Question

DISSONANCE BETWEEN EMPLOYEES

Matt created his T-shirt business, T’d up, 30 years ago, building the company up from a small, no-name brand that he ran out of his parents’ garage while he was in school into a well-known local company that supplies custom T-shirts and other clothing and accessories for a wide variety of customers, both local and national. T’d up’s big break came 20 years ago when a local band became famous and sourced all of their concert clothing merchandise from Matt. Since then, T’d up has gone on to supply other bands (some famous, some not), high school fundraisers, various charity organizations, and even uniforms for other local businesses.

Matt is proud to say that he has never fired anybody, and he has employees who have been with him for decades because they like the casual work environment that is focused on creativity and design. The T’d up dress code is jeans and T-shirts, and Matt buys lunch for everyone every Friday. T’d up has been in the same shop that it moved into when Matt got his first big break three decades ago, which is really just a big warehouse with open space everywhere to facilitate group discussion and team interaction. Employees are encouraged to work together and try new things, and Matt gives all employees free reign to design and manufacture new product ideas. Because the company started so small, and grew slowly at first, Matt has been able to maintain his commitment to using only organically grown materials, and fair-wage labour in garment construction as well as graphic design, and eco-friendly dyes and inks used for printing materials.

In the past year Matt lost three valuable, experienced employees to retirement, and replaced them with four very recent graduates. The four new, young employees have, understandably, banded together to become a solid team and Matt is very pleased with their work product: They created a new design line that has quickly surpassed all other T’d up lines in terms of sales, even securing a large international order. Creating this new line took a huge amount of effort, and the new employees often worked late or came in on weekends, something that the rest of the team at T’d up doesn’t do.

The problem is that this new contract, and its attendant success, seems to have created a bit of jealousy among the older employees, who have been standoffish and unwelcoming. The new employees don’t seem to be blending in, even after months of everyone working together. Of the many complaints that Matt has fielded with regards to the new team is that they don’t speak up at meetings, but then send group e-mails describing their thoughts afterward. This communication style has been very difficult for the older employees, who are comfortable with one another and used to communicating face-to-face. While Matt realizes that the new employees lack the confidence to voice their thoughts in front of everyone, several older employees have complained that it is sneaky and underhanded saying, “If you have an opinion, say it to my face. Don’t just go back to your office and draft an e-mail criticizing my idea to the whole team!”

The new employees also spend a significant amount of their time at work on their phones, even preferring to text one another when they’re just on opposite sides of the same room. They don’t even try to pretend that they aren’t on social media, talking to the group about who tweeted what, and who Insta’d where, and who has seen what meme; conversations that attempt to include everyone but serve only to alienate the older employees and reinforce the growing divide between the two groups. Matt is very hesitant to create any new rules limiting online access, because he has always maintained a very casual and creative environment, and realizes that new ideas come from everywhere, but the older employees complain that the newbies are shirking their obligations by “playing online all day” rather than working. The new employees not only do not see their use of social networks during work time as a problem but also keep trying to encourage the older employees to increase their social media presence, explaining that T’d up’s brand needs to become more social media–friendly; a position that Matt’s advertising team agrees with.

Matt would be OK with these little challenges—after all, some differences are to be expected, and even encouraged—but there are larger issues developing that have Matt concerned. For instance, two of the new employees are vegan and made a presentation to the rest of the group that Matt thought had been very well received, about the importance of moving away from animal products in all of their merchandise (several of the classic design lines incorporate leather, goose down, and silk). After that presentation, however, a discussion between these two new employees and one of the older employees got heated, and harsh words were exchanged over who ate what for lunch! Matt would have thought it was all just a misunderstanding, except that some of the other older employees then made a point of bringing fried chicken in to work, eating it on the production floor with the intention of upsetting the vegans. When Matt scolded his older employees for behaving like children, he was accused by one of his most trusted long-time employees of playing favourites with the new employees.

Even more troubling is that two important orders for the new employees’ new product were delayed when paperwork went missing—something that has never happened before. While Matt would never accuse any of his employees of deliberately ruining a sale, one of the older employees, under strict confidentiality, mentioned that they knew with certainty that the order had been correctly entered into the system and that the only way the paperwork could have been misplaced was if someone deliberately deleted it from the system.

Matt is at a crossroad. He never imagined that hiring four new employees could bring such drastic changes to his company. He knows that something must be done, but he is unsure about how to proceed.

3. The new employee team came in on weekends and worked late in order to create their new product line. How does this relate to T’d up’s norms of behaviour?

4. Using the phases of conflict model, describe the development of one specific instance of conflict at T’d up.

Answer 1

Solution:

From the given case study, it is evident that the firm which has been in business for the last 30 years is at a definite crossroads for change. Since the firm was set up 30 years back, the firm has been focusing on local and national clients. The employees were more like a family, and the owner allowed them a free hand in terms of creativity and design. The work culture was also very informal with the dress code as jeans and t-shirt. The owner sponsors lunch for everyone on Friday. The workspace was open. Employees were encouraged to work as a team.

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However, when the new employees joined, they became a small group among themselves. They had a different work culture than the rest of the older staff at the firm. They focused on innovation and worked outside of office hours to create a new line that became the most successful line of the firm, eventually securing a large international order. While the new staff's approach is different from the existing culture, they seem to be fully committed to their responsibilities. The significant issue here is that the owner does not create an environment where the older and newer employees can work as a team and learn from each other. Hence, older employees suffered from a sense of uncertainty and suspicion.

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The five stages of conflict are:

1. Latent >> Participants are not aware of the conflict.
2. Perceived >> Participants aware of the conflict.
3. Felt >> Stress and anxiety.
4. Manifest >> Conflict is open and observed.
5. Aftermath >> Outcome of conflict.

In the context of this case study, the following is how the conflict panned out:

1. Latent >> Introduction of new employees in the team.
2. Perceived >> Older employees became jealous of the success of new employees.
3. Felt >> Older employees were stressed with the radical approach of the new employees.
4. Manifest >> Some order-related documents were missing.
5. Aftermath >> Loss of Order.