Conflict Management Case Study

In this case study we will be analyzing a conflict between coworkers from "Not on My Sabbath" by Joy Koesten. The situation involves a woman, Joan, who has been highly successful in the agency in which she works. A problem arises between her and her coworker/superior, Sue, who is seemingly jealous of Joan's quick success. Sue ends up making a change to Joan's job description that conflicts with her religious practices. We will be analyzing their goals, styles, tactics, and approaches to this conflict. In the conflict of "Not on my Sabbath", there are three key players. One of them is Sue Arnold and the other is Joan Kissinger. Gloria Davis is also involved in the conflict, however to a lesser extent than the other two. Joan contributed to the situation in a very peaceful manner which was by going on with her normal day activities, while still making her position known and felt. This is until Sue, who seems to have a bitterness towards Joan for the success that she has had in her job, insists that she works weekends. Everything was under control until it came to Joan's job description which was collaborated upon by Sue and Joan. It was essentially finalized and agreed upon by both of them. Without Joan's knowledge, Sue decided to add "Must be available to work evenings and weekends when needed" (Koesten, p. 352). The problem with this is that during Sue and Joan's dialogues on Joan's job description, they had discussed that she was not available to work on Saturdays due to religious reasons. Saturday is her Sabbath day. Joan then wrote a memo to Sue informing her that she could not work Saturdays and would instead be eager to work Sundays if needed. Joan then left for vacation thinking that this would resolve the conflict. Unfortunately it did not, and it only lead to a memo being written back to Joan from Sue and Gloria, Joan's superior. The memo was very strongly worded and was written in all capitals, which was seemingly intended to illustrate

Cited: Koesten, J. (2006). Not on My Sabbath. (2nd Ed.), Case Studies for Organizational Communication: Understanding Communication Processes (pp. 350-355). Los Angeles: Roxbury Publishing Company Wilmot, W. W. & Hocker, J. L. (2007). Interpersonal conflict (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.