Discussion Questions

 What are the signs (symptoms) of conflict in this case?

ANS- Tamarack Industries manufactures motorboats primarily used for waterskiing. During the
summer months, a third production line is normally created to help meet the heavy summer
demand. This third line is usually created by assigning the experienced workers to all three lines
and hiring college students who are home for summer vacation to complete the crews. In the
past, however, experienced workers resented having to break up their teams to form a third line.
They also resented having to work with a bunch of college kids and complained that the kids
were slow and arrogant.

The foreman, Dan Jensen, decided to try a different strategy this summer and have
all the college students work on the new line. He asked Mark Allen to supervise the new crew
because Mark claimed that he knew everything about boats and could perform every job “with
my eyes closed.” Mark was happy to accept the new job and participated in selecting his own
crew. Mark’s crew was called “the Greek Team” because all the college students were members
of a fraternity or sorority named with Greek letters.

 Use the conflict model to (a) identify the structural causes of conflict and (b) discuss the
escalation of conflict described in this case?

ANS-(a)- It arises from the human thoughts and feelings, their emotion and attitudes and their
personality traits. Some of the causes of the behavioral aspect of conflict are :

(i) The values or the perception of situation by an individual could cause a conflict.
(ii) Personal biases related with religion race or sex can also generate conflict.
(iii) Different view points of individuals about the same thing can also generate conflict.
(iv) The increasing gap between the rich and the poor also causes conflict as the unrealized
expectation of the under privileged causes frustration in their mind which leads to conflict among
the different classes of societies.
(v) There could be a conflict between the organizational goals and the psychological needs of the
individual employees. The in-consistency between the two can create conflict.

ANS-(b)- Conflict escalation is a gradual regression from a mature to immature level of

emotional development. The psychological process develops step by step in a strikingly
reciprocal way to the way we grow up. In other words, as conflicts escalate through various
stages, the parties show behaviors indicating movement backward through their stages of
emotional development.

Escalation is charted in five phases, each having its own characteristics and triggers. Stage One
is part of normal, everyday life. Even good relationships have moments of conflict. These can
only be resolved with great care and mutual empathy. In this stage, people look for objective
solutions a cooperative manner. If a solution is not found, especially because one of the parties
sticks obstinately to his or her point of view, the conflict escalates.

In Stage Two, the parties fluctuate between cooperation and competition. They know they have
common interests, but their own wishes become more important. Dealing with information
becomes limited to that favoring one's own arguments. Logic and understanding are used to
convince or win over the opposing side. At this stage, each party does everything possible to not
show weakness. The temptation to leave the field of argument increases until the conflict
escalates because of some action taken by one of the parties.

 If you were Dan Jensen, what action would you take in this situation?

ANS- Dan Jensen decided that the situation had to be changed and announced that the job
assignments between the different crews would be shuffled. The employees were told that when
they appeared for work the next morning, the names of the workers assigned to each crew would
be posted on the bulletin board.