The Gotham Oil Sands Project: A Case Study

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Organisational Behaviour

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Introduction
The case study reflects on the Gotham oil sands project under which the project team
members have been continuously requesting a transfer back to Calgary. The circumstance
that the team members have been witnessing deals with a negative working environment at
the team that has been based in Caracas. On the other hand, the team members have also been
witnessing a continuous state of friction. Gotham has been considered as the most imperative
as well as money-making client that alone provides continuous workflow worth of almost $5
million per year. The report will provide an overview about the issues that the participants in
the case study witnesses. This will be followed by the probable solutions to the issues that
will be outlined.
Key Issues the Case Study Participants face
The first major issue that has been identified is related to negative working environment that
has been witnessed by team members working on the Gotham oil sands project. The issue has
been recognized to be a major issue because it affects the workplace incivility thus having an
impact on overall health (Hasle, Bojesen, Langaa Jensen & Bramming, 2012). The
determining mechanism is sometimes referred to as a negative rumination. The negative
working environment leads to an adverse impact by stimulating the team members to think
over their work experiences. The case study reflects on the fact that the continuous state of
friction among the team members has mostly led to a negative working environment. This
also makes the team members feel that they are devoid of the perfect work-life balance thus
affecting the healthy relationship in their career (Johnston et al., 2016). This in turn plummets
the morale of the employees thus leading to a continuous stress.
The second major issue that has been recognized has been related with the Venezuelan
project team. This team has been beset by problems while working on the Gotham oil sands
project. The issue that the team witnessed dealt with cultural as well as personality clashes.
The clash took place due to the amalgamation of hard-driven Americans as well as laid-back
South Americans that led to antagonism (Sharma & Sharma, 2010). The cultural clash has
been recognized as a major problem as the increase in globalization has made cultural
diversity a trend. The increase in cultural clash in workplace raises the tendency of the team
members to get involved in interpersonal conflicts. It also leads to a lack of mutual
comprehension in accomplishing an objective. On the other hand, personality clashes leads to

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avoiding discussion regarding the issue with team members. In other words, personality
clashes recruit allies among the team members. The case study reflects on the fact that the US
colleagues were not ready to spend weekends on a project with uncompromising team leader.
On the other hand, the Venezuelans had a good base in English but they were inflexible
towards the deadline as they were slow.
Possible Solutions
The three possible solutions for a negative working environment are as follows:
1. Striving for a healthy conflict: This is regarded as the first step towards eradicating
negativity in a working environment. In other words, negativity gets eradicated with the help
of heated debate as well as a healthy conflict. A healthy as well as passionate debate helps to
decrease the overall negativity. It helps to increase the understanding regarding the position
among the team members that is regarded as the strength (Bakker & Demerouti, 2017). A
healthy conflict deals with enquiring as well as advocating in the first as well as second
stance that is a weakness.
2. Initiating positivity as a core value: The second step is to initiate positivity as the core
value that helps to combat negativity. It is required to weave principles that persuade
positivity that is regarded as the strength. This helps to bring about broad values optimism.
3. Hiring eternal optimists: The hiring of eternal optimists makes it easier to eradicate
negativity from the workplace. It is imperative to hire individuals who initiate the positive
qualities that are valued by a company that is regarded as the strength (Anderson, Potočnik &
Zhou, 2014). It also helps to guide the hiring decisions thus making it easier to identify
probable red flags.
The three possible solutions for a cultural as well as personality clashes are as follows:
1. Acceptance: The best way to solve the issue is to deal with understanding as well as
kindness. The best way is to accept personality differences that decrease the chance of
friction as well as defensiveness.
2. Staying professional: It is imperative to conduct in a professional way in order to remain
calm as well as courteous while interacting with team members. This helps to avoid
confrontation thus eradicating cultural as well as personal clashes.