Engineers Work Related Friction Scenario Scenario: Eight Essay

Engineers

Work Related Friction Scenario

Scenario:

Scenario: eight male engineers and their supervisor Pet have worked in a production and distributing company for fifteen years; they have worked together steadily and have developed social relationships among themselves. Joy a female engineer and a fresh graduate with a master's degree from one of the best engineering school in the country has been hired to join the team due increase in workload.

Joy is enthusiastic and diligent with her work, she doesn't socialize so much with her team because she believe that they are; slow, too social, rip-off of the company and goldbricking and setting a work pace that is much less than they're capable of and also Joy believes that the team don't look at her as an engineer but as a woman who has broken the men's professional barrier.

The team turns her down whenever she offer to help because they believe that; she irritates everyone with her know-it-all pompous attitude and that she's not the kind of person they want to work with because she disturbs the team's morale.

Pet on the other hand, warns Sue to stick to her engineering job and leave management to him otherwise she will lose her job. Pet believes Sue is crossing the line when she assesses and motivates others and also reminds Sue that the company hired her because of her qualifications not her sex.

Front End Analysis

The scenario presented represents a common problem in many workforces. When a new team member is added to a team that doesn't fit in with the accepted norms, it creates a lot of friction and resistance to change from existing personnel. Employees are naturally resistant to change and a new personality can be the spark that ignites such a phenomenon. Any disruption to the existing groups established culture can bring in a wave of contempt from the existing employees. In this scenario, Joy, a fresh graduate with an exceptional education has come into a group with a long standing culture and has virtually refused to adapt to the group's culture.The group views Joy as a know-it-all pompous individual with something of a chip on her shoulder that doesn't fit in with the group's culture. Scholars of leadership and motivation have infrequently addressed the diversity of leaders and followers in terms of culture, gender, race and ethnicity, or sexual orientation. This omission has weakened the ability of research and theory to address some of the most provocative aspects of contemporary leadership, including (a) the limited access of individuals from diverse identity groups to leadership roles; (b) the shaping of leaders' behavior by their dual identities as leaders and members of gender, racial, ethnic, or other identity groups; and (c) the potential of individuals from groups formerly excluded from leadership roles to provide excellent leadership because of their differences from traditional leaders (Eagly, 2010).

The team's disruption is clearly caused by Joy's entrance. However, there are many advantages that could be gained by all parties if they could work through their differences. Even though Joy has a solid education, she would benefit from the experience of the group. Joy could learn many practical skills from the existing team members if she would open up to their culture. It seems as if she is more task oriented and less relationship oriented. In any team, member must use whatever interpersonal skills they may have to further the organizational goals. Joy seems to be less focused on the organizational goals than her own opinions. Furthermore, the existing staff could most likely learn from Joy as well. Joy has a tremendous education which could offer many insights into the latest theories and research practices that have emerged in the field. Joy stands the potential to inject new and fresh ideas from an outside perspective if the group would accept her presence.

Solution Strategy

The front end analysis identified many benefits….....