Career Dynamics Report: Conflict, Feedback, and Improvement Analysis

This report delves into the complexities of career dynamics, examining a case study involving workplace conflict and the role of an ombudsman in resolving interpersonal issues. It analyzes the impact of emotional responses and cognitive reasoning in conflict scenarios. The report also includes a reflective response to 360-degree performance feedback, highlighting strengths in leadership and areas for improvement in team working and problem-solving skills. The student identifies communication challenges and strategies for personal and professional development, including plans for future career goals. The report offers valuable insights into navigating workplace politics, improving performance, and achieving career satisfaction. Furthermore, the assignment explores the reasons behind a senior employee's behavior and the steps taken by the Ombudsman cell to analyze the case, offering recommendations for handling office politics and future career planning. This report provides a detailed analysis of career challenges and offers strategies for navigating them effectively.

Running head: CAREER DYNAMICS
Career Dynamics
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CAREER DYNAMICS
Table of Content
Job experience scenario and Questions......................................................................................2
Reflective response to 360 degree performance feedback.........................................................5
Performance improvement analysis-..........................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................11

2CAREER DYNAMICS
Job experience scenario and Questions
Informal solution to interpersonal issue at a workplace
A non-rational approach to the resolution of interpersonal conflicts at workplace is the
prime concern of this scenario. Expression of impulse or feeling or sudden exuberance of
personal taste or distaste might crop up issues at the workplace. Again, in conflict resolution
also, emotion has a subtle role to play. Hence, the purpose of this case scenario might be
justified as the portrayal of emotion as a means of solving interpersonal issues rather than a
means to complicate it further. In the workplace conflict stated below, an illustration of the
continuum of emotion and the relation to cognitive reasoning is stated. Moreover, the critical
role played by ombudsman in uncovering the veil of emotion to provide a justified resolution
is also portrayed here.
Conflict Issue
A Washington based organisation appointed a young employee, Myra, under the
designation of a copy editor. Her task was supervision of the one of the various journals
published by the organisation. In the supervising and proof reading team, there were other
five team members along with the head of the supervising team, Corey. Her work was
collaborative and naturally after working for two and half months, she became well
acquainted with the other co-workers. On the verge of the third month, she along with her
fellow team members had gone to a buffet lunch. All of them had great fun, which
accompanied consumption of alcohol.
At the commencement of the party, all of them had become concerned about reaching
home. Two of them who lived close to Madison Street which was only 20 minutes away, took
to walking. Corey, however, seemed to take care of all of the employees and asked each of

3CAREER DYNAMICS
them, how they would get back. After all had left, he noticed Myra still waiting. She was
waiting for a public bus to arrive.
Noticing this, he offered to drop her, since her way merged with his road to home.
However, it was unknown to all that Corey was secretly attracted to Myra, since the day she
had occupied her post. Nevertheless, Myra accepted his offer out of gratitude. Otherwise,
Corey was well behaved and had a reputation of approaching to solve problems of
subordinates out of will.
The cab arrived and Myra got in. she helped Corey to get in as he was tipsy. Once
inside the car, Corey suddenly made a sexual approach towards her and that too quite
aggressively. Myra was dumbstruck at the suddenness of the incident and slapped him out of
reflex. Corey was mortified too and out of humiliation slinked off the cab.
Next morning in office, Myra was in two minds. She was wandering whether slapping
the senior would affect her job or she had done the right thing to protest against Corey. She
supposed that although she was not a subordinate to Corey, still being a senior employee of
this office he held the power to mobilise her termination. However, out of the blue, Corey
came to her cabin, in the afternoon and humbly asked for apology from her and requested not
to take any official action. Myra was perplexed. Influenced from the ideas of Tsingou (2015)
it can be opined that she perceived that once Corey had regretted for his mistake there was no
point suing him.
Being a new employee she did not want to rock the boat immediately. However, it
was Corey’s apology that created the problem. Corey started apologising now and again.
Consecutively for three months after the incident, Corey kept on apologising to Myra at the
shortest of chances. This constant nagging now started to seem annoying and frustrating to
Myra. She presumed that in his repetitive apologies, he was fostering another form of

4CAREER DYNAMICS
unwanted attention on her. At a point of time, she started to clearly speak to Corey to stop
apologising and forget the incident as she had forgotten it already.
She was finally forced to communicate he issue with her co-workers. Corey, an
experienced employee also understood that others in team were aware of what had happened
that day. The change in attitude of the employees told that. The news subtly became the
“elephant” in the office and hampered interactions between the team members. According to
Crook (2016), such issues also reduce the productivity of the team.
In the meantime, vacancy for the post of editor in another journal of the company was
announced. She applied and changed quarters in no time. Myra as however dissatisfied with
the job role in her new position. The content that this journal covered seemed boring to her
and she did not enjoy working with her colleagues here as she did in her previous position.
Gradually regret of leaving her previous position in lieu of her clash with Corey occupied her.
She finally decided that she should consult with the Ombudsman cell of the company.
According to Tsingou (2015), this is the best way to express grievance of an employee.
Private conflict among the office employees on an informal occasion and its
disclosure in the formal environment evoked gossip, biased emotions and passive and
implicit aggressive behaviour of the employees with the senior. According to the Chief
Ombudsman officer of the company, the issue power and positional advantage plays a crucial
role in this case. The ombudsman opined that in respect of Corey’s positional and his
discretionary powers over his subordinates, he should not have developed such narcissistic
assumptions that she would be happy to receive his attention. According to the opinion of
Lawrence (2017), this might be counted as a display of acute male chauvinism. Moreover, it
vase evident that this power imbalance caused the creeping in of sexual politics in the

5CAREER DYNAMICS
workplace. The female employees did not feel free to interact with Corey in person anymore.
Hover, they were compelled to do so, owing to their job requirements.
Secondly, repetitive apology of Corey as perceived as additional and unwanted nag to
the incident. Myra was also blameable as she had not immediately turned up to the Director
of Human Resource in the office. The Ombudsman called for a cold calling with both of them
interpersonally. There, Corey confided that he was attracted to her form the first day. On the
other hand, Myra also admitted that she had forgiven him.
One week later, she called up the Ombudsman cell and announced that she had been focusing
on the matter too deeply. In fact her discontent with Corey masked her real aspirations of
working for the editorial team of a mainstream book publication company. Hence she was
seeking for an alternative job.
Questions
1. In view of the job dissatisfaction faced by Myra, suggest and explain her future plans?
Frame a strategy for Myra to handle office politics.
2. Explain the reason of Corey paranoid approach of repetitive apology, in reference of
common psychology of a senior employee.
3. Justify the steps taken by the Ombudsman cell and the way they analysed Myra’s case.
Reflective response to 360 degree performance feedback
It has been identified that 360 degree performance feedback method remains as
employee performance review in which co-workers, sub-ordinates and managers
anonymously rate employee performance (Hammerly, Harmon & Schwaitzberg, 2014) . It is
certain that performance feedback is a significant aspect of business or organization today

6CAREER DYNAMICS
because it creates the base for all appraisal decisions. The managers of human resource
department often find it difficult to manage to rate their employees in an overall basis. Thus,
360 degree feedback method often helps the managers in validating the selection made by
them. Under a 360 degree feedback method, the employees work for a specific period of
time; usually, 6 months or a year and hence their performance is critiqued by the co-workers.
According to Campion, Campion and Campion (2015), appraisal method often create
barriers for the management because in the most of the cases, the employees are not happy
about their appraisal. Consequent, the organizations are looking for a method that helps to
satisfy their employee needs and reward them accordingly because retention of employees for
productivity is the ultimate goal. By understanding this fact, the large multi-national
organizations are looking forward to adopting a proper method in which the process of
receiving feedback from employees can be done to maintain the transparency in the system.
For example, the large FMCG giant Unilever has adopted 360 degree performance feedback
method in which HUL provides feedback from seniors, superior, peer-groups and co-workers
to provide holistic as well as objective review of the employees (Ali, & Zia-ur-Rehman,
2014).
In the peer reviewed exercise in week 8th, I and my performance was reviewed based on three
different criteria such as leadership, team-working and problem solving. I have observed the
evaluation form and I found that my co-workers gave me high score for my leadership skills
and I was rated moderate in the field of problem solving while they gave me low score in
team working. I was negatively assessed with the fact of not cooperating to the team activities
but understand that this field can be improved. I was criticized for not attending to team
sessions and activities. I knew this feedback will come from the team members, as I was
absent for several days in the peak time of the performance. So, I can work on this attribute to
receive positive feedback. On the other side, I was appreciated for my leadership skills, as

7CAREER DYNAMICS
there are many situations in which I myself led the entire team, took relevant decisions when
required and reasoned with other members regarding the decisions I took. However, I need to
improve my team working skills because when I work in a group or team, it is my
responsibility to perform my own duties to make it easy for the team to achieve overall team
goals. Caillier (2014) mentioned that receiving poor feedback is no shame; it is rather a
hidden step that appears in the middle to take the journey ahead. Thus, I know the root cause
of the poor feedback I can make positive changes to enhance the field. Hence, the
performance gap indicates that I need to maintain the consistency in performing job
responsibility when working with other people in the team.
The most significant issue that I often find annoying and affecting my performance is
communication. I am not good at communicating with people who I do not know properly. I
take time to understand a person and then gradually I expose myself. The self-evaluation
analysis also helps me to observe the fact that I am not good at dealing with stressful
situation, as I often rush to take decisions that I later find, was unnecessary.
I wish to be a good entrepreneur in future; thus, I personally feel the need of
improvement in many field of learning. In problem solving attribute I was a given a moderate
score because there was situation, in which my role was highly necessary as I was playing the
role of an assistant team leader. However, I took a lot of time to react on the situation but on
the other side, in some situations, for example, one of the members of the team is absent and I
had to reassign the task to another person, which I did perfectly. There is no perfect age or
particular time period for learning as learning can happen any time; thus I look forward to
pay more attention to my weaknesses and improve them. Firstly, I want to pursue a course of
communication where I learn about how real-world business communication are done. In
addition to this, I also want to develop my problem solving skills by reviewing the cause and

8CAREER DYNAMICS
effect analysis theory and listening to issues that my friends face in their life. I want to read
some inspiring stories that help people to resolve problems and stressful situation.
Performance improvement analysis-
The Learning Style Questionnaire is developed by Peter Honey and Alan Mumford
and author of this learning style have mentioned about several fields or process of learning
butt I personally peruse the style of being a pragmatist and “The Learning Model Instrument”
indicates that I am a thinker planner
According to my understanding and the insight gained from the honey and Mumford learning
style, the pragmatist is someone who has the capacity to perceive how to use learning or put
learning into a practice or present realty. The learning style also helps me to understand the
conceptual ideas are of constrained utility unless people can observe an approach to put the
ideas in their regular life. Even though the 360 degree feedback that I received does not
reflect on the characteristics of pragmatists but I believe that learning should be experimental
and linked to real-world fact. I believe that theoretical and observations may not provide an
accurate or desired result from the learning. Until and unless I apply them to my own
situation I cannot rely on what I have learnt through reading and observation. For example, I
asked one of my friends to shop from Amazon, especially their premium membership is a
classy deal but my friend said he wants to see others taking the membership from Amazon
and use their account to observe the service deals. So, he is a kind of reflector but if I was in
his situation, I will read the terms and conductions policies and then I would take the service
to experience by myself.
The outcome of the learning model instrument, -Thinker planner does not indicate that I
make plans before actually performing the activity but I believe that every individual make an
initial planning and then the rest comes from the verified experience. The self –evaluation

9CAREER DYNAMICS
report indicates that I lack coordination when working in a team but I must mention the fact
that when an experimented learning is applied to a particular context – such as team activity,
the overall result will be more genuine and authentic. For example, If I set a plan that I will
finis all my weekly home task by next week, which is an initial plan but I am pretty sure
about the plan because once I finished a more heavy tasks before and the experience would
guide me here.
As per the 360 degree evaluation feedback, the areas that I find, need improvement
Communication:
As put forward by Jackson (2015) communication certainly plays a great role in development
of individual or an employee in the workplace. On the other side, Truong (2016) mentioned
that communication helps in the exchange of ideas and concepts. For me communication is
highly necessary, as I wish to become a successful entrepreneur in the coming future. Thus,
to enhance my communication, I would purpose an authentic communication and soft skill
course in which the business activities are also associated. My major focus should be on
business communication. Nonetheless, apart from the course and studies, I would
communicate with my university professors who are specialized in management. I would
attend the trade fair where successful business executives and entrepreneurs speak their
success stories. I will listen to them and ask them questions. This interaction will help me to
avoid the anxiety I face when a starting a conversation with a senior person.
Problem solving:
When it comes to communication, Hwang, Hung and Chen (2014) mentioned that it is
important to realize that being a problem resolvers is not just about abilities; rather it is a
whole day mind set, which may drive people to bring out the best in themselves. Thus, to
enhance my problem solving skills, the most necessary thing in general that o will do is, take

10CAREER DYNAMICS
much time to understand the problem and figure out the criteria for making a good decisions
and create some effective or positive options. I believe that using too many suggestions may
only confuse me and lead me to become decisive. Thus, when resolving an issue, I need to be
clear about the direction I would propose to resolve the issue. From the theoretical
underpinning, I have derived the fact that applying a step by step action plan is often
effective.

11CAREER DYNAMICS
References
Ali, N., & Zia-ur-Rehman, M. (2014). Impact of job design on employee performance,
mediating role of job satisfaction: A study of FMCG’s sector in
Pakistan. International Journal of Business and Management, 9(2), 70.
Caillier, J. G. (2014). Toward a better understanding of the relationship between
transformational leadership, public service motivation, mission valence, and
employee performance: A preliminary study. Public Personnel Management, 43(2),
218-239.
Campion, M. C., Campion, E. D., & Campion, M. A. (2015). Improvements in performance
management through the use of 360 feedback. Industrial and Organizational
Psychology, 8(1), 85-93.
Crook, J. R. (2016). Dispute Settlement. In The Oxford Handbook of International
Organizations. 16(4), 1-16.
Darling, J. (2014). Another letter from the Home Office: reading the material politics of
asylum. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 32(3), 484-500.
Hammerly, M. E., Harmon, L., & Schwaitzberg, S. D. (2014). Good to Great: Using 360‐
Degree Feedback to Improve Physician Emotional Intelligence. Journal of
Healthcare Management, 59(5), 354-366.
Hwang, G. J., Hung, C. M., & Chen, N. S. (2014). Improving learning achievements,
motivations and problem-solving skills through a peer assessment-based game
development approach. Educational Technology Research and Development, 62(2),
129-145.

12CAREER DYNAMICS
Jackson, D. (2015). Employability skill development in work-integrated learning: Barriers
and best practice. Studies in Higher Education, 40(2), 350-367.
Lawrence, B. (2017). How HR Can Combat Sexual Harassment and Bullying at Work.
hrci.org. Retrieved on 10 May 2018. Retrieved from
https://www.hrci.org/community/blogs-and-announcements/hr-leads-business-blog/
hr-leads-business/2017/11/01/how-hr-can-combat-sexual-harassment-and-bullying-at-
work
Truong, H. M. (2016). Integrating learning styles and adaptive e-learning system: Current
developments, problems and opportunities. Computers in human behavior, 55, 1185-
1193.
Tsingou, E. (2015). Club governance and the making of global financial rules. Review of
International Political Economy, 22(2), 225-256.