Negotiation Process and Conflict Management: Ethical Decision-Making Strategies

1.To understand the negotiation process and ethics associated with conflict management.

2.This assignment will help students understand the negotiation process based on their negotiation style

Objectives

1.To help students identify the many aspects of the negotiation process including how their personality type and negotiation style affect their decision-making process, in addition to their personal and professional ethics and cultural diversity in today’s global society.

2.To help students understand key terms and concepts.

3.To help students recognize various personal and social barriers that can hinder success.

4.To help students recognize barriers to effective communication across cultures and in professional settings.

5.To help students recognize strategies that can be used to improve communication across cultures.

The following situation occurred at a medium sized company. Please read the excerpt and provide a one-two page explanation about how you would handle the situation using Ethical Decision-Making based on your negotiation style, personality type, ethics, morals and globalization knowledge

The multinational company, ORANGE, has branches and manufacturing plants located around the world. The company is ten years old and has forty offices in twenty different countries. It holds training sessions to ensure that new employees know about the ORANGE culture in order to maintain the integrity of the company’s mission and vision across the globe. A Code of Conduct is given to every employee, manager and director.

There is a branch in the Sultanate of Oman. It has thirty employees from eight different countries. The owner, Ahmed, is from Oman and is the CEO. The manager, Mohammed, is from India and is 55 years old. He has three children-one in high school, one in university and one who is about to get married. He has worked for ORANGE since it opened its doors ten years ago. There are twenty employees from Oman- fifteen men and five women, five men from India, and five men from the Sudan.

The manager, Mohammed, is five years away from his retirement and is saving everything he has so that he can go back to India and live a comfortable life. He currently sends his money to his family in Mumbai where they live with his elderly mother and father. Mohammed knows that Omani employees do not like him. They do not respect him at work and always tell him to go home. They have accused their boss, Ahmed, numerous times of favoritism towards Mohammed. They have been very vocal about Ahmed’s loyalty to Mohammed even suggesting that he favours him over the other employees giving him extra work and special considerations.

One day in May, Mohammed, was working in the manufacturing plant supervising the workers as they assembled the products that they are famous for – iPhones. The next day he was unexpectedly called into Ahmed’s office. Ahmed who was usually very friendly appeared very agitated and angry. When Mohammed asked him what was wrong, he was told that four of the Omani employees (three men and one woman) who worked with him yesterday accused him of stealing. According to them, Mohammed put five iPhones in his bag when he thought that no one was looking. The employees said that they saw him do this before, but decided not to say anything at that time because they felt sorry for him because he was “Indian.” Ahmed was very confused because the Mohammed who had worked with him for the past ten years had proven himself to be a loyal and honest employee who had become his friend.

Mohammed was shocked by the accusations. He thought that he had at least earned everyone’s respect even if they did not like him. He explained to Ahmed that he did not steal the telephones and that he would never do such a thing because it goes against his morals and ethics. When Ahmed asked him if he could see inside his locker, Mohammed said no. This surprised Ahmed because he thought that would be a simple way to resolve the problem. Mohammed felt that Ahmed should trust him and know that he would never do such a thing.

There was no other supporting evidence for Ahmed to use in his decision-making. How will Ahmed make the best decision for his company? For him as the CEO? What should Ahmed do? Should he trust Mohammed and forget the situation? Or should he fire Mohammed to make the other employees happy? If Mohammed is fired he will have to leave Oman immediately. He will not be able to collect his retirement money.