Communicating With Stakeholders and Managing Conflict
Communicating with stakeholders and managing conflict Assignment
In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competencies:
- Determine appropriate ways to communicate information to internal and external stakeholders
- Apply communication techniques to effectively negotiate and manage conflict
Scenario
You are the manager of a team of 10 software developers working on a new application for your company, Optimum Way Development, which is based out of Raleigh, North Carolina. Your organization recently acquired a smaller software company based in San Jose, California. You have been informed that your team will be bringing on five people from this newly acquired company; all five people will be moving to Raleigh to join your team.
You schedule a phone call with the five new team members and discover that they are upset about the recent impersonal message they received from human resources informing them that they would have to relocate to Raleigh in order to stay employed; no one expressed excitement about joining the team. During this conversation, you also discover that many of the new team members have more education and experience than the people currently on your team. Based on the conversation, you notice that most of these team members are likely older than you, whereas all of the current Raleigh team members are younger than you.
After the call, one of your current senior team members approaches you about rumors that are circulating concerning the Raleigh team being required to train the new team members from San Jose. They heard that there are plans to eliminate positions and are concerned the new hires will ultimately be taking their positions.
The director who oversees your division has requested that you create and present a recommendation report that documents your plans for managing the conflicts that currently exist or may arise on your team. The director has an advanced degree in a computer science-related field and has worked in technology for over a decade.
Directions
In order to identify and resolve existing and future conflicts, you have been asked to compose and present your plan for managing conflict for this project. In addition to identifying and resolving the conflicts, you are also responsible for keeping the development of the new application moving forward by continuing to meet scheduled milestones.
To do this, you will create a recommendation report and corresponding presentation. The audience for both deliverables is your director. As you create your report and presentation, remember to use communication techniques and platforms that are appropriate for your audience’s preferences and motivations.
Both deliverables should be based on the above scenario and include the following:
- To start, explain the major elements of the software application, including background, audience, functions, and features.
- Next, explain the areas of conflict for the team. Make sure to include contributing factors and the possible impacts.
- Articulate the desired outcome of any conflict resolution activities.
- How would you like to see this conflict resolved?
- What is the “best-case” scenario?
- Recommend action steps for managing areas of possible conflict with a detailed explanation on how the action steps contribute to conflict resolution.
- In the presentation only, use dialogue to communicate the appropriate main ideas to the audience. Although you will not give this presentation over video, you should use the speaker’s notes section in PowerPoint to write the accompanying speech.
What to Submit
To complete this project, you must submit the following:
Recommendation Report
Your report should be at least 2 full pages in length (not including a title page), single-spaced and submitted as either a Word document or PDF. Outside resources are not required, but any resources used must be appropriately cited using APA style. You may use the Recommendation Report Template (attached) for this submission.
Presentation
Your presentation should be in a presentation format (such as PowerPoint) and provide an overview of the main ideas from the recommendation report. Using the speaker’s notes section of PowerPoint, include the speech that would accompany the presentation. Outside resources are not required, but any resources used must be appropriately cited using APA style.
