Constructively Managing Conflicts in Organizations - Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Constructively Managing Conflicts in Organizations. Answer: Introduction: Human services refer to the aim of fulfilling the basic human needs by applying interdisciplinary knowledge focusing primarily on prevention and remediation of problems and maintaining the quality. A vast sector, human services involves a wide range of knowledge, disciplines and skills. Child abuse workers, family support workers, social service aide, crisis international counselor are all examples of the occupational titles given to human service workers (Madsen et al., 2014). In order to perform a systematic function for the upliftment and betterment of human life, various organizations have been formed that work towards human services. Organizations like the International Red Cross Society, the UNICEF, WHO and so on is some of the examples of human services organizations that function on a global basis (Almog-Bar Schmid, 2014). The focus of this essay however, is to evaluate a human service organization working in Australia. The organization chosen for the assignment is CARE Australia, an international organization working towards ending poverty and aiding people. The essay will provide a brief overview of the organization that will include its organizational structure and culture. It will further evaluate the presence of managerialism within the organization. In addition, the essay will analyze the leadership style of the organization. The relationship between managers and working professionals shall also be discussed. Further, the essay will explain and evaluate the ethical conduct prevalent within the organization. In addition, the ethical tensions faced by the workers in the organization in their every working life will be highlighted. Human service organizations have, as their main objective, the responsibility to uplift the deprived sections of the world population through various charity works (Shaw, Park Kim, 2013). The government might either directly fund these organizations or partially support them. Those that are partially supported or not supported by the government are known as non-profit or non-governmental organizations (NGO). In Australia, the human services organizations held an important role because of the countrys long history of social discrimination. During the colonial years, the indigenous Australians had to suffer a lot in the hands of the English settlers. This nationwide atrocity upon the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people led to the establishment of a number of organizations that attempted to improve the lives of these people. However, the history and present situation of these organizations compels one to speculate about the future of human services organizations in the country. Almog-Bar and Schmid (2014) are of the view that human services in Australia lack direction because of the negligence of the government and those holding important positions. Lack of awareness about the culture and tradition of the minority community further proves a hurdle in the path of human services. Many organizations are focused on providing humans services based on religion rather than focusing on hol istic nature of it. Head et al. (2014) however argue that the country has a come a long way in regards to the human services organizations. The government has also been generous enough to provide support to such organizations. In addition to that, many organizations are even run by the government that functions at an international level. One of which is CARE Australia. CARE is an international human aid organization based in Australia that focuses on women and girls to save human lives and end poverty. After becoming a member of the organization in 1987, CARE Australia began working across 94 countries providing human services focusing primarily on promoting equality to achieve the objective ("History - CARE Australia", 2018). Its mission is to work throughout the globe to save lives and achieve equality by defeating poverty. The vision with which the organization works is to look for a planet of hope, justice and tolerance. The organization focuses mainly on women and girls because it believes that putting them at the center would ensure equal opportunities and rights. In its three-year strategy covering the years 2015 to 2018, CARE Australia aims to involve increasing number of Australians in international projects aiming to end poverty and achieve gender equality (Care.org.au, 2018). One of the main strategic objectives of the organization is to achieve gender equality, as it would ease the way towards achieving the prime objective. With regards to the domestic level, the organization plans to engage more people in human services works because the rate of donation has seen a decline 14c in 2005 to 9c for each 100$ in 2017. The organizational strategies of CARE Australia align with its mission and vision. Ensuring excellence in the implementation and execution of programs and operations; involving more Australians in community works and being recognized as a trusted organization and fostering innovation and excellence are its three main strategies for the said years. In order to analyze whether managerialism exists within CARE Australia or not, it is important to understand the term first. Managerialism refers to the trust and belief given to professional managers in an organization and their way of work. Trevithick (2014) while providing a concrete definition of the term states, despite its importance and ubiquity, managerialism remains a slippery and under-theorized concept and there is no single agreed definition. The author is right largely because different scholars have defined mangerialism in different ways. According to Abramovitz and Zelnick (2015), managerialism is an assumption that not professionals, but managers have the potential to solve the huge amount of present economic and social problems. In the field of human services and social work, managerialism has always been a debatable and controversial topic. Within human service organizations, the over dominance or control of managers is deemed unfit for the cause for which it was fo rmed. One of the possible reasons for this could be the shifting paradigms of organizational structure and culture in the last few decades due to privatization and globalization. However, in order to proceed with the evidence of managerialism within CARE Australia, the basic definition has to be taken into account. The top management that comprises the Chief Executive and the Chair does not interfere with the work of the frontline social workers. Separate divisions are also present within the organization that includes a womens empowerment division as well. Most of the employees are from countries where CARE Australia is active thus ensuring equality at the professional level. The top management functions as a watchdog of the entire organization and allows professionals to work as per the needs of the situations. However, an analysis of the employee experiences at CARE Australia also reveals that the organizational culture prevalent in the organization is hampering the manger-professional relationship. The main reasons for this is the limited availability of resources with which the professionals are made to work, the arrogance and negligence of some of the top-level managers towards frontline workers and so on. Organizational culture defines the way the entire organization works. It reflects the values, ideas and beliefs that govern the way people within the organization behave. In case of human services organizations, the organizational culture defines the way their works are perceived by the concerned stakeholders around the globe (Bschgens, Bausch Balkin, 2013). If there is an absence of a strong bond within the organization, it reflects on the work it carries out. In CARE Australia, the absence of a strong and unified association between managers and professionals led to certain failures in its initiatives and social works. This resulted in the appointment of a new Chief Executive. In any organization, there is a constant and inherent conflict between managers and workers. Many theories have been developed to explain this conflict or tension. These organizational theories have not only help in understanding the functioning of the organizations but also have assisted in addressing certain issues (Alfes et al., 2013). The organizational conflict theory is one such theory of organization that helps understand the recurrent conflict within the organization. According to this theory, many kinds of conflict are witnessed within an organization like interpersonal conflict, role conflict, and inter-group conflict and the maturity and immaturity theory (Tjosvold, Wong Feng Chen, 2014). Interpersonal conflict occurs when an employee could not mix well with others with whom they are forced to work. Role conflict happens when an employee performing a specific role instructs another subordinate employee performing a different role. In inter-group conflicts, like role confl ict, workers working within a group in an organization might come into conflict due to their different roles and functions (Al Ramiah Hewstone, 2013). Any interference in the work of one member by another might lead to conflicts. The maturity and immaturity theory states that when employees are not given enough opportunities to utilize their potential and grow within an organization, they feel frustrated and it thus leads to conflict between the individual and the organization (Landis, Hill Harvey, 2014). In human services organizations like CARE Australia, the workers are responsible for carrying out field works in various parts of the world. They utilize their knowledge about that specific region in order to achieve results. To give an instance, a worker responsible for constructing schools in Sri Lanka, has the knowledge about the local community, the rules and regulations of the government and the feasibility of the project. If the worker is forced to work in a way instructed by a high-level manager who has little or no knowledge about the place, it might lead to conflict. In understanding the tensions between the professional workers and managers in CARE Australia, Webers bureaucratic approach might also provide some insights. As per Webers theory, an organization has structure, specialization, predictability and stability, rationality and democracy as its main principles (Greenwood, Hinings Whetten, 2014). The organizational culture evident within CARE Australia displays the two principles specialization and rationality most prominently. Specialization principle states that tasks amongst workers should be distributed according to the expertise of each individual. It also states that each task must have a separate chain of command. At CARE Australia, the specialization principle is duly followed as evident from its recruited staff. Around 94% of the staff belongs to nations where the organization operates. Rationality as the principle is demonstrated through the unbiased selection of workers through transparent recruitment. The presence of 94% work ers belonging to respective nations itself signifies the rationality followed by the organization ("Staff Board - CARE Australia", 2018). Sally Moyle, who took on the responsibility of CARE Australias CEO in 2016, is keen on promoting womens rights and gender equality across the globe through the organization (Care.org.au, 2018). She has previously held offices at the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. As evident from various researches, the leadership style of women varies greatly from men. Many scholars argue that women as leaders demonstrate more responsibility and efficiency than men are especially in the contemporary scene (Pierro et al., 2013). However, women leaders have always been neglected and given little importance than what they deserved. Sally Moyle, as the CEO of an International Aid Organization that looks to encourage and ensure womens empowerment is of the view that women must stop crying about their situations and stand up for what they deserve (Abc.net.au, 2018). In the two years of Sallys appointment, vast change has been visible within the organization. Being a CEO, Sally personally went to the areas where the organization is working and checked the situations there. She even met with the people personally and learnt about their problem. This shows her commitment towards providing an efficient and transparent service to the people. CARE Australia disseminates services in many parts of the world and that cannot be possible with dependence on a single leader. Every professional is required to take on the role of a leader while performing duties in different areas. In cases of extreme urgency, a worker has the authority to implement changes without the approval of the top-level managers. In addition, since it is a human service organization, it boasts of professionals who are adept in their respective jobs. Hence, they are required to act like a leader when it comes to providing services to the people across the globe. I work as a consultancy expert at CARE Australia and I have been associated with it for the past six months. I was fortunate to have found the opportunity to work for a human service organization like it. Although my area of discipline is human resource management, but I have joined as a volunteer in order to understand the working of the organization. In my six months, I have found that the work process in a human service organization is markedly different from other business organizations. In terms of ethical conduct as well, human service organizations are quite different from other organizations (Downe, Cowell Morgan, 2016). As a consultancy expert at CARE Australia, I was inducted at the beginning of my tenure regarding the ethical codes of conduct that I needed to follow. The organization follows a number of codes of conduct that include the ACFID Code of Conduct, ICRC Code of Conduct and FIA Code of Conduct amongst others. I found that as per the FIA Fundraising Institute of Australia (FIA) the organization has ethical responsibility to be transparent while raising funds (Care.org.au, 2018). It is very important to have ethical consistency and accountability while organizing events for fundraising. Another code followed by the organization is the Complaints Policy Statement according to which, all the stakeholders have the right to give feedbacks and register complaints in case they feel that the organization has violated any ethical code. However, as an employee I think it was important for the organization to include an ethical code of conduct that defines the relationship between the employees and the managers. In my opinion, that is the reason for the inherent but subdued ethical tension within the organization. I have found many times that certain top-level managers instruct the subordinate employees to omit certain records relating to funds. In addition, I have also noticed that the employees working hard on the field are not given the due wage they deserve. However, CARE Australia is remarkably different from the other profit hungry organizations that I have witnessed. Being a human service organization, it does not treat its employees inhumanly in order to achieve maximum profit. The working of a human service organization is thus very different from other organizations. However, it could be observed from the above essay that certain principles are similar in both forms of organization. To give an instance, the organizational structure and the leadership styles followed. In this paper, the writer has discussed the functioning of a human service organization. It provided a discussion on the organizations structure and culture while assessing the role of professional workers and managers within the organization. The chosen organization for the said assignment was CARE Australia, which in an international aid organization. The organization is mainly focused in putting the women and girls at the center in order to eradicate poverty. Equality, mentions CARE Australia, is the best way to end poverty. The assignment has shed light on the organizational culture of CARE Australia and defined the various organizational theories that assist in the understanding of the t ensions between professionals and managers. Managerialism is the concept that defines this tension and it has been duly explained in the essay as well. 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