Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine ( the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers )
A significant portion of the Wakefield Doctrine’s BTB*, will be devoted to offering ‘strategies’ for dealing with Workplace Conflicts. To that end, we have continued the stories of our three job Applicants: the clark in the M&A Division of a multi-national Corporation; Emily, our rogerian Waitress (with 2 Doctorates) and finally, our scottian Welder. Subsequent to their respective Interviews, all three accepted the Positions that they sought. As is the case for everyone with a job, eventually they encountered a problem that involved their immediate superior(s).
Since this is the Wakefield Doctrine, we can understand the root cause of these Workplace Conflicts in terms of the personality type(s) of our Applicants and not surprisingly, the Strategy (for successful) resolution of the Conflict will also be grounded in the Doctrine. Lets start with the nature of the individual Conflicts:
- clark thinks his job is simply completing (the) assigned task(s) and, wanting to be seen as a hard worker, gets each of his daily Tasks done as quickly as possible. As a result, our clark often finds he has ‘free time’ during the day and uses this ‘free time’ to…explore other interests
- emily, our roger, is very happy to have a job where (she feels) her only responsibility is to make certain that everyone coming into the restaurant appreciates what a great and friendly place (her) restaurant is
- scott, our Welder feeling that this is a ‘second chance’ is determined to demonstrate to everyone that he’s such a good a welder and such a hard worker, that he takes it on himself to help others do their jobs as well
What follows are three Workplace Conflict scenaria and Conflict Resolution Strategy. Note that the Strategy has two parts: a) Establish Control of the Situation and 2) Maintain Control and Resolve (the Conflict). The 3rd scenario and Strategy is incomplete…please provide your suggested Strategy in the Comments section.
Our clark gets called into his (rogerian) Manager’s office and is asked, “Some of your co-workers have come to me and complained that you don’t seem to want to be a part of the team. They say that you often seem dis-interested in your job, you spend a lot of time playing solitaire on your computer and you never offer to help the others. Your team feels that you don’t have any enthusiasm for what we all are trying to accomplish here. Don’t you like it here?”
(Establish Control): Stand up and say, “You’re right! I really wanted it to work for me here, but it is clearly not going to happen, you need to fire me, right now!”
(Maintain Control and Resolve) Offer a written list of what you (the clark) are willing to do to help the other members of the Team
The (scottian) Owner of the restaurant calls Emily ( our rogerian Waitress) into his office and asks, “What the hell are you doing to my Customers??! They sit and eat and leave without so much a as ‘Hey! how are you doing’. Goddamn, some of my regulars have even come up and told me that they’re uncomfortable coming up to the Counter to just talk to me while I’m cooking!! Hell! one of them even said they thought that it would be against the Rules!!”
Strategy:
(Establish Control) Cry. (not as sexist as it sounds…explanation/analysis will make this clear
(Maintain Control and Resolve): walk out of the office and begin to work, without another word
When our scottian Welder gets called in to the new (and clarklike) HR Director’s Office, he is certain it is so they can offer him a promotion. But like his initial interview, there are 2 people in the room, except this time along with HR Director, the Owner of the company is sitting there! The first question is, ” You think you’re pretty good at welding, do you?”
Strategy:
(Establish Control)
* Book to Be
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