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Essay Instructions: Identify a common workplace situation (e.g., employee apathy, workplace absenteeism, workplace conflict) within an organization.

a.Describe the selected organization.

b.Describe the selected situation.

c.Explain how motivational theories could be applied to the selected situation.

d.Analyze the role of organizational leadership in the selected situation.

e.Evaluate the role of power and influence in your selected situation.

include at least three references from peer-reviewed sources.

Essay Instructions: REQUIRED TEXT: REQUIRED TEXT
DuBrin, A. (2004). Applying psychology: Individual and organizational effectiveness (6th Ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson / Prentice Hall. ISBN: 4


Research Paper
The eight page final paper should demonstrate a synthesis of your knowledge of industrial/organizational psychology by applying the information from the readings and class work to the case studies provided.

Focus of the Research Paper

Carefully review the scenario below:

Susan and Molly, employees in a busy call center, are chatting at lunch. Between bites of fried chicken, French fries, high calorie soda, and a tiny salad, Susan begins to complain to Molly that she can’t seem to lose weight and that she is tired all of the time. They chat a little more about diets, and don’t seem to pay much attention to the fact that they are past their lunch time.

A few minutes later, Susan tells Molly that she doesn’t like their coworker, Karishima, because she can’t understand half of what she says due to her accent. Molly agrees with Susan, and they both begin to laugh about Karishima’s clothing, and how it is so different. They don’t seem to notice Joy, who is seated directly behind Susan and Molly and is overhearing their entire conversation. Joy becomes increasingly upset about their comments and wants to intervene, but she does not know how to go about it.

Finally, Joy had heard enough. She gets up from her seat and marches out of the lunchroom, a grim look on her face and teeth clenched. She barely misses running into Dan, who thought to himself after taking a look at Joy’s face, “Joy really looks stressed out! This job is really getting to her”.

As he enters the lunchroom, Dan realizes that Susan and Molly are still seated, and it is past the end of their lunchtime. Since Molly is Dan’s backup, he knows that she needs to be at her desk. Dan walks up to Molly and says, “I need for you to get back to work so that I can eat my lunch.” Molly looks up at him and says, “I’ll do what I want. You aren’t my boss and you can’t tell me what to do.” Molly returns to chatting with Susan. Dan is visibly upset, and turns around to find Mr. Davis, his supervisor, so that he can tell him what happened.

In the meantime, Mr. Davis, the floor supervisor, is reviewing the low productivity levels of his monthly employee report. He knows that he needs to do something to enhance his team’s performance, but isn’t sure what it is. He briefly thought about a company picnic, but the last time he had picked a group of people to coordinate one, they couldn’t decide when or where to have it, or even what kind of food to have!

1. Thoroughly evaluate the scenario to identify at least six underlying issues from the bulleted list that appear to be driving the described behaviors.
o Resolving workplace conflict
o Reducing stress
o Handling individual differences
o Reducing barriers to verbal and nonverbal communication
o Motivating employees
o Promoting cultural diversity
o Solving problems
o Promoting personal wellness
o Achieving successful group activities
o Motivating a team
o Promoting group decision making
o Reducing barriers to communication

2. Apply a minimum of two strategies learned in the course to resolve each of the identified the issues.

3. Provide at least one theoretical basis for each of the strategies.

4. Explain the cultural diversity issues that are involved in the conflict.

5. Finally, hypothesize the impact of implementing the strategies in the workplace.

Writing the Research Paper
• Your response to the scenario must be eight double-spaced pages in length (excluding the title page, reference page, etc.) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the approved style guide.

• Must include a cover page that includes:
o Name of paper
o Student's name
o Course name and number
o Instructor’s name
o Date submitted

• Must include an introductory paragraph with a succinct thesis statement.

• Must conclude with a restatement of the thesis and a conclusion paragraph.
• Must use APA style as outlined in the approved style guide to document all sources.
• Must include at least four scholarly sources in addition to the text
• Must include, on the final page, a Reference List that is completed according to APA style as outlined in the approved style guide.

Essay Instructions: 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 are offered 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 some 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 draft project proposal.

2 Refine project proposal.

3 Submit written project proposal??"describe conflict situation/organizational setting. [Note: get a jump start on your literature review NOW]

4-6 Continue to work on class Project

7 Completed Project submitted to instructor; Executive Summary placed in Document Sharing for 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 “real-world” 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
10
Title of Your Conflict Resolution Paper
Your name, Class, Instructor, Email 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/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 studing to scholarly work in Managing Conflict in the Workplace. Review at least 6 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 Recommend-tion
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
20
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 6 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. Refer to the Writing the Research Paper: A Handbook by Winkler and McCuen to understand how to cite sources appropriately.

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 not your own are given proper acknowledgment in your text.

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 insure 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 6 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 6 sources in addition to the course text (6 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.


The proposal that I already submitted......

Project Proposal

I am writing this proposal to offer a resolution for a serious conflict that has been ongoing between 2 co-workers for several months. The issue is about two marketing sales people that need to provide monthly sales results to management so the company can know how successful their products is. If the product is not selling successfully the company will need to pull the product immediately and if the product is doing well then the company will know to produce more. The problem is that the two marketing sales consultants that job is to sell the product, they are having interdependence conflicts. Both sales consultants work at the store, but one of the consultants is constantly putting in the sales report late which makes both employees look unproductive. On top of it all both employees do not get along that well. Based off of my evaluation majority of the misunderstanding is because of lack of communication and I would like to recommend a solution to solve the problem between the two employees that would not only benefit them but it will also benefit the company as a whole.



There are faxes for this order.

Essay Instructions: 1 page- Workplace conflict is common in many organizations.? How do you handle conflict with co-workers?? Use information from this week?s reading to define your style.?
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1 paragraph response to student post- With the varying degrees of issue in my organization, I cannot say I only react to conflict in one way. Most of the time I try to assume a collaborative mode, but I know I have succumb to a competing mode as I would describe myself as unrealistically stubborn (I?m working on it). This has hurt me from time to time; there have been instances where I was positive I was right and ended up being wrong. I?m working on it because I recognize the potential to damage reputations and relationships this way. Lately I have been rather successful in talking issues out. In understanding why someone believes the way they do it is easier to either agree with them, put up with their opinions, or sway their thinking. I still have issues with people who are inherently stubborn. I have not found a good way to discuss/argue issues with others who are tenacious, leaving me to avoid (avoidance mode) them. I do not like this strategy, but there certainly are times when it is the appropriate choice.
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1 paragraph response to student post- When dealing with conflict I prefer to use the integrative negotiation process. I usually have a one on one with the people in conflict and let them use their own answers to answer their own questions. When doing this avoid the question "why" as this is an opinionated question. Let them remove the conflict from the person and focus on the problem. I find if they can identify some of the reasons for the problem they can feel vital to the solution by voicing their thoughts on the solutions. After talking to the two parties I structure their responses to apply to solving the problem and talk with both of them on their input and only their thoughts on resolve. This is a structured talk with the ones in conflict and if approached properly after a statement to the solution a simple "wouldn't you agree statement" usually ends with both parties agreeing and compromise brings results.
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Attached will be a rubric as to how outline the papers as well as the chapter readings from this week.