Conflict management and negotiation. Research In Motion (RIM) case study.

Authors Avatar

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT AND NEGOTIATION

Conflict is when two or more values, perspectives and opinions are contradictory in nature and have not been aligned or agreed about yet.

When we recognize the potential for conflict, we implicitly indicate that there is already a conflict of direction, even though it may not have yet manifested itself as a clash. Confliction is the process of setting up, promoting, encouraging or designing conflict. It is a willful process and refers to the real effort put into generating and instituting conflict. Deconfliction is the annihilation of conflict, it is the effort required to eliminate the conflict.

APPROACHES TOWARDS CONFLICT AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT:

(Source: Kirchhoff and Adams, 1982)

NEGOTIATION (DEALING WITH CONFLICT SITUATION)

Negotiation requires participants to identify issues about which they differ, educate each other about their needs and interests, generate possible settlement options and bargain over the terms of the final agreement. Successful negotiations generally result in some kind of exchange or compromise being made by the negotiators to each other. The exchange may be tangible (such as money, a commitment of time or a particular behavior) or intangible (such as an agreement to change an attitude or expectation, or make an apology).

ANALYZING THE NEGOTIATION CASE

AT RIM (Research in motion)

        

                       

THE COMPANY BEHIND THE BLACKBERRY SOLUTION

Research In Motion (RIM) is a Canadian designer, manufacturer and marketer of wireless devices and solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. RIM was founded in 1984. Based in Waterloo, Ontario, the company has offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. The company is best known as the developer of the Blackberry smart phone.

Research In Motion (RIM) is the designer and manufacturer of the award-winning BlackBerry® Smartphone, used by millions of people around the world. The company also creates software for businesses and the operating system that allows the BlackBerry Smartphone to provide mobile access to email, IM, apps, media files, the Internet and more.

The BlackBerry family includes best-in-class Smartphone and software offerings, as well as the all new BlackBerry® PlayBook, the world’s first professional tablet. Setting the bar for mobile access to email, applications and more, the BlackBerry family of products also allows virtual real-time communication, so you can stay in touch with the people and information that matters the most.

“THE CONFLICT IN QUESTION……………”

This is an Interdependent conflict between two parties. It is an intergroup conflict. The parties in the intractable conflict are the two departments of RIM i.e. the developers and the certification team.

PARTY A: THE DEVELOPERS AT RIM

The developers are the software generators at RIM. They are the innovators. The have come up with  Black berry web development, black berry themes and animated graphics, java application development, development beta software and legacy development software. They have also developed the RAD. The Rapid Application Development (RAD) approach helps you harness the potential of web services in your applications for the BlackBerry® solution. RAD also lets you create customized user interfaces and access more advanced features.

PARTY B: THE CERTIFICATION TEAM AT RIM

They are responsible for:

  • Creating the test scenarios
  • Grading both the written and hands-on practical tests of the software.
  • Ensuring integrity of the overall testing process
  • Issuing certifications. The rating document ideally will be a multipage checklist used in evaluating all relevant functions within a potential supplier’s operation. It lists the functions to be addressed, the questions to be asked, the processes to be investigated and the suggested performance numbers, based upon the outcome.
  • Dealing with and making determinations in regards to complaints.

GOAL COMPARISON

GOAL OF THE DEVELOPERS:

  1. Intangible goals:

The intangible goal is to develop new and innovative software and to establish their rapport and credibility and status as capable and efficient technologists and software developers and to secure the company management’s and the customer’s recognition of their work and their contribution to the company’s profit as the most valuable and indispensable department or success.

  1. Tangible goal:

The tangible goal is to acquire bonuses that are based on completion of cell phone model production before stipulated time that are given on two bases:

  • If the department completes the departmental goal before time. This is a competitive bonus that is given only to one department whose performance is most efficient.
  • If the manufacturing of the required cell phones is completed ahead of time. In this case the bonus is distributed to all the departments involved in the production and development of the cell phone.

 The conflict was hazardous to them as it put their reputation at stake. It created suspicions in the minds of the management regarding their efficiency. Secondly, they were informed late of the errors in the software when they would be busy in the development of new software. The tempo would be broken and they would have to dedicate their research and development time and effort to the rectification of the previous software. This would devoid them of the competitive departmental bonus since they would be proved inefficient. However the management later did remove competitive bonuses. But since software and phone model innovations were significantly rewarded by the management, the developers’ opted to focus more time on new software development phase rather than the rectification of pre-existing software. They received the malfunctions of the software to be rectified at such a time, when the employees were busy developing the new software.

THE DEVELOPERS’ PERSEPECTIVE:

The perspective of the developers was that the Certification department was being selfish to the other departments and that they were not acting in the best interests of the company. Their goal was only to acquire as many competitive bonuses as possible. They were not interested in the completion of the entire process before time because the bonus acquired in that way would have to be distributed among a large number of departments and would yield a small amount for every department and ultimately individuals. However, this conflict was resolved by the management. The developers were of the view that the software testing should be done in the beginning or an intermediate process should be introduced to check the compatibility of the software with the phone wherein members of the certification department would work in collaboration with the developers and check the software on the spot so that they can resolve any problems and later on might not be interrupted during the development process of new software. However, they were not ready to bear the costs of the new member from the certification team.

GOAL OF THE CERTIFICATION DEPARTMENT:

(a)Tangible Goal

The tangible goal of the certification department is to ensure that the cell phones developed by the company are fully in order from its physical functionality to the software functionality. Another tangible goal is to acquire the competitive departmental bonus be proving their mettle. For this purpose, they would forward any errors in the functionality of the cell phones, including software or physical functionality to the respective departments later, so that while other departments would be busy rectifying the errors, they would be able to prove themselves as the most capable department before the management having completed their task efficiently and effectively well before time.

  • Change in the goal of the certification team:

However, on successive complaints of the departments to the management, the management decided to eliminate the competitive bonuses, since they weren’t serving the purpose of motivating the departments to work better than the other rather it was leading to a decline in the productivity and unethical practices and instead introduced a larger reward to be distributed among the projects in case of completion of the entire process ahead of time. So the goal of the certification team changed, they were frustrated and agitated by this decision of the management. However, they became more committed to the completion of the entire process and would return the faulty parts to the respective departments in time. However the conflict with developers still remained there. The software checking is a responsibility to be performed superficially by the certification team since the real testing of  the software is a duty incumbent upon the developers as they are the technical staff with more know how of it. However, if some error arises in the functionality of the software, it might be because of the assemblage or its incompatibility with the phone model. But since there would be no record of its prior accurate testing by the developers, the certification department would hold the developers responsible for it. In case of other departments, this problem did not exist since the physical functionality would already be tested before arriving to the certification department and normally the error would just require them to replace the particular part with an extra functional one. However, in the case of software developers, even if the testing would be done, if after assembly it would be incompatible with the phone, it would have to be adjusted and redeveloped by the developers since the software were always adjusted according to the phone and not the phone according to the software.

 THE CERTIFICATION TEAM’S PERSPECTIVE:

The certification team was of the view that the software testing cannot be made the first phase of the testing procedure because the phone functionality had to be checked first. The software then had to be modified according to that.  Moreover, the second option of having a certification person work with the developers was not acceptable to them because they held the stand that they were already short of members and they would not be able to complete their certification process in time, even if a single member left. Moreover, the member demanded additional costs for working with the developers. The certification team was not willing to bear the additional expenses. The certification team, on the other hand also wanted the software to be well- assured of their functionality prior to arriving to them because they had no technical person to deal with it and were responsible for superficial testing only. Moreover, when the developers were returned the faulty and flawed software, they would not focus on fixing it early rather would still remain engaged in the new software development since it earned them a more significant reward. This caused impediment in completion of the production cycle. The software malfunction would delay the process of production and completion as a result of which the bonuses would not be available to the departments. So they wanted a quick settlement in this regard.

DISTRIBUTIVE OR INTEGRATIVE??

In this case the developers would have a distributive stance since they were focusing on their needs and interests only. They wanted the certification department to send a person to facilitate them without having to bear the costs of the new employee. They wanted the certification team to bear its costs. They did not want to be disturbed during the software development phase and delayed the rectification to secure only their own bonuses without caring for the collective bonus of the other departments. The certification team had an integrative approach. They could not send employees to the certification team because that would delay the entire certification process and hence lead to late project completion usurping the bonuses of all departments. Above all the new product would be launched with a delay that would affect the reputation of the company and the larger goal as defined earlier was to introduce competitive products in the market at a rapid pace. The certification team cared about its own interests and needs as well as that of the other party. It itself could not send the employees nor bear the additional cost, however it did want the software testing to be done in time to prevent the delay of the production completion since it would be in the best interests of the company and employees.

Duration of conflict

9 months over 4 projects periods

RESOLUTION OF THE CONFLICT:

 

The conflict was resolved in 2 negotiation sessions in the following manner:

  • Meeting of certification team with phone designers and certification team decided to create a database on which every department had to update their status for all testing.
  • Hiring project coordinators who coordinate/communicates between these teams so they can resolve the conflict.
  • The transfer of a certification person on permanent basis to the developers’ department who could perform the testing of the software and then allow it to be modified if necessary. Moreover, transfer of a person from the developers’ department on a permanent basis to the certification department so as to rectify any errors in the software after assembly. This would enable costs to be balanced for both the departments without having them to bear any additional costs.

______________________________________________________________

Join now!

CONFLICT CYCLE IN RIM

  1. ANTICIPATION:

This is the first stage of conflict cycle .This step starts when management has an idea that the productivity and profitability of RIM is effected as both developers and certification departments have their own objectives and they want to achieve that rather than the goals of the organization.

  1. WAIT AND SEE:

Management waited before taking any action to get a lot of information related to both departments i.e. what each of them actually want and what is the main cause of conflict.

  1. GROWING:

Instead of ...

This is a preview of the whole essay