Virtual Workplace: Out of the Office Reply and Listening Skills

The videos portray two different situations where conflict and negotiation were involved. In the video, Out of Office Reply, Angela has become a virtual employee, and things are not getting done, Ralph, her supervisor, scheduled sometime to engage in a conversation to get some answer as to why she was missing datelines and what could he do to assist. The second video, Listening Skills, Yeah, Whatever, portrayed Pilar, the manager, and Miguel the creative associate, during a set of meetings to discuss the current status of a specific project. The Listening Skills video was a perfect display of ineffective communication, while Pilar was trying to carry on a conversation in regards to issues that were brought to her attention by the client, Miguel, who is very talented creative artist, did not seemed to be engaged in the conversation. Miguel’s body language, lack of attention to the issues brought up to him and constant interruptions were a display of arrogance, unwillingness to listen to positive criticism and a disregard to his manager’s input. He was too involved in his own world, fully believing that his amazing creativity and his delivery of the project were sufficient to keep a client happy; while Pilar praised his talent but was not successful in keeping Miguel’s attention on the matter at hand, budget concerns from the client. Miguel’s unwillingness to compromise and find a solution to the challenge caused Pilar to remove him from the project. On the other hand, the Out of the Office Reply video portrayed the meeting as addressing a potential issue; Angela’s feeling of abandonment. Because she was away from the office, it brought bigger issues that in her mind had to do with Ralph. Ralph approached the situation delicately and offered solutions; the two were engaged in effective communication, even though the conflict brewing between the two had not completely surfaced. Angela was engaged in the conversation, listened to Ralph trying to get his message across by offering future meetings to discuss what he perceived to be bigger issues. The conflict displayed between Pilar and Miguel was a substantive conflict; they disagreed based on work issues; her concern was that clients were expressing concern with the total disregard presented by Miguel to their budget. The disagreement had nothing to do with his personality, or her approach; it was strictly work related. On the opposite side of the spectrum, while Ralph was concerned about the missed assignments, Angela’s conflict was emotional. She felt that she did not have the same relationship with Ralph than the rest of the associates because she was based out of her own home, her discontent escalated to a situation that caused her to make drastic emotional decisions, like resigning from her job. Ralph’s approach to solving the conflict provided a win-win situation for both. While Angele had it in her mind to resign because she did not feel appreciated as an employee and her perception was that regardless of her efforts, her virtual position had left her at a disadvantage.
Pilar managed the conflict differently; as she was unable to get a commitment from Miguel at their first meeting, she resorted to taking him off the account in order to get his attention. During the second meeting, Miguel was more engaged; he came to realize that there was more involved in the project at hand than creativity and was willing to listen to her alternatives. She presented her plan and while originally this was not Miguel’s intention, to provide a weekly report of expenses, he agreed in order to regain her confidence and his access to the client’s campaign. Pilar’s conflict management approach was a win-lose conflict; she will get the weekly report and monitor the expenses. Throughout the interactions on both scenarios, Pilar and Ralph, the negotiation types were differently. Ralph made an integrative