“Conflict over Job Duties” Case Analysis

The main cause for conflict in this scenario is that being as the company is growing at an extremely fast pace, work-flow has increased to a point that the employees are all overwhelmed. The effect of this is that the manager of the accounting department, Linda Sims, has been utilizing the time of an employee from the credit department to cover some of the overflow of work. Now the sales department manager, Jose Martinez, is feeling concern for overflow in his department and is not allowing Ruth Rankin to help out the accounting department as much. This is causing quite a bit of tension between the two managers as both feel the need to use this employee's time for their departments. This conflict can easily be resolved using the proper methods of approach.

Now that the problem has been defined and analyzed, which are the first two steps in John Dewey's rational problem-solving process, we can begin to look at brainstorming solutions to the problem. Linda Sims know that Ruth Rankin is not technically part of her team, but has been privileged to be provided assistance from her frequently up until now. Knowing this and that the reason she needs her in the first place is because her department has become too busy and is now technically understaffed. She could ask her boss to hire an additional employee, even if only part-time, to fulfill the overflow of work that no one else in the department has time to get to. If her boss says that is not an option and is a bad idea, she can then try to negotiate a new plan with Jose Martinez to create an optimal solution.

Creating a schedule utilizing Ruth Rankin's time efficiently for both departments could be one suggestion. Perhaps they can have her work in the accounting department half-days every other day of the week or two full days a week. All dependent upon how they agree her time is best spent and most needed. This would provide common criteria for an optimal solution to their problem. It would be cost effective...