The major issues in this case are:
- Lack of communication - Motivation
- Micromanagement - Empowerment
- Organizational structure - Leadership
- Organizational change & planning - Distributive and procedural justice
Lack of Communication
“There is more than a verbal tie between the words common, community, and communication.”
John Dewey
Conflicts between individual and collective interest are referred to as social dilemmas and provide the foundation of many diverse societal problems. “Social dilemmas exist whenever the cumulative result of reasonable individual choices is collective disaster” (Brewer, 1986). For example, each individual of a collective body may be inclined to act in self-interest although if all acted in the same way the collective body would be worse off (Messick and Brewer, 1983). “Among the most researched solutions to social dilemmas is communication. Since the late 1950’s, it has been well known that communication enhances cooperation in social dilemmas” (Balliet, 2010). Early studies on the effects of communication and cooperation in social dilemmas show that a brief period of communication prior to social dilemma can greatly improve cooperation. It has even been determined that communication increases cooperation by 40 percent (Balliet, 2010). In a study by Swensson (1967), “cooperation level increased as the opportunity for communication increased from none, to one-way, to two-way message exchanges” (Voissem, 1971).
There are many factors that help determine the effect of communication on cooperation:
(1) The type of communication medium
(2) If the communication occurs prior versus during the dilemma
(3) The size of the group facing the dilemma
Generally, there are two types of communication in the workplace: face-to face and written. Some studies have shown that face-to-face interaction increases cooperation more so than written communication does while other findings show that there are...