Conflicting Values and Advice for Resolving Conflict in Contemporary Strategic Management

Contemporary Strategic Management
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Author’s Note:

Conflicting Values
According to the case study, a new CEO- Cheryl Hailstrom was appointed at Lakeland
Wonders. She was quite enthusiastic and energetic and took her previous company
Kids&Company from a small chain to a national level. Cheryl aimed to get into mid-market and
bring offshore manufacturing as the mainstream (McNulty, 2002). While speaking to Mark, her
tone regarding upscaling the market was quite bossy and coercive. She mentioned that everyone
in the organization was in the slow lane and wedded to the ways they were used to doing things.
The employees at Lakeland Wonders were used to move slowly and it was conflicting with
Cheryl as she wanted a radical change (Russell et al., 2018). The managers at Lakeland Wonders
were used to working based on their 94-year old organizational culture. This conflicted with
Cheryl’s ways as she was like a bull in a China shop. Cheryl just expects everyone to follow her
lead. The employees in the organization value each other’s opinions, expectations and
capabilities. Cheryl has created fear and anger among the employees rather than encouragement
and motivation (Gilley et al., 2015).
Advice for Resolving Conflict
According to the case study, Cheryl is working at a high pace. It may be advised to slow
her down as her employees are not ready for that amount of change. Change may be good or bad
depending upon the perspective of the individuals. Cheryl sees change as a creating an offshore
manufacturing site for getting products cheaper. However, the employees see the same change as
something that threats the union contract. Cheryl needs to talk about her plans with the union
members and solicit their support for making Lakeland Wonders more competitive (Goetsch &
Davis, 2014). Cheryl needs to speak to her employees and meet their concerns. Inclusion of