Intractable conflict is a destructive conflict that causes huge economic losses and destruction (Coleman, 2006). Intractable conflict deeply hampers the relationship between the parties involved. In week three, blog writers conducted further research on the intractable conflict that occurred at Amazon.com. According to CNN, there exists an intractable conflict between the Amazon.com warehouse employees and the Amazon.com warehouse supervisor (2014). This intractable conflict was caused by maintaining the status quo and resulted in escalation dynamics in feedback loops (Coleman, 2006).
The vision of Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, is to provide everyday low prices to customers. This vision drives the Amazon.com warehouse employees to work hard. The company’s status quo encourages the Amazon.com supervisor to implement rules and regulations that will make warehouse employees work as efficiently as possible. This results in many restrictions on and expectations of Amazon.com warehouse employees.
However, the company’s vision also creates escalation dynamics (escalation of emotion) in the feedback loop. First, there is injustice. The Amazon.com employees have poor work-life balance because they have long, nonstop shifts, and their wages remain relatively low in relation to the workload. There is oppression when an Amazon.com supervisor can fire warehouse employees who are talking during work hours, and even monitoring the time it takes for people to go to the bathroom (Mclelland, 2015). These denials of basic human rights have resulted in humiliating incidents; some of the workers in the warehouse have even collapsed because of excessive labor demanded of them. This example of escalation dynamics driven by the entitled vision of the founder may provide the best on-time services to customers at a low price, but it creates a difficult working environment for employees.
In conclusion, an intractable conflict has erupted between the Amazon.com warehouse supervisor and the warehouse employees. The cause of this intractable conflict is the turnover rate for warehouse laborers is high because the employees cannot handle the negative treatment from the Amazon.com warehouse supervisor.
References
Bercovitch, J. (2012). International Mediation and Intractable Conflict. In Beyond Intractability. University of Colorado.
Coleman, Peter T. "Intractable Conflict." Morton Deutsch and Peter T. Coleman, eds., The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: Theory and PracticeSan Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2000, pp.428-450.
Mclelland, M. (n.d.). "I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave": Life Inside the Online Shipping Machine. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
The vision of Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, is to provide everyday low prices to customers. This vision drives the Amazon.com warehouse employees to work hard. The company’s status quo encourages the Amazon.com supervisor to implement rules and regulations that will make warehouse employees work as efficiently as possible. This results in many restrictions on and expectations of Amazon.com warehouse employees.
However, the company’s vision also creates escalation dynamics (escalation of emotion) in the feedback loop. First, there is injustice. The Amazon.com employees have poor work-life balance because they have long, nonstop shifts, and their wages remain relatively low in relation to the workload. There is oppression when an Amazon.com supervisor can fire warehouse employees who are talking during work hours, and even monitoring the time it takes for people to go to the bathroom (Mclelland, 2015). These denials of basic human rights have resulted in humiliating incidents; some of the workers in the warehouse have even collapsed because of excessive labor demanded of them. This example of escalation dynamics driven by the entitled vision of the founder may provide the best on-time services to customers at a low price, but it creates a difficult working environment for employees.
In conclusion, an intractable conflict has erupted between the Amazon.com warehouse supervisor and the warehouse employees. The cause of this intractable conflict is the turnover rate for warehouse laborers is high because the employees cannot handle the negative treatment from the Amazon.com warehouse supervisor.
References
Bercovitch, J. (2012). International Mediation and Intractable Conflict. In Beyond Intractability. University of Colorado.
Coleman, Peter T. "Intractable Conflict." Morton Deutsch and Peter T. Coleman, eds., The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: Theory and PracticeSan Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2000, pp.428-450.
Mclelland, M. (n.d.). "I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave": Life Inside the Online Shipping Machine. Retrieved October 12, 2015.