilibrium if all of its parts are in harmony. Since the company's workers are going against each other, the impact of their reckless actions threw the whole organization out of balance, which resulted to the company having social disequilibrium. Looking at the issue in alvarez's perspective, it seems that he might have felt that his psychological contract was broken down. Psychological contract embodies the psychological involvement of each employee in an organization, which includes their contributions and expectations while working in the organization. In return, they expect to be given economic rewards for the contributions that they will make. Considering that Alvarez was a regular employee of the company, included in his psychological contract was his perception of being prioritized over temporary employees and expectation of

being retained to operate the second backhoe. Since alvarez's expectations were not met, he became dissatisfied with his job, which led to his resignation. Both the owner and the employee are guided by their own roles, but it seems that they did not have an accurate role perception of each other. The manager perceived that alvarez would just comply with his orders and be okay with it. Alvarez, on the other hand, perceived that the owner would not reassign him because he was a regular employee. Since their roles were not clarified by one another, conflict aroused when the manager re-assigned alvarez to an older machine. Since the owner has a higher status, he has the authority to assign the person who will operates the machine. However, he doesn't just assign employees in a random manner. He assigned Michael Federico on a newer backhoe because of his status, which can be based from his educational background, ability, skills and seniority. Since he has already been working for the company for nine months, albeit his status of being a temporary worker, he was given the new machine. In our opinion, he might have been a temporary worker because he was still in college because if not, he would have been hired by the company as a regular employee. In their organization, it may be possible that the backhoes are used as a status symbol. Status symbols are external objects visible in an organization, which may be used as an evidence of one's social rank. In this case, operating on a newer machine might show that you have a higher rank than those operating on an older machine. This might be a factor that affected alvarez's dissatisfaction of being replaced, which led him to feel status anxiety.