Deviation from Organizational Norms

Introduction

According to Bercovitch (2019), reflection pertains to utilisation of any opportunity to critically evaluate and examine the learning experiences so as to properly develop the most credible correlation in between the learning experiences and the objectives of such learning. Accomplishment of learning objectives and goals through obtainment of the most particular strands of realisation related to the experiences learning issues is the focal point of such reflective practices. Various frames of references could be mentioned in this context such as realisation of the methods through which reflective learning could be incorporated within the current state of knowledge, the required decisions which could be of vital significance in this context and the subsequent measures of transformations associated with learned skills and implications on informed choices about the learning process.

Part A

I formulated the podcast on the basis of an evaluative approach application involving the case study under consideration pertaining to issues related to cross-cultural management conditions. To this effect, the primary issue identified has been the negation of organisational culture and concentration of greater emphasis on local cultural practices by the Brett Jones, the manager of the major dam project undertaken by the HG at Tanzania. The crux of such issues has been the indigenisation of the organisational communicational context by Jones through following of the native cultural practices of Tanzania so as to achieve the project oriented objectives (Kim, 2016) To this effect, the element of communication has been selected to be the focal point of the podcast for the purpose of ascertaining the dimensions which specify the existing issue, which could be identified as the contention between the established organisational culture of HG and the emphasis of Jones to inculcate the localised traditions and cultural norms so as to pave the way for the project under consideration.

The case study has highlighted the complications which have been spawned due to the unconventional managerial approach executed by Jones concerning the attempt to align the working procedures of HG with the situation on the ground at Tanzania. Various instances have been crucial in terms of providing immediate benefits for the HG project at the country which have emerged out of the attempts of Jones to adapt to the local customs, including the human resource management perspectives through amending the hiring services of the company to better accommodate the local, Tanzanian recruitment methods and practices (Chen et al. 2018). However, the Vice President of HG, Graham Steinberg, has harboured the apprehension of future complications since the social, operational, cultural and project management related practices employed by Jones have outlined serious deviations from the Western principles, underscored by the theocratic cultural values of Christianity, which have defined the working structural process of HG.

Thus, from a definitive perspective, I have arrived at the conclusion that the case study under consideration is primarily reflective to 2 fundamental issues. The first one is the self-acquired flexibility of operations by Jones on the basis of possession of intimate knowledge of cultural and customary practical perspectives of Tanzania. Such flexibility of operations utilised by Jones, such as the additional payments delivered to the religious caretakers for evacuation of locals from the proposed construction site as well as the word of mouth and consultation based recruitment of local human resource elements, have been viewed from a critical perspective by the organisational Vice President as symptomatic of a general deviation from the established organisational culture regarding international project management pertaining to the company practices. The reproachful perspective has been based on the apprehension that the professional and personal behavioural preferences demonstrated by Jones could prove to be double edged swords with long term detrimental effects for the company.

The second issue has been the conflict of cultural perspectives, on the personal level for Brett Jones and on the organisational reputational levels for Graham Steinberg, involving the considerations of the international image related perceptions of HG. In this context, the theoretical constructs of Berger and Luckman could be outlined to be specifically off significance from the perspective of necessity to derive moral contexts from the existing cultural environment. This necessity has been fulfilled by Jones through greater intermingling with the high context and implicit communication based culture of Tanzania. However, from the Western corporate ethical standards, such developments have been considered to be of detrimental nature by the higher management of HG (Yao, Chao and Leung, 2019)

Part B

The group had performed as per the determined sequential approach through which the organisational value had been acknowledged to be the fundamental aspect on which the entire conflict resolution process was based. The individual sequences involved in such a process, from a figurative perspective, have been demonstrated as the:

The utilisation of the Gibbs theoretical construct for reflective learning has been specifically assistive in the development of multipronged understanding of the conflict management undertaking from my personal reflective perspective. Each of the six stages associated with such a learning through reflection experience (Description, Feelings, Evaluation, Analysis, Conclusion and Action Plan) involved a correlative, specific reference to the entire process of conflict resolution planning and recommendation generation (Zhang, Wei and Zhou, 2017)

In this context, the process of such recommendation formulation involved team specific roles determination for all of the 6 team members. To this effect, out of the 9 particular team roles associated with the Belbin model, 6 were selected to be performed by each of the team members and I had to assume the role of the Implementer. The other selected roles had been the Resource Investigator, Co-ordinator, Planter, Monitor Evaluator and the Shaper. The leadership style utilised was the Transformational leadership under which the team leader had formulated and distributed individual assignments to all of the team members so that the individual learning opportunities could be utilised as well. My team role required me to assist the team members to develop a workable strategy for the resolution of the conflict apparent in the HG case study (Gould and Taylor, 2017). Furthermore, I also was required to implement such recommended strategies as efficiently as possible.

The entire team management and structuring process involved the application of four stages pertaining to the theoretical constructs of Tuckman. The first phase involved the Forming process which involved the assemblage and forming of the group as well as the determination of the group leadership elements. Next, in the Storming phase, involved the determination of the processes of ideation through which the envisaged solutions could be developed. The preferred mode of communication in between the leadership element and the other team members had become an issue of contention primarily involving the leadership style which bordered on arbitrage. However, three rounds of inter-team consultations were organised to properly sort out the details of individual specific tasks (Li et al. 2019).

Furthermore, the utilisation of the conflict resolution model of Thomas Kilmann has been undertaken to identify the necessary dimensions while having to select the course of action involving the recommendation generation for the resolution of the existing conflict within Steinberg and Jones.

Both of the dimensions have been selected as an operational compromise through which an acceptable settlement should be developed in between the manager and the VP so as to partially satisfy the concerns of each other and, the fomenting of collaboration in between the higher management of HG and the international project managers so as to satisfy the concerns of all of the stakeholders. In this context, an argument had conspired in between the Planter and the Shaper since both of them clashed on the prospect of performing the task of researching about the probable modes of collaboration between the Steinberg and Jones (Huisman, Kiviaho-Kallio and Lyon, 2019). The contention was resolved through assigning the task to the Planter and the responsibility of reviewing of the research to the Shaper. Furthermore, the Norming phase witnessed the partial formulation of consensus and agreements within the team members on the decided upon action plan for the resolution of problems. The necessary changes were implemented to develop the workable strategy of cross-cultural conflict resolution between the previously mentioned personnel in the Performing phase.

Both of the dimensions have been selected as an operational compromise through which an acceptable settlement should be developed in between the manager and the VP so as to partially satisfy the concerns of each other and, the fomenting of collaboration in between the higher management of HG and the international project managers so as to satisfy the concerns of all of the stakeholders. In this context, an argument had conspired in between the Planter and the Shaper since both of them clashed on the prospect of performing the task of researching about the probable modes of collaboration between the Steinberg and Jones (Huisman, Kiviaho-Kallio and Lyon, 2019). The contention was resolved through assigning the task to the Planter and the responsibility of reviewing of the research to the Shaper. Furthermore, the Norming phase witnessed the partial formulation of consensus and agreements within the team members on the decided upon action plan for the resolution of problems. The necessary changes were implemented to develop the workable strategy of cross-cultural conflict resolution between the previously mentioned personnel in the Performing phase.

Conclusion

The preceding reflecting report has outlined the experience based self-learning approach utilised involving the case study and the related materials such as the formulated podcast, to outline several aspects regarding the acquired comprehension about the various issues related to conflict resolution processes.

Reference List

Bercovitch, J., 2019. Social conflicts and third parties: Strategies of conflict resolution. Routledge.

Chen, N., Chao, M.C.H., Xie, H. and Tjosvold, D., 2018. Transforming cross-cultural conflict into collaboration. Cross Cultural & Strategic Management.

Kim, M.S., 2016. Intercultural Conflict. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication.

Yao, D.J., Chao, M.M. and Leung, A.K.Y., 2019. When essentialism facilitates intergroup conflict resolution: the positive role of perspective-taking. Journal of cross-cultural psychology, 50(4), pp.483-507.

Zhang, Y., Wei, X. and Zhou, W., 2017. An asymmetric cross-cultural perspective on the mediating role of conflict management styles in expatriation. International Journal of Conflict Management.

Brockbank, A., McGill, I. and Beech, N., 2017. Reflective learning in practice. In Reflective learning in practice (pp. 18-28). Routledge.

Gould, N. and Taylor, I., 2017. Reflective learning for social work: research, theory and practice. Routledge.

Li, F., Chen, T., Chen, N.Y.F., Bai, Y. and Crant, J.M., 2019. Proactive yet reflective? Materializing proactive personality into creativity through job reflective learning and activated positive affective states. Personnel Psychology.

Huisman, J., Kiviaho-Kallio, P. and Lyon, D., 2019. Enhancing Employability through Experiential Learning and Reflective Learning. In Conference Proceedings: The Future of Education International Conference. Filodiritto Editore.