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Assignment Title: Analyze a Case
Books and Resources
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Achieve Centre. (2018, February 20). Conflict escalation & what to do about it.
Baillien, E., Camps, J., Van den Broeck, A., Stouten, J., Godderis, L., Sercu, M., & De Witte, H.
(2016). An eye for an eye will make the whole…
Coleman, P. T., Deutsch, M., & Marcus, E. C. (Eds.). (2014). The handbook of conflict resolution:
Theory and practice.
Friedman, R. A., & Currall, S. C. (2003). Conflict escalation: Dispute exacerbating elements of email communication. Human Relations, 56(11)…
The New York Times (2013, March 28). Key and Peele: Can you be too nice at the office?
Guide to a Successful Case Study Analysis – See Attached.
Laura and Tim Case1 – See Attached.
Instructions
This week, you will begin part one of a two-part assignment. For part one, you will map the conflict in
the resources section (Laura and Tim Case1) and perform a preliminary analysis on the escalation of the
conflict.
In your evaluation, avoid summarizing the case. Instead, analyze the case critically and assess how it
pertains to this week’s readings. Remember, excellent analyses are a combination of critical and
analytical thoughts connected to greater themes presented in the readings – and this is not an easy task.
Be sure to include the following required elements in your assignment:
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Briefly describe what you consider two or three major issues contained in the case.
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Explain how these points or issues integrate with the material covered this week and then
explain their relevance to the case.
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Identify the implications for the parties involved in the case.
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Provide a brief description of the questions/challenges you have regarding the readings and
explain why they are important.
Do not include the following in your analysis:
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A summary of the readings
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A detailed description of the case
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Any editorials
As you are preparing your response, consider the following questions:
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What were the roots of the conflict?
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How do the parties to the conflict view the behavior of the other and pursue their own interests
in the conflict situation?
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At what point did the conflict become detrimental to the parties involved?
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How might this conflict extend to the larger workplace?
Length: 8 pages, not including title or reference pages
References: Include a minimum of 5 scholarly resources.
Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in
the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should
reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards.
Notes:
Paper must be in academic format.
Assignment will be submitted via Turnitin.
In a large publishing company in New York, a young woman, Laura, was hired as a copy editor for one of
the many journals produced by the company. Seven other employees worked on this team editing this
Journal, including a senior editor named Tim. Laura had worked there for about a month when she and
her fellow co-workers went for happy-hour after work. Everybody had a great time and had consumed a
fair amount of alcohol. When everybody was leaving the bar to head home, Tim, who had been secretly
attracted to Laura since she started work at the journal, hailed a cab and offered to share the ride with
Laura . Laura accepted the offer. Once she was inside the cab, Tim then suddenly made an aggressive
sexual advance toward her. Horrified, Laura pushed him away and told him to get out of the cab.
Mortified, Tim slinked out of the cab.
The next day, Laura came to work with some apprehension. How would she deal with Tim? Would the
cab incident affect her job? Although Tim did not supervise her, would he try to get her fired? Tim
immediately went to her office and apologized for his extremely inappropriate behavior in the cab.
Relieved at his apology, Laura decided not to pursue the matter through any formal channels in the
office. She figured that since Tim apologized, there was no need to dwell on the incident. After all, Laura
was a new employee, still in the process of learning the office politics and proving herself as being a
competent editor. She did not want to rock the boat or bring negative attention to herself.
Everything would have been okay if Tim had stopped at just one sincerely expressed apology. However,
whenever he found himself alone with Laura, Tim apologized again. And again . He said he was sorry
about the incident at every opportunity he had for three months. This constant apology was awkward
and annoying to Laura . Ironically, by Tim apologizing continuously for his unwanted attention in the cab,
he was foisting another form of unwanted attention upon Laura. When he first started apologizing,
Laura told him that “it was okay”. After three months of many apologies, she reached a point where she
asked him to stop apologizing, to no avail. Frustrated, she confided in a few co-workers about her
unusual dilemma. Consequently, these co-workers lost respect for Tim .
Although the cab incident was not common knowledge in the office, Tim sensed that others knew about
it by the way they interacted with him. The incident became the office “elephant” that the employees
“in the know” saw, but didn’t explicitly acknowledge. Meanwhile, Laura was tired of hearing Tim
apologize and her feelings of discomfort increased. So when another editor position opened up in
another journal division of the company, she applied for the job and was transferred to the other
journal. In her new position, she didn’t have Tim bothering her anymore. But she was unhappy with her
new job. The journal material was very boring. She didn’t work as well with her co-workers as she did in
the previous journal (excepting Tim). She realized that she really enjoyed her old job. She began to
regret her decision to avoid the conflict with Tim by moving to the new job. In an effort to seek advice as
to how to solve her problem, Laura decided to consult with the company ombudsman.
Guide to a Successful Case Study Analysis
A case study analysis must not merely summarize the case. It should identify key issues
and problems, outline and assess alternative courses of action, and draw appropriate
conclusions. The case study analysis can be broken down into the following steps:
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Identify the most important facts surrounding the case.
Identify the key issue or issues.
Specify alternative courses of action.
Evaluate each course of action.
Recommend the best course of action.
Let’s look at what each step involves.
1. Identify the most important facts surrounding the case.
Read the case several times to become familiar with the information it contains.
Pay attention to the information in any accompanying exhibits, tables, or figures.
Many case scenarios, as in real life, present a great deal of detailed information.
Some of these facts are more relevant than others for problem identification. One
can assume the facts and figures in the case are true, but statements, judgments, or
decisions made by individuals should be questioned. Underline and then list the
most important facts and figures that would help you define the central problem
or issue. If key facts and numbers are not available, you can make assumptions,
but these assumptions should be reasonable given the situation. The “correctness”
of your conclusions may depend on the assumptions you make.
2. Identify the key issue or issues.
Use the facts provided by the case to identify the key issue or issues facing the
organization/individual you are studying. Many cases present multiple issues or
problems. Identify the most important and separate them from more trivial issues.
State the major problem or challenge facing the organization/individual. You
should be able to describe the problem or challenge in one or two sentences. You
should be able to explain how this problem affects the strategy or performance of
the organization/individual.
You will need to explain why the problem occurred. Does the problem or
challenge facing the organization/individual come from a changing environment,
new opportunities, etc?
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To determine if a problem stems from management factors, consider whether
managers are exerting appropriate leadership over the organization and
monitoring organizational performance. Consider also the nature of management
decision-making: Do managers have sufficient information for performing this
role, or do they fail to take advantage of the information that is available?
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To determine the role of organizational factors, examine any issues arising from
the organization’s structure, culture, business processes, work groups, divisions
among interest groups, relationships with other organizations, as well as the
impact of changes in the organization’s external environment-changes in
government regulations, economic conditions, or the actions of competitors,
customers, and suppliers.
You will have to decide which of these factors—or combination of factors—is
most important in explaining why the problem occurred.
3. Specify alternative courses of action.
List the courses of action the organization/individual can take to solve its problem
or meet the challenge it faces. Are new technologies, business processes,
organizational structures, or management behavior required? What changes to
organizational processes would be required by each alternative? What
management policy would be required to implement each alternative? Remember,
there is a difference between what an organization “should do” and what that
organization actually “can do.” Some solutions are too expensive or operationally
difficult to implement, and you should avoid solutions that are beyond the
organization’s resources. Identify the constraints that will limit the solutions
available. Is each alternative executable given these constraints?
4. Evaluate each course of action.
Evaluate each alternative using the facts and issues you identified earlier, given
the conditions and information available. Identify the costs and benefits of each
alternative. Ask yourself “what would be the likely outcome of this course of
action? State the risks as well as the rewards associated with each course of
action. Is your recommendation feasible from a technical, operational, and
financial standpoint? Be sure to state any assumptions on which you have based
your decision.
5. Recommend the best course of action.
State your choice for the best course of action and provide a detailed explanation
of why you made this selection. You may also want to provide an explanation of
why other alternatives were not selected. Your final recommendation should flow
logically from the rest of your case analysis and should clearly specify what
assumptions were used to shape your conclusion. There is often no single “right”
answer, and each option is likely to have risks as well as rewards.
**Credit: Pearson Education
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