Needs and Intervention Map
Needs
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Researchers propose studying two major needs at Amazon.com conflict between the company’s board of directors and the company’s warehouse employees. These needs are trustworthiness and finances.
Trustworthiness describes whether the actions and words of an individual or an institution inspire trust in other people. In this regard, both the board and warehouse employees express varying degrees of trustworthiness in the other (Levine, Johnson, and Richard, 2007). The Amazon.com board is concerned about whether the warehouse employees can follow the policies it enacts. In many ways, the board does not believe that the warehouse employees can perform their work efficiently in the absence of policies stipulating the parameters of efficient work. Amazon.com warehouse employees are concerned about whether the board of directors can create policies that, among other things, ensure their workplace safety. Currently, Amazon.com warehouse employees have low levels of trust in the board because it focuses on creating policy that cuts down on operational cost, which often requires intense working schedules and sacrificing worker safety in the process. Both parties need to increase their levels of trust in the other.
Beyond this issue of trustworthiness, finances are of central concern to both the board and warehouse employees. The Amazon.com board wants to save costs through highly efficient operations while Amazon.com warehouse employees seek higher wages that better reflect the work’s intensity.
The role of the researchers will be to offer suggestions for an intervention strategy or strategies that address the trust and financial needs of both the board and warehouse employees.
Trustworthiness describes whether the actions and words of an individual or an institution inspire trust in other people. In this regard, both the board and warehouse employees express varying degrees of trustworthiness in the other (Levine, Johnson, and Richard, 2007). The Amazon.com board is concerned about whether the warehouse employees can follow the policies it enacts. In many ways, the board does not believe that the warehouse employees can perform their work efficiently in the absence of policies stipulating the parameters of efficient work. Amazon.com warehouse employees are concerned about whether the board of directors can create policies that, among other things, ensure their workplace safety. Currently, Amazon.com warehouse employees have low levels of trust in the board because it focuses on creating policy that cuts down on operational cost, which often requires intense working schedules and sacrificing worker safety in the process. Both parties need to increase their levels of trust in the other.
Beyond this issue of trustworthiness, finances are of central concern to both the board and warehouse employees. The Amazon.com board wants to save costs through highly efficient operations while Amazon.com warehouse employees seek higher wages that better reflect the work’s intensity.
The role of the researchers will be to offer suggestions for an intervention strategy or strategies that address the trust and financial needs of both the board and warehouse employees.
1st Phase Intervention Strategy: Open Dialogue
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Open dialogue will stimulate communication between the Amazon.com board and Amazon.com warehouse employees. By exchanging information about working for Amazon.com and hearing each other’s perspectives through open dialogue, the two groups will be able to build trust, move forward with negotiations, and create collaborative solutions for the issues at Amazon.com. However, before this open dialogue, three steps need to be completed:
For the warehouse employees, this open dialogue should build trust in the board because employees will feel that the board wants to hear their employees’ needs and aspirations. This dialogue should also increase the board’s trust in the warehouse employees because the latter is actively trying to hear and understand what the board needs.
- 1st Step: A third-party facilitator with specialties in emotional intelligence coaching and communication coaching will create benchmarks for the open dialogue. Furthermore, Amazon.com should choose 300 employees from the warehouse that will represent warehouse employees' aspiration, and Amazon.com should choose five individuals from the board to represent board viewpoints. Additionally, this 300 employees can tell its experience and result to the other colleagues after intervention.
- 2nd Step: The BARon Eq-i self-assessment will give feedback to the board and warehouse employees about their emotional intelligence competencies and their communication styles (hypsys, 2015).
- 3rd Step: Through a consideration of theory and active simulations, the facilitator will coach the board and warehouse employees. First, they will be divided into groups of 50. The facilitator will teach the skills of applying sound emotional intelligence and collaborative communication methods to each group. Following instruction in the relevant theory, the groups will engage in simulated exercises, practicing emotional intelligence and communication skills with each other.
For the warehouse employees, this open dialogue should build trust in the board because employees will feel that the board wants to hear their employees’ needs and aspirations. This dialogue should also increase the board’s trust in the warehouse employees because the latter is actively trying to hear and understand what the board needs.
SWOT for the 1st Phase of Intervention
Benchmark for the 1st Phase of Intervention
The facilitator needs to assess whether this first intervention was successful:
1.) Have communications channels opened between the board and warehouse employees?
2.) Does each party acknowledge and work to understand the other’s perspective?
3.) Is each advocating their needs?
4.) Where the negotiation should move to address the needs of the other?
1.) Have communications channels opened between the board and warehouse employees?
2.) Does each party acknowledge and work to understand the other’s perspective?
3.) Is each advocating their needs?
4.) Where the negotiation should move to address the needs of the other?
Unintended Consequences for the 1st Phase of Intervention
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There are some possible unintended consequences of these interventions, both positive and negative. They are the following:
Positive Unintended Consequences:
1. Employees collaborative communication.
Negative Unintended Consequences:
1. If the parties cannot communicate well during the open dialogue, this can potentially escalate negative emotions.
Positive Unintended Consequences:
1. Employees collaborative communication.
Negative Unintended Consequences:
1. If the parties cannot communicate well during the open dialogue, this can potentially escalate negative emotions.
2nd Phase Intervention Strategy: Integrative Negotiation Concerning Financial Needs and Trustworthiness
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After each party passes the benchmarks for the first intervention, they can move forward to integrative negotiation. During an integrative negotiation, both parties should promote collaborative communication skills and seek a win-win solution (Ertel, 1999). This is the time for the Amazon.com board and warehouse employees to negotiate wages with both attentive to identifying possible zones of an agreement. This will promote constructive communication and better outcomes. Besides addressing the financial needs, this intervention can build trust for both parties because each side wants to move forward to negotiate policies that make the Amazon.com workplace more conducive for working; Amazon.com warehouse employees and to create the social contract that creates from the negotiation a win-win for both sides.
SWOT for the 2nd Phase of Intervention
Benchmark for the 2nd Intervention
1.) The facilitator will create a benchmark scorecard so that other stakeholders can express—through voting—their satisfaction with the deal made through the second intervention.
2.) Collect the voting from all of the Amazon.com. Voting is too see whether majority people in the group likes the result of an intervention, or not (Louis, 2009). In Amazon.com case, is to see whether the majority of Amazon.com employees agree with the deal on the negotiation table or not.
2.) Collect the voting from all of the Amazon.com. Voting is too see whether majority people in the group likes the result of an intervention, or not (Louis, 2009). In Amazon.com case, is to see whether the majority of Amazon.com employees agree with the deal on the negotiation table or not.
Unintended Consequences of 2nd Intervention
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There are some possible unintended consequences of these interventions, both positive and negative. They are the following:
Positive Unintended Consequences:
1. Employees can confidently and creatively speak about other ideas for future business.
2. The employee loyalty is increased with a decrease in litigation expenditures.
Negative Unintended Consequences:
1. After the implementation of the new policy, employees lose commitment to act outside of the policy to resolve future conflict; this will make the interventions useless.
2. After the implementation of the new policy, there is the potential loss of investors who only seek capital rather than humanistic gains.
Positive Unintended Consequences:
1. Employees can confidently and creatively speak about other ideas for future business.
2. The employee loyalty is increased with a decrease in litigation expenditures.
Negative Unintended Consequences:
1. After the implementation of the new policy, employees lose commitment to act outside of the policy to resolve future conflict; this will make the interventions useless.
2. After the implementation of the new policy, there is the potential loss of investors who only seek capital rather than humanistic gains.
Further Capacity Building
One month after an intervention, the coach should do further capacity building:
- Give the self-assessment to Amazon.com’s board and employees and give them feedback. Amazon.com employees will then understand the areas in which they need to improve.
- Administer another EI class to three hundred chosen employees to refresh their memories of the emotional intelligence training that they received during the first intervention.
- Present a seminar of success stories about employees who have had the similar experience of having conflict with board and how its effort for peace affects positively to its jobs performance and the company.
References
BarOn EQ-i. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2015.
Ertel, D. (1999). Negotiation as a corporate capability. Harvard Business Review, May-June 1999, 55-70.
Johnson, M., Levine, S. and Richard, L.R. (2003). Emotionally intelligent mediation: Four key competencies. In Bowling, D. and Hoffman, D. (Eds). Bringing Peace into the Room. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Louis, W. (2009). Collective action and then what? Journal of Social Issues, 65. 727-748.
Ertel, D. (1999). Negotiation as a corporate capability. Harvard Business Review, May-June 1999, 55-70.
Johnson, M., Levine, S. and Richard, L.R. (2003). Emotionally intelligent mediation: Four key competencies. In Bowling, D. and Hoffman, D. (Eds). Bringing Peace into the Room. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Louis, W. (2009). Collective action and then what? Journal of Social Issues, 65. 727-748.