| Course | MGT 445 Organizational Negotiations (MGT/445) |
|---|---|
| Week | 4 |
| Paper type | Conflict management analysis |
| Length | about 1,027 words, 4 double-spaced pages plus title page and references |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | University of Phoenix |
| Program | BS in Business |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MGT 445 Week 4
Sales Promised the Pour, Dispatch Had No Trucks: Managing Conflict Between Two Teams at Harbor Point Concrete
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
MGT/445: Organizational Negotiations
Week 4 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Harbor Point Concrete and all people and events are composites written for a model paper.
At the composite concrete supplier Harbor Point, 18 sales representatives work alongside a dispatch team of 12 that schedules 140 mixer trucks. For months, sales representatives have promised contractors early-morning pours, often at 6 a.m., when contractors want to beat Florida heat, without checking truck availability. Dispatchers, unable to cover every request, have delayed some pours and canceled others. Contractors complain, sales blames dispatch for losing customers and dispatch blames sales for overpromising. Last week, a shouting match broke out in the operations office. Conflict between departments often looks like a clash of personalities, but it usually grows from structures that set people's goals against each other. This paper analyzes and resolves the conflict.
Describing the Conflict
The conflict appears in specific behaviors: sales representatives booking pours by text message without entering them in the system, dispatchers refusing to confirm until the day before, sales managers escalating complaints to the general manager and dispatchers calling sales "the promise department." In the past quarter, 64 pours were delayed or canceled, and two contractors moved work to a competitor.
Task and Relationship Conflict
Jehn (1995) separated arguments over how the job should be done from friction between the people doing it. The conflict began as task conflict over how to schedule early pours but has become relationship conflict, with blame and insults. De Dreu and Weingart (2003) found in a meta-analysis that both forms of conflict were associated with lower team performance and satisfaction, with relationship conflict especially harmful.
Sources: Conflicting Incentives
Sales representatives are paid commission on cubic yards sold. Dispatchers are evaluated on truck utilization and overtime costs. Sales benefits from saying yes to every early pour; dispatch benefits from spreading deliveries evenly and avoiding overtime. Each group is acting rationally given its incentives.
Sources: Information Gaps
Sales cannot see truck availability in real time, and dispatch learns of commitments late. Neither side knows what the other knows, so each assumes the other is careless.
Sources: Scarce Resources
Early-morning trucks are genuinely scarce. Most contractors want 6 a.m. starts in summer, and Harbor Point has enough trucks for about 60 percent of requests. The conflict reflects a real constraint as well as poor coordination.
Is Some Conflict Useful?
Not all conflict should be eliminated. Jehn's research suggested that disagreement about the work can improve decisions on complex, nonroutine tasks, as long as it stays focused on the problem. Sales representatives raising customer needs and dispatchers raising truck limits are both bringing useful information. The goal is not harmony but a process where those two kinds of information meet before a promise is made, rather than after a contractor is left waiting.
The Cost of the Conflict
The conflict has a price. The two lost contractors had bought about 9,000 cubic yards a year, worth about $1.8 million in revenue. Overtime spent rescuing late pours added about $60,000 in the quarter. Turnover is rising too: two dispatchers have quit in six months, citing stress. Putting numbers on the conflict persuades leadership that resolving it is worth managers' time and modest investment.
Conflict-Handling Styles
Thomas (1992) described five styles based on concern for one's own interests and for the other party's: competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding and accommodating. Each fits some situations. Competing can be right in emergencies; avoiding can be right for trivial issues; compromising suits time pressure; collaborating suits important, recurring problems where both sides' concerns matter.
Styles Being Used Now
Sales managers are competing, escalating to win individual disputes. Dispatchers are avoiding, refusing to confirm until the last minute. Neither style addresses the underlying problem. Collaborating, working together to design a system that meets both sides' needs, fits a recurring conflict over a shared resource.
Facilitated Negotiation
The general manager will facilitate a negotiation between the sales manager and the dispatch manager. Before meeting, each will describe their interests, not positions. Sales needs to win early pours and keep customers. Dispatch needs predictable demand, manageable overtime and respect for its constraints.
Options From the Negotiation
Options generated together include a shared booking system that shows truck availability, early-morning slots allocated by a fair rule, premium pricing for 6 a.m. pours to manage demand, a modest overtime budget for peak weeks and a daily 3 p.m. call to confirm the next day's schedule.
The Agreement
The managers agreed that sales will book all pours in the shared system, early slots will be allocated first to contractors with the largest monthly volumes and the rest on a first-come basis, a $6 per cubic yard premium will apply to 6 a.m. starts and dispatch may use up to 400 overtime hours a month in summer.
Aligning Incentives
Sales commission will now be paid on delivered rather than booked volume, and part of dispatch's evaluation will include on-time delivery. Shared goals give both teams reason to cooperate.
When Compromise Is Enough
Some disputes within the new system will still arise, such as two representatives wanting the same 6 a.m. truck for equally important customers. These do not need collaboration each time. A simple compromise rule, alternating priority between representatives week by week, settles them quickly. Matching the style to the size of the issue keeps managers from spending hours on small conflicts.
Repairing Relationships
The two teams will hold a joint monthly review of delivery performance, and representatives from each will spend a day shadowing the other. Understanding each other's work reduces blame.
Preventing Recurrence
A simple escalation process will route disagreements to the two managers within a day, and to the general manager only if they cannot agree. Delayed and canceled pours will be tracked monthly.
Measuring Progress
Progress will show up in fewer delayed or canceled pours, contractor complaints, overtime hours and a short survey of both teams on cooperation.
Conclusion
Harbor Point's sales-dispatch conflict began as a task disagreement and became personal, but its roots lie in conflicting incentives, missing information and scarce early trucks. A collaborative, facilitated negotiation produced a shared system, fair allocation, pricing and aligned incentives. Structural changes and joint reviews aim to keep the conflict from returning.
References
De Dreu, C. K. W., & Weingart, L. R. (2003). Task versus relationship conflict, team performance, and team member satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(4), 741-749. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.4.741
Jehn, K. A. (1995). A multimethod examination of the benefits and detriments of intragroup conflict. Administrative Science Quarterly, 40(2), 256-282. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393638
Thomas, K. W. (1992). Conflict and conflict management: Reflections and update. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13(3), 265-274. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030130307
What the MGT 445 Week 4 instructions ask
The fourth MGT 445 assignment commonly asks students to analyze a conflict and recommend how to manage it. Typical requirements include describing the conflict and parties, identifying its type and sources, applying a model of conflict-handling styles, considering the effects of conflict on performance, recommending a resolution approach, such as negotiation or mediation, and suggesting structural changes to prevent future conflict. Some prompts ask students to reflect on their own conflict style. Use specific behaviors and examples, distinguish task from relationship conflict, connect causes to structures and incentives and cite sources in APA format. Describe what the resolution meeting would actually look like, step by step.
How this MGT 445 Week 4 example is built
Sales representatives who promise 6 a.m. pours to win business and dispatchers who cannot find trucks to deliver them have been fighting for months, and the paper diagnoses why. The conflict began over scheduling, a task issue, but has turned into personal blame. Its sources are structural: sales is paid on volume, dispatch on truck use and neither sees the other's information. Five conflict-handling styles are compared, and collaborating suits the recurring problem. The paper describes a facilitated negotiation between the two managers, an agreement on a shared booking system and joint goals and a process for resolving disputes before they reach customers, with monthly measures to show whether cooperation is improving.
MGT 445 Week 4 grading rubric: where the points go
Strong conflict papers diagnose before prescribing. Instructors credit a clear description of the conflict with specific behaviors, a correct distinction between task and relationship conflict, identification of structural causes such as incentives and information gaps and accurate use of a conflict-handling model. A resolution approach matched to the conflict, with concrete steps, shows practical skill. Structural changes that prevent recurrence demonstrate systems thinking. Research on conflict and team performance strengthens the analysis, and correct APA citations complete the paper. Reflection on personal style, when requested, should be honest and specific. Instructors also look for measures that show whether the conflict is easing, since a conflict plan without follow-up data tends to be forgotten once the immediate tension passes.
MGT 445 Week 4 help: mistakes to avoid
Students often treat conflict as a personality clash and recommend that people simply communicate better. Look for structural causes such as incentives, goals and information. Another frequent gap is recommending one style for every situation. Match the style to the conflict. Students also overlook how task conflict can become relationship conflict over time. Explain the shift. Avoid vague solutions; specify meetings, agreements and changes. Include measures that show whether the conflict is improving, such as missed deliveries and a short survey of both teams. Finally, address prevention, since a conflict resolved once will return if its causes remain. Change the incentives or information that created it.
Related MGT 445 sample papers
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- MGT 445 Week 3: Analyzing Stakeholder Interests
- MGT 445 Week 5: Culture and Technology in Negotiation
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MGT 445 Week 4 questions, answered
What does MGT 445 Week 4 usually cover?
It usually covers conflict management: diagnosing the type and sources of conflict, conflict-handling styles, the effects of conflict on performance, resolution approaches and structural changes that prevent recurrence.
Where can I find a free MGT 445 Week 4 sample paper?
A full conflict analysis between a concrete company's sales and dispatch teams, with a resolution plan and notes, is on this page. A free starting draft of your conflict paper is available.
What are the five conflict-handling styles?
Competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding and accommodating, which differ in how much a party pursues its own concerns and how much it considers the other party's.
What is the difference between task and relationship conflict?
Task conflict concerns disagreements about work, such as goals or methods. Relationship conflict involves personal tension and dislike, which research links to lower satisfaction and performance.
How can organizations prevent recurring conflict?
By addressing structural causes, such as aligning incentives, sharing information, clarifying roles and decision rights and creating processes for resolving disagreements early.
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