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Sy, Kaira

Sy, Mandy

Tan, Jannusz

Wong, Kassandra

HUMANBE K35

I. Point of View

In this case study, our group chose to judge from the perspective of the supervisor.

This mutual decision we made was unanimous due to the agreement that there will be

less bias if we came from the point of view of the supervisor. Regardless of what

perspective we chose, we were still able to analyze and study the sides of each party.

Team Alvarez and team Fredrico.

II. Statement of the Problem

What was the cause of the conflict within the employees of Liberty Construction

Company?

III. Areas for consideration

Noteable concepts discussed in the chapter that were very relevant in the case study

was role ambiguity, status symbols, and social system. Role ambiguity was very evident

between Alvarez and Fredrico. Alvarez, being the full-time employee was challenge and

offended as the supervisor gave the newer backhoes to Fredrico a part timer. Fredrico,

with no intention of taking the new backhoe was caught off guard. This later created aconflict between the two.

In this case, the backhoes were treated as status symbols in the company. If you have

been given the newer backhoe, it is automatically presumed that you are better or more

important than of the others. Thus, bringing you up that in that imaginary social ladder.

From a more holistic view point, we can observe that a social system is present. Since

all parts of the system are interdependent, the change of one part of the system can

greatly affect the others. Like in Alvarezs and Fredricos situation, the work balance

was affected due to the controversy between the two parties. Leaving the company with

two opposing teams, one for Alvarez and the other for Fredrico.

IV. Alternative courses of action and why

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VI. Expected impact on the companys Financial, Customers, Internal Business

Processes, and Learning and growth

With the better working conditions, efficiency is expected. Leading to a better

financial standing and achieving employee satisfaction. With the implementation of a

corporate database, it is hoped that more of the processing can be centralized andautomated. So that productivity is reached. Consequently, customer satisfaction is also

achieved. With the fast paced service they are receiving from the motivated and work

enthusiastic employees, customer satisfaction is already a given. Leading to a fulfilling

internal business process wherein we accomplish to serve others with good service.

And through the process, the employees are trained and exposed to corporate cultural

attitudes related to both individual and corporate self-improvement. Wherein they learn

and grow as they serve the company.

VII. Guide Question: Discuss this case in terms of the social system, equilibrium,

the psychological contract, role, status, and status symbols.

As we all know, a social system is a system composed of complex interactions

among human beings in an organization. This includes all stakeholders of the

organization such as the manager, members, customers and employees. Considering

that all parts of a social system are mutually interdependent with each other, the

behavior of one member can have an impact on the other members, as well as the

other parts of the system, regardless of whether it is a big or small impact. The concept

of social system can be further explained through alvarez's behavior, by which his

strong dissatisfaction for his current job position affected the other employees of the

company. Because of his problem, the employees started to group into two, one

supporting alvarez and the other supporting federico, the employee who got the former

job position of alvarez.

The issue got bigger when the two opposing groups started to cause work

problems for one another. Due to this, job conflicts ensued inside the organization,

which then contributed to the organization's overall social disequilibrium. A system can

only achieve social equilibrium if all of its parts are in harmony. Since the company's

workers are going against each other, the impact of their reckless actions threw the

whole organization out of balance, which resulted to the company having social

disequilibrium.

Looking at the issue in alvarez's perspective, it seems that he might have felt that

his psychological contract was broken down. Psychological contract embodies the

psychological involvement of each employee in an organization, which includes their

contributions and expectations while working in the organization. In return, they expect

to be given economic rewards for the contributions that they will make. Considering that

Alvarez was a regular employee of the company, included in his psychological contract

was his perception of being prioritized over temporary employees and expectation of

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being retained to operate the second backhoe. Since alvarez's expectations were not

met, he became dissatisfied with his job, which led to his resignation.

Both the owner and the employee are guided by their own roles, but it seems that

they did not have an accurate role perception of each other. The manager perceived

that alvarez would just comply with his orders and be okay with it. Alvarez, on the otherhand, perceived that the owner would not reassign him because he was a regular

employee. Since their roles were not clarified by one another, conflict aroused when the

manager re-assigned alvarez to an older machine.

Since the owner has a higher status, he has the authority to assign the person who

will operates the machine. However, he doesn't just assign employees in a random

manner. He assigned Michael Federico on a newer backhoe because of his status,

which can be based from his educational background, ability, skills and seniority. Since

he has already been working for the company for nine months, albeit his status of being

a temporary worker, he was given the new machine. In our opinion, he might have been

a temporary worker because he was still in college because if not, he would have been

hired by the company as a regular employee.

In their organization, it may be possible that the backhoes are used as a status

symbol. Status symbols are external objects visible in an organization, which may be

used as an evidence of one's social rank. In this case, operating on a newer machine

might show that you have a higher rank than those operating on an older machine. This

might be a factor that affected alvarez's dissatisfaction of being replaced, which led him

to feel status anxiety.