CHARTING A COURSE FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION

Read the case below from Chapter 10 in your textbook:
Background
The setting is an 82-bed hospital located in a small city. One day an employee of the maintenance
department asked the supervisor, George Mann, for an hour or two off to take care of some personal
business. Mann agreed, and he asked the employee to stop at the garden equipment dealership and
buy several small lawnmower parts that the department required. While transacting business at a
local bank, the employee was seen by Sally Carter, the supervisor of both human resources and
payroll, who was in the bank on hospital business. Carter asked the employee what he was doing
there and was told the visit was personal. On returning to the hospital, Sally Carter examined the
employee’s time card. The employee had not punched out to indicate when he had left the hospital.
Carter noted the time the employee returned, and after the normal working day she marked the card
to indicate an absence of 2 hours on personal business. Carter advised the chief executive officer
(CEO), Jane Arnold, of what she had done, citing a long-standing policy (in their dusty, and some
would say infrequently used, policy manual) requiring an employee to punch out when leaving the
premises on personal business. The CEO agreed with Sally Carter’s action. Carter advised Mann of
the action and stated that the employee would not be paid for the 2 hours he was gone. Mann was
angry. He said he had told the employee not to punch out because he had asked him to pick up
some parts on his trip; however, he conceded that the employee’s personal business was probably
the greater part of the trip. Carter replied that Mann had no business doing what he had done and
that it was his—Mann’s—poor management that had caused the employee to suffer. Mann appealed
to the CEO to reopen the matter based on his claim that there was an important side to the story that
she had not yet heard. Jane Arnold agreed to hear both managers state their position.

Present a 12 – 15 slide PowerPoint answering the questions below pertaining to the case study.
The number of slides exclude the title and reference pages. Substantial Speaker Notes are required
throughout the entire presentation.

1. Develop the argument you would be advancing if you were in George Mann’s position.
2. In similar fashion, thoroughly develop the argument you would advance if you were in Sally
Carter’s position.
3. Assuming the position of the CEO, Jane Arnold, render a decision. (Document your decision
in whatever detail may be necessary, complete with explanation of why you decided in this
fashion)
4. Based on your responses to Questions 1 to 3, outline whatever steps—policy changes,
guidelines, payroll requirements, or something else—you believe should be considered to
minimize the chances of similar conflict in the future.

Reference your readings and include a minimum of 5 peer-reviewed, scholarly, or similar articles.

Format your PowerPoint according to APA guidelines.