BUS703: Assessing Conflict Management in Retail: Woolworths Case Study

This report is a case study analysis focusing on conflict management within a retail setting, specifically examining the challenges faced by Woolworths. The document explores the root causes of conflict, including fractured relationships between managers and differing management perspectives. It delves into the negative consequences of this conflict, such as employee attrition, decreased productivity, and reputational damage. The report identifies key management questions and provides research questions and objectives to address the problems. The objectives include assessing the impact of internal conflict on organizational productivity, managing conflicts between managers, and investigating potential discriminatory incidents in the workplace. Finally, it includes a reference list with relevant academic resources.

BUS703 Managing Research
Assessment Task 1
Draft of Background and Problem Definition of Research Proposal
Provide a draft of your Background and Problem Definition using the four headings below. Please
refer to the detailed guidelines for Assessment Task 2 to assist you with this task.
Background to the problem (highlight the key issues/symptoms that have led to the
problem/opportunity arising – use point form to summarise).
Workplace conflict is an unavoidable matter within the retail organization, especially amongst
the managers of retail. The conflicts can occur in more challenging places. Within the retail
management, these issues can occur due to fractured relationships or opposing management
perspectives. The issue that arose within Woolworths that the supply manager and the floor
manager could not come to any specific solution due to limited resources. One manager was
also blaming the other for discriminating the subordinates. There has been huge employee
attrition; therefore the entire workplace came under an excessive stress due to more work load
on the remaining employees. Woolworths is an organization with high reputation in the
Australian market. The organization has been in the business for a long time and it had earned
its reputation with the course of time. The higher management were also concerned and they
started questioning the managers. Due to this two way stress, there have been huge conflicts
between the managers. The employees were also aware of the ongoing conflicts; furthermore
some of them started taking advantage out of the situation. They started working for less time
which hampered the entire productivity of the store to a great extent. In addition to that, the
customers started to complain as well. This hampered the reputation of the brand in the
neighbourhood as well. The higher management also came up with few ideas in order to solve
the issue, but they also need to find a solution of the ongoing conflict between the managers.
To summarize, it can be said that
 There was conflict between the managers due to fractured relationships within the
workplace along with opposing management perspective.
Management decision (what is the decision management have to make that research will assist
with? – in question form).
How should the management solve the issue of conflict between the managers which has
hampered the productivity of the store?
Do the higher management require proactive negotiating approach in order to solve the issue?
How do the management deal with the huge attrition in the organization?
What should the management do to get the store reputation back?
How would the management find out regarding the discrimination issue within the workplace?
Research question (from a research perspective what information is required to answer the
management problem?).
 How the productivity of the organization can get hampered with the internal conflict between
the managers?

(Information) Objectives (specific information required to address the research problem – must
be in objective form. As a guide, minimum of three and no more than six).
 To find out whether the productivity of the organization depends on the internal conflict of the
employees
 To manage the conflict between the managers within the workplace
 To find out whether there is any discriminatory incident with the work place

Reference list
Moore, C.W., 2014. The mediation process: Practical strategies for resolving conflict. John Wiley &
Sons.
Clegg, S.R., Kornberger, M. and Pitsis, T., 2015. Managing and organizations: An introduction to
theory and practice. Sage.
Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability
in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Cahn, D.D. and Abigail, R.A., 2014. Managing conflict through communication. Pearson.