Organizational Urge and Authority Conflict in Structures - Essay Example

Organizational Motivation and Leadership in the Workplace Customer Inserts His/Her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name 3rd September 2012 Introduction Organizations are profit making institutions. They use resources such as labor in order to meet their profitability goals. However, they face many challenging situations. These challenges range from excessive absenteeism to employee conflicts. These situations cause frustration towards the employer as well as the employee. Workplace situations are not viewed immediately. They are analyzed to determine the moment when they may turn in to a challenge. This is important in conflict resolution. Every workplace has a different set of situations. Established rules can be used to identify workplace situations but other methods can resolve these issues. This is to protect the rights of the employer and employee. For example, employers should consider the legal factors as well as workplace and employee circumstances before deciding to punish him or her. On the other hand, employees’ lawyers should consider the legal requirements and individual factual situations. This can enable them to provide practical and real advice to their clients (Challenging Workplace Situations, 2012). The aim of this paper is to identify employee conflict within Oracle Corporation and methods of solving the issue. Additionally, the essay analyzes the role of organizational leadership in employee conflict. The paper also evaluates the role of power and influence in employee conflict. Oracle Corporation is a computer technology company based in California, United States. The company develops computer hardware, software and database systems. It is the third-largest software company after IBM and Microsoft. As at June 30th 2012, Oracle had approximately 113,644 employees worldwide. The company is a victim of employee conflict. Conflict is any particular situation that involves people with different interests, feelings and goals (Rahim, 2010). For example, it faces a conflict between its employees and the employees of Informix. This is in regard to violation of trade secrets. This occurs as a result of personnel changes or when employees of Informix leave to work for Oracle and end up sharing essential business ideas with the competitor. For instance, Oracle employed eleven senior software developers who had previous worked for Informix. Informix took Oracle to court to challenge that Oracle had a plan to steal Informix trade secrets (Delta & Matsuura, 2002). Informix urged that Oracle had “tricked” developers who were an important part of Informix team. At Informix, the developers were working to improve a database technology. This case reflects the conflicts that occur in the context of personnel changes. These cases are common in other internet or technology-based businesses as well as in energy and motor vehicle businesses. For example, there are trade secret conflicts between General Electric and Dow Chemical and between General Motors and Volkswagen. This has made former employees to declare that trade secrets must be disclosed when employees move in to related roles with competitors (Delta & Matsuura, 2002). Therefore, it is important that employers should come up with employee motivation techniques. A motive is the purpose or cause for doing something. It involves factors that inspire peoples’ behavior. The three elements of motivation are direction, effort and persistence. Direction occurs when one decides to take a particular course of action. Effort is realized when one uses any means possible to achieve a goal. Persistence occurs when one is determined to remain within the same state for a long time. Employee motivation can involve three steps (Armstrong, 2002). They are as follows: Step 1: create an understanding of the significance of employee motivation. Step 2: study the major tips and methodologies that motivate the employees. Although short term motivation is effective, long term solution must be developed severally. Step 3: adopt the correct conflict management skills which can provide effective solutions. Motivational theory examines and explains employee behavior. Additionally, it describes the role that organizations can play in order to encourage the employees to work towards the achievement of the company’s goals. Employee motivation can occur in two ways. First, employees can undertake work which motivates them to fulfill their personal goals. For instance, Oracle employees that have previously worked for Informix could be motivated by higher earnings. This is because some of the employees seek employment for the same post as the one they held in the previous organization. Therefore, their motive is to meet their financial needs or to maintain a status quo. Second, employees can be motivated by the management’s behavior. This can involve pay rise, promotion and fame. For example, Oracle’s employees from Informix are lured by promotion opportunities within Oracle (Armstrong, 2002). Motivation occurs in two ways: Intrinsic motivation: this involves self-motivating factors that determine employee behavior. This includes responsibility towards the job and control over the skills, growth opportunities and abilities at the place of work. These are some of the factors that motivate Oracle’s employees. As a result, Informix employees end up looking for employment in Oracle (Rahim, 2010). Extrinsic motivation: it entails the motivational things that are done to or for the employees. This involves pay rises and promotion. On the other hand it can also involve disciplinary action against non-performing or disobedient employees. For example, Informix employees that go to work for Oracle are demotivated by poor pay or unfair promotions at Informix; they are motivated by better payment and promotion structures in Oracle (Rahim, 2010). Organizational leadership has a role to play in employee conflict. Bureaucratic organizations should follow some major principles in conflict resolution. They should establish hierarchy of authority. Therefore, employees should know who to report to in order to reduce confusion that causes chaos or conflicts. Additionally, organizations should learn division of labor or functional specialization. This means that the best people should be allocated certain roles. This reduces incompetence and inefficiency. There should be well established rules that cover the duties and rights of employees. This can reduce conflicts that arise from violation of company rules. For example, rules against violation of trade secrets have been established so as to protect the interests of the technology companies such as Oracle and Informix. Organization leadership should also learn to use technical competency as a criteria for employee selection. As a result, this can reduce conflict that arises from unfair recruitment and selection. It is also necessary to come up with procedures for solving or addressing work situations. This reduces the risk of conflict growing to uncontrollable levels (Rahim, 2010). Power and influence have a role to play in employee conflict. Power is deliberate impact over the emotions and practices of people. Studies have shown that employees with high-influence supervisors have high morale. On the other hand, employees with relatively low-influence supervisors have low morale. Such supervisors have less positive effects on the morale of employees. The management can practice five principles of power upon employee conflict (Rahim, 2010). Coercive power: This involves punishment through dismissal or firing of non-cooperating employees. Reward power. Management can reward its employees in order to influence their compliance. For example, Informix believes that Oracle uses reward power in order to lure employees. Legitimate power: this refers to limited authority over resources. For example, Oracle has legal authority over its employees. Expert power: this is specialist knowledge and skills. Therefore, employee credibility depends on their expertise being acknowledged by their employer. Referent power: this refers to personal power or high regard for an individual. Conclusion Employee conflict is common in every organization. Oracle is one of the companies that have been accused of violation of trade secrets. General Motors and Wal-Mart have also been a part of the companies accused of engaging in violation of trade secrets. In this paper violation of trade secrets is seen when Oracle employs staff from its competitor, Informix. The employees are believed to pass business related secrets from their former employer to Oracle. It is important for the organization to take part in employee conflict resolution. This should involve establishment of hierarchy of authority, division of labor, duty allocation and fair employee recruitment and selection. These measures improve the level of employees’ confidence levels. Additionally, organizational power and influence have a role to play in employee conflict resolution. Power can be referent, expert, legitimate, coercive or rewarding in nature. Each one of these powers should be controlled in order to reduce excessive pressure on the employees. Some methods of conflict resolution are more effective than others. Organization size can also determine the type of conflict resolution to use. However, it is recommended that an organization should establish conflict resolution measures in order to cater for upcoming employee conflicts. References Armstrong, M. (2002). Employee Reward: People and Organisations. London, United Kingdom: CIPD Publishing. Challenging Workplace Situations. (2012). Retrieved September 02, 2012, from http://westlegaledcenter.com/program_guide/course_detail.jsf?courseId=13305025 Delta, G., & Matsuura, J. (2002). Law of the Internet: CCH computer and internet law integrated library (2nd ed.). New York, United States: Aspen Publishers Online. Rahim, M. (2010). Managing Conflict in Organizations (4th ed.). New Jersey, United States: Transaction Publishers. Read More