If the Meeting Does Take Place, How Should Kelly Try to Make It More Productive and Less Hostile, Essay Example

To ensure the meeting is successfully, Kelly needs to know the personalities and working styles of both Shirley and Jeannie. She also needs to be aware of the needs of the organization and how Shirley and Jeannie fit within the larger context. She also needs to know the background of the conflict in as much detail as possible and find out what are Jeannie’s and Shirley’s expectations and need.

In case of Jeanne, Kelly should ensure Jeannie has all the support to do her job properly. Kelly is aware that Jeannie wants to do everything in her capacity to meet performance goals and has bitter memories from her recent failure to meet revenue targets set by her manager which affected her performance review.  Shirley is a young employee who shows lot of promise but is still growing and gaining experience. In addition, top management has high expectations from Shirley that also puts pressure on Shirley and any negative news may adversely affect her morale and self confidence. According to value-percept theory, job satisfaction depends on an employee’s perception of the value he is creating in his job. Jeannie’s morale is going down because performance indicators make her think her contribution to the organization is declining. Jeannie’s pay has declined, her supervisor is less satisfied with her performance, and now her perceived lack of support from Shirley gives her impression that she has lower control over her job. She may also be seeing Shirley as a competitive threat due to Shirley’s quick rise  and how Shirley has overtaken some of Jeannie’s responsibilities. One may argue that Jeannie should be glad she has simpler tasks to do but simpler tasks are less challenging and thus, less fulfilling. Simplified jobs lead to lower job satisfaction while increasing absenteeism and turnover.

Shirley’s emotional meltdown may be a sign of her extreme devotion to the company and her passion for her job. Shirley is feeling emotionally down because she is aware of her weakness in people management skills. She could take coaching and mentoring courses to improve her people management and communication skills. According to job characteristics theory, the five core characteristics are variety (becoming manager of additional branch offices), identity (highly visible outcomes with her role), significance (working for medical centers which is obviously impacting society as a whole), autonomy (due to her high position there are not many people who can dictate to her), and feedback (being a territory manager with four branches under her control). These five core characteristics work together to result in high levels of work satisfaction. Kelly needs to remind Shirley that she is a territory manager and her subordinates expect her to provide guidance and support. Kelly may apply two variables which are ‘knowledge and skill’ and ‘growth need strength’ as “moderators” to influence the outcome of the meeting.

Jeannie and Shirley have the skills to succeed in their respective roles. They both have been impressive performances and have won the accolades of the top management. This may be why both Shirley and Jeannie have very high expectations of themselves. At the first meeting both of them were defensive which prevented reconciliation.

Shirley has natural tendency to perceive Jeannie’s messages as a personal attack. During the meeting with Bobby, she said “…my subordinate verbally lashes out at me without a worry in the world, simply because she had the approval of my boss”. Shirley also sometimes substitutes verbal communication with non verbal cues such as her emotional meltdown. Shirley had a difficult childhood which may also explain her defensive attitude when she thinks the criticism is aimed at connecting her shortcomings with her background. Jeannie thinks that Shirley overreacts to make Jeannie look bad before others but this doesn’t mean Jeannie doesn’t have communication shortcomings. Jeannie tends to be direct in communication, often failing to realize that her comments may hurt the others and may make it difficult for others to communicate with her. Shirley has a strong personality and both Shirley and Jeannie have big egos which results in confrontational work relationship between them. Kelly needs to remind Jeannie to be less aggressive and not come as threatening in her communication style. Shirley should be more assertive, direct but not forceful, and use unambiguous language in the second meeting.

To produce a more productive and less hostile, it is also important that Kelly make sure both Jeannie and Shirley make serious effort to resolve their conflicts and are willing to listen to each other. Kelly may also look at past records of both Shirley and Jeannie and may use behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS) to assess their overall performance by using “critical incidents” in the first meeting and guide them how they should be prepared to make second meeting successful.

If Kelly could persuade both Shirley and Jeannie to exhibit a greater level of citizenship behavior, the second meeting will be a success and would have met its objectives. Jeannie’s goal is to meet revenue figures on weekly and monthly bases so her team can receive quarterly and annual bonus. Shirley is known for excellent sales performance as her “territory manager of the year award” proves. Shirley’s weakness is her communication skills where as Jeannie is good at communication as she has ably managed day-to-day operations of the branch with the demanding, difficult personalities of doctors. If they both acknowledge each other’s strengths as well as accommodate each other’s weaknesses, this will result in more cooperative working relationship between them. At the same time, they can both continue to work on their shortcomings. Kelly also needs to figure out what goals and objectives are shared by both Shirley and Jeannie so she could explain them their work interdependence.

Before the meeting, Kelly may contact both of them and persuade them to come to the meeting with positive minds and reconciliatory attitude. Kelly also needs to keep their morale high by explaining them that work conflicts are part of the job and can be solved if the parties put their mind to it. Kelly especially need to focus on Jeannie who has a lower level of commitment to the firm than Shirley. Kelly may remind Jeannie that she is not the only one who is facing difficulties but in fact, the situation is faced by many other employees due to the recent restructuring. Kelly may also show her appreciation that she is glad Jeannie bought her concerns into Kelly’s attention and encourage Jeannie to do the same whenever she is faced with a problem. Meanwhile, Kelly would remind Shirley, who has been questioning Jeannie’s capacity as a branch manager, that Jeannie possesses great interpersonal skills, and how she ably manages the demanding and difficult personalities of doctor. Kelly may also encourage Shirley to ask Jeannie for suggestions on improving her interpersonal skills and in return give Jeanne the support she deserves. Once they figure out each other’s strength, their working relationship will strengthen and they will be more understanding of each other’s problems and the unique contribution they both make to the organization. Once Shirley and Jeannie learn to work with each other, they will be more open with each other and many of the problems resulting due to miscommunication will disappear on their own.