Overview of Conflict Scenario
Brad and Cameron work together at a municipal government office in a small city. Brad was hired in 2009 and has a communications background. Cameron was hired in 2005 and has a business background. Brad and Cameron have worked on various projects together over the years. Even though they occasionally “butt heads” over an issue, and probably wouldn’t be friends outside the office, their professional relationship has been without major problems. A few weeks ago Brad and Cameron were assigned to work on a committee with 6 other people from different departments. The municipality had put out a “request for proposals” (RFP) to replace an ageing software system on all of the city’s computers. The budget for the project was approximately one million dollars. The committee was responsible for evaluating and ranking the proposals, and making a recommendation to city council.
Brad and Cameron independently reviewed the proposals and met with the committee to discuss the project. Brad strongly favored a proposal from a small, local company with a positive reputation and history with the city. He thought the optics of going with a local company would look good. Cameron, on the other hand, strongly favored the proposal from a larger, multinational company with strong brand recognition and established customer support. Cameron believed that the larger company was more stable and could provide the level of infrastructure required by the city. The committee deliberated for some time, talking about the strengths and weaknesses of both proposals.
When it became evident that the committee was also leaning
towards the proposal that Cameron favored, Brad became very defensive and
angry. At this point the meeting had been going for almost three hours with no
breaks. Cameron snapped back at Brad, and they began talking over each other,
steadily increasing in volume until they were yelling. It wasn’t until a staff
member working in an office across the hall entered the room to ask if
everything was okay, that Brad and Cameron realized they were behaving
inappropriately.
What are your initial impressions of this conflict? What factors do you think contributed to this conflict? Identify several contributing factors. Be specific?
What are the impacts of this conflict?
What would you do to help? If you were one of the other coworkers at this committee meeting, what might you say?
What do you think could help prevent a situation like this from escalating? If you were either Cameron or Brad, what would you have done differently?
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