Art of Persuation

The Art of Persuasion

Conflicts at work place can either be good or bad depending on the skills of the leader who is handling them. To make these conflicts beneficial for the organization, the leader must seek to resolve conflicts not to keep them quiet but to fully understand the situation and have them come to an understanding where it went wrong and how to solve it.

Where It Went Wrong

James is an African-American worker who has worked at the warehouse for few years already. Mike was hired as a manager when he is young and new to the warehouse. I can easily see why James would be mad at the situation because it seems like that he would know the way around the work better than Mike and he developed his own way of working during the few years he has already worked there. When Mike is giving him orders, James doesn’t seem to want to do them because he thinks that he knows better than Mike. Mike on the other hand struggles to manage this group. People seem to ignore his orders and they take actions before telling him about it. Since things are not going to his will, he had developed some anger towards the workers. Mike’s managing skills are not very effective since he cannot control the workers and his solution is to get mad at them. James feels that he is supported by the group of African-Americans and that he can do what he wants when there are enough people to “back him up.” He named himself “supervisor” when I haven’t given him the title.

How to Solve the Conflict

If I want to keep all the workers and solve the problem, Mike is the key to solving this problem. As a leader, he did not understand how to lead all types of people and he ended up creating a group of people that resents his managing style. In order to solve this problem Mike should understand the “art of persuasion.” According to the textbook, “elements of the art of persuasion include (1) an understanding of people, (2) the effective use of words, and (3) the ability to manage conflict”...