Q1. What lessons your firm might learn about its entire processes.

In an organisation, communication between managers and employees is key. Effective

communication is required to implement organization strategies as well as for managing day-to-day

activities through people. However, communication efforts are often taken for granted as

managers believe that employees already know what is happening in the organization or that they

are ignorant towards their employees (Davis, 2000). A lack of information, poor information or

misinformation escalates conflicts. Important issues such as job scope,wage structure and terms of

employment have to be clearly explained to employees and changes to these issues reasoned well.

SMRT could have prevented the conflict by reasoning with the Chinese bus drivers, through

appropriate means such as staff dialogues, difference in wage structure between them and their

Malaysian or Singaporean counterparts. SMRT should have realized that issues such as terms of

employment are potential areas of conflict and proactively intervened in a just and decisive fashion

to prevent conflicts due to these issues from ever arising.

A communication problem also arises when information is received but the receiver is unsure what

to do or does not do anything with the information. In other words, information does not filter

upwards despite the availability of feedback channels. The Chinese SMRT bus drivers claim that

despite complaining to SMRT on their poor dormitories conditions, no action was taken by SMRT to

improve their living conditions. Employees view managers as their leaders, who are required to

resolve conflicts, answer questions and deliver departmental and procedural changes. They become

resentful and unmotivated when their concerns are unresolved. It is therefore important to review

existing procedures for handling workplace disputes to get to the root of the unhappiness. Policies

have to be put in place to monitor the employer’s progress in resolving grievances. Capable and

responsible employers will respect the basic rights of workers by communicating with the employee

immediately and implement solutions once learning of a problem.

In the long run, organizations that fail to address the strategic management of workplace conflict

risk losing their competitive advantage due to an unproductive workforce. It also reflects negatively

on the company as organizations are scrutinized publicly for their ability to be good corporate

citizens, which include being socially responsible and ensuring the welfare of their employees. Some

Singaporeans felt that action taken against the Chinese bus drivers were too harsh as their

grievances were real and SMRT should shoulder some blame for not addressing their concerns

sufficiently (Jaipragas, 2012)

Besides the quality and quantity of information being communicated to employees, the means by

which information is conveyed has to be taken into account too. Face-to-face communication

flowing two-ways between both employees and management build trust between the two parties,

resulting in stronger commitment to each other and to the organization. Face-to-face

communication, achieved through dialogue sessions, formal or informal meetings, is deemed more

personalized and diminishes uncertainty as it contains higher quality information (Daft, Lengel, &

Trevino, 1987). Deetz (1992) contends that communication between a company and its employees is

not effective unless it is interactive and understanding is achieved.

Employees from different nationalities and cultures often work together in the same organisation in

Singapore. With such workforce diversity, it is necessary for organisations to put in place policies and

practices to build an inclusive and harmonious workplace. An inclusive and harmonious workplace is

one that appreciates differences amongst workers and works towards maximising their potential.

People from different cultural backgrounds bring different values, assumptions, and discourse styles

into the workplace (Choy, 2007). Such differences often lead to misunderstandings and breakdowns

in communication, and can threaten a common orientation to organizational goals. The SMRT bus

strike reflects the disparity in awareness of labour laws between local and foreign workers.

Ultimately, employees should be treated as brand ambassadors of their company. Employees have

been demonstrated to have more credibility with other stakeholders such as investors and

customers, than corporate communications efforts (Keller and Berry, 2003). Their opinions influence

external stakeholders’ opinions about the reputation of the firm. However, employees are often

overlooked by organizations in favour of external publics such as customers. Grunig (1993) indicated

that good relationships with employers led to job satisfaction, which Grunig and Huang (2000) said

boosts both employer’s and employee’s motivation to work toward the common goal of fulfilling the

mission of the organization. If employees are happy to be employed by the organization, they in

turn, share their positive feelings with customers and other stakeholders, which leads to happy, loyal

customers.

Q2. What would be your firm better long term strategy, if any? What would you recommend that

your firm do first? What changes will your firm have to make with respect to the present status?

Be complete in your answer and tell why.

My firm’s better long term strategy would be to achieve a workplace environment where effective

internal communication is promoted by all in the firm, not just the marketing and public relations

department. Face- to-face and other communication vehicles will be utilized to build mutually

beneficial relationships with employees. Trevino, Webster, and Stein’s (2000) study found that

managers used their own perceptions of media richness and how rich the media needed to be for

that situation to select the medium to disseminate information. However, their choice of

communication mode may not always be the best for the situation. To resolve this issue, my firm’s

management should first enquire employees during staff meetings on their preferred mode of

communication to ensure the best communication method is utilized. A reason why face-to-face

communication is used to a lesser extent is because of the time and effort it takes to do it properly.

Employees place importance on face-to-face communication, yet disclosed that their managers are

not always equipped to deal face-to-face with their employees (Mishra, 2007). To resolve this issue,

my firm will employ external vendors to conduct training sessions for both managers and employees

on how to be effective face-to-face communicators.

Proper channels will be put in place to ensure that workers have an avenue to voice their grievances

and their grievances are filtered upwards to the Management and resolved with immediacy and

fairness. The first task is for the Human Resource (HR) department in my firm to put in place a

proper Grievance Procedure (GP) to handle complaints. The handling of employee grievances is a job

function of any person authorized and empowered by the Management Team. The GP applies to all

employees regardless of rank as even executives and managers do have grievances or have the right

to raise their grievances. Cases of grievance by any employee in my firm shall be dealt with

transparently and in accordance with the procedure shown in Appendix 1 ("Grievance Handling

Handbook," 2011).

Behaviour of personnel who handle grievance also affects the employee’s satisfaction on the result

of grievance resolution. To ensure the effectiveness of the GP, the HR department should guide

executives, managers and all supervisors though the GP and imbue upon them the importance of a

GP and the need to take all complaints seriously. This can be achieved by conducting a grievance

handling workshop. The GP should be known and accessible to all employees. New employees

should be informed of the existence and availability of the organisation’s GP during their induction

into the company. On top of our GP, we will be organising regular staff dialogues to allow managers

to explain their actions clearly and employees to voice their opinions, allowing two-way

communication and feedback. Managers should use this opportunity to explain any actions to be

taken that will affect employees such as changes in wage structure and how the decided action

would be administered.

To build an inclusive and harmonious workplace, my firm will set up a diverse management

committee, chaired by a senior executive, to develop, implement and monitor initiatives to promote

workplace inclusiveness and harmony and communicate its importance. To ensure the sustainability

of diverse management initiatives, they should also work with HR and senior management to ensure

resources such as personnel and budget are assigned to such initiatives.

Events can also be organised to facilitate understanding of one another’s cultures, religious beliefs

and customs, for example, through celebrating major holidays of various nationalities and

ethnicities. My company will include values such as respect and inclusiveness into our core values to

demonstrate the importance of these values and encourage employees to put them into practice

when they interact with one another. Such values can be reinforced in regular team building

sessions and induction programmes. For foreign employees who are working in Singapore for the

first time, my firm will provide an orientation package which includes relevant information such as

rental and housing, laws and regulations, social and cultural norms to new employees, to facilitate

their entry not only into the workplace, but also into a new country. In the long term, the diverse

management committee should develop training programmes to equip employees and managers

with the skills to be more effective in working with and leading diverse teams.

The long-term goal for my firm will be to achieve workplace democracy (Deetz, 1992), empowering

employees with a greater role in managing their workplace. The Hackman and Oldham job

characteristics model is based on the idea that the task itself motivates employees. It proposes that

high motivation is related to experiencing meaningfulness of work, responsibility in initiating

employee-driven change and knowledge of outcomes (Faturochman, 1997). During dialogues

sessions or informal tea sessions, employees in my firm will be reminded that their jobs contribute

to something wider, to a society or a group over and beyond self, enabling more pride to be taken in

the outcome of their work. My firm can design jobs to increase employee involvement by enriching

jobs with more decision-making authority and allowing job rotation. Employees will be provided with

knowledge on how successful their work has been through performance appraisals or customer

satisfaction scores, which enables them to be aware of how effective he or she is converting his or

her effort into performance. This also connects them emotionally to the customer of their outputs,

giving further purpose to their work.

In conclusion, our firm hopes to practice an open-door policy where employees are encouraged to

raise concerns or challenges faced at work. Employees in my firm will be treated as a distinct public

worthy of individualized attention and rights, equal in value to investors and customers. Improving

labour standards and implementing effective mechanisms for redress for aggrieved workers may be

perceived as costly in terms of time and money. However, compliance with internationally

recognised labour standards leads to equitable relationships between workers and employers, which

results in improvements in worker performance. People have an innate desire to make a difference.

Firms should nurture the make-a-difference mindset of employee and tap their unrealized potential.

When employees are provided with more decision-making authority, it may also lead to increased

productivity since it creates a work environment that encourages workers to innovate and take risks.

My firm has much to gain when it upholds the dignity and ensures the well-being of its employees.

Q3. Suggest a leadership theory / model based on Q2 answer(s).

Based on the contingency approach, the appropriateness of a leadership style depends on the

situation (Rahim, 2002). The quality and acceptance of the decision affect the choice of leadership

style. Quality of a decision means the extent to which it will affect important group processes.

Acceptance of a decision is the degree of commitment of employees needed for its implementation.

When the decision quality and acceptance are both high, leaders should use a participative style as

shown in Figure 1. Effective leadership depends upon matching leadership style with situation.

Based on the contingency approach, a contingency theory of conflict management can be derived. In

a conflict situation characterized by high decision quality and acceptance, the integrating style is the

most appropriate to use as it leads to effective formulation of a solution to the problem. Reaching a

resolution on workplace grievances is of high quality as its outcome affects the employee’s

relationship with the company and high acceptance because both parties need to contribute to the

grievance resolution.

A leader with a participative style tends to adopt an integrating style when managing conflicts. The

integrating style, characterized by a high concern for self and others, involves openness, exchanging

information and analysis of differences to reach a decision agreeable by both parties. The integrating

style is useful for dealing with complex problems when synthesis of ideas is need to create a better

and more creative solution (Rahim, 2002). Skills, information and other resources possessed by

various parties such as subordinates, peers, superiors and other stakeholders can be utilized to

redefine a problem and formulate effective alternative solutions for it. These parties also feel more

involved and committed to the conflict resolution process, making them more concerned about the

end results. For example, The Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), an organisation concerned with

the well-being of migrant workers, has expressed their scepticism of existing channels of recourse

for migrant workers and outlined their recommendations to create a more equitable relationship

between a migrant worker and an employer in the report “Justice Delayed, Justice Denied”. Such

recommendations serve to help companies, where migrant worker make up the majority of the

employee demographic, resolve conflicts involving migrant workers more swiftly and fairly. The

management of such companies should be open to these recommendations and treat them as a

useful resource.

While an integrating style under the charge of a democratic leader has been described as the most

effective style of resolving conflicts, it does have some potential disadvantages. An integrating style

of conflict management is inappropriate in situations where immediate solutions are required as

time is needed to integrate the ideas of various parties. In some cases, parties may not have the

necessary knowledge or expertise to make quality contributions to the decision-making process.

Democratic leadership works best in situations where parties are skilled and eager to share their

knowledge. It is also essential to have plenty of time to allow people to contribute, develop a plan

and then vote on the best course of action.

Managers have to be transformational leaders, providing a vision and a sense of mission to all

employees, instilling pride, respect and trust in employees. Transformational leaders are able to

deal with conflict by addressing conflict in a healthy, productive fashion instead of avoiding it. The

ability to recognize conflict, understand the nature of it, and bring efficient and just resolution to

conflict will serve leaders well as they gain the respect and trust of their employees. Instead of

avoiding conflict, managers should view conflict as an opportunity and for team building and

leadership growth.

I suggest a Theory Y management for leaders in my firm, which assume that their employees enjoy

work, want to contribute to the workplace and seek to attain satisfaction from employment. This

approach is more likely to be a democratic style of management where the manager will delegate

responsibility and authority which provides staff with a greater say in the decision making process. A

Theory Y management believes that employees are capable of and take the initiative to achieve

organisational goals and solve workplace problems.

Figure 1: Participative Leadership Model

Figure 2: Theory Y Model

References

Choy, W. K. W. (2007). Globalisation and Workforce Diversity: HRM Implications for Multinational Corporations in Singapore. Singapore Management Review, 29(2), 1 Daft, R. L., Lengel, R. H., & Trevino, L. K. (1987). Message equivocality, media selection, and manager performance: Implications for information systems. MIS Quarterly, 11, 355-366. Davis, A. (2000). Communicate to create learning. Public Relations Tactics, 7(2): 26. Deetz, S. A. (1992). Democracy in an age of colonization. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Faturochman. (1997). The Job Characteristic Theory: A Review. Buletin Psikologi, 5(2), 1-13

Gabriel, R.L. (2012). Organisational Communication: Bridging the Gap Between Managers and Employees. Master’s thesis, Gonzaga University, Washington. Grievance Handling Handbook. (2001). Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices Grunig, J. E. (1993). Image and substance: From symbolic to behavioral relationships. Public Relations Review 91(2), 121-139. Grunig, J. E., & Huang, Y. H. (2000). Antecedents of Relationship and outcomes, In J.A. Ledingham & S. D. Bruning (Eds.) Public relations and relationship management (pp. 23-53), Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Associates. Jaipragas, B. (2012). Singapore to deport Chinese bus drivers in strike. AFP News. Retrieved from http://www.afp.com Keller, E., & Berry, J. (2003). The influentials. New York, NY: The Free Press. Mishra, K.E. (2007). Internal communication: Building trust, commitment, and a positive reputation through relationship management with employees. Doctor’s thesis, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Rahim, A.F. (2002). Toward a theory of managing organizational conflict. The International Journal of Conflict Management, 13(3 ), 206-253 Trevino, L. K., Webster, J., and Stein, E. W. (2000). Making connections: Complementary influences on communication media choices, attitudes, and use. Organization Science, 11(2), 163-182.

Appendix A

A sample GP for my firm is appended below:

(1) Recognising the value and importance of full discussions in clearing up misunderstanding and preserving harmonious relations, the Management shall always endeavour to preserve continuous and harmonious relations with its employees, and shall always make every reasonable effort to effect immediate full discussion to clear up misunderstandings and to investigate into any grievance of employees of (Company/Organisation). (2) In pursuance of this mutual desire, an employee’s grievance shall be dealt with in accordance with the following procedures: (a) Step One Any employee who has a grievance may, within three working days of its arising, bring the matter to the attention of his immediate superior or, where such grievance is against his immediate supervisor, to the attention of his Department Head, who shall give his decision within three working days from the date of reference to him. (b) Step Two If the employee concerned is aggrieved by the decision given under sub-clause (a) above, he may within three working days thereof, refer the matter to the Division Head for settlement, who shall give his decision within three working days from the date the matter was referred to him. (c) Step Three If the employee is still dissatisfied with the decision given under sub-clause (b) above, the employee may refer the matter to the HR Manager, who will represent the Management for settlement. (3) In the event of there being no settlement at the above steps, the matter shall be dealt with by the CEO, whose decision shall be final.