Use negotiation as conflict resolution technique

Joe, full time contract male waiter, recently had a baby boy and wants to change his shift from 4 pm – 12 am to 9 am – 5 pm as he wants to spend more time with his family. You do not want to change the shift for next 3 months as it is Footy season and during this time, the work load is high and letting him change his shift will add more pressure on already existing employees. He argued that Ronny, another waiter who was close to you was allowed to change his shift twice in past 2 months. He is not satisfied and shows anger while he was serving the customer.

Your trainer will provide 7-10 minutes to complete the role play and trainer may provide additional time if required.

Your trainer will observe you during the role play and complete the performance checklist.

For this task, one of the student will act as Joe and you will act as a manager. You should cover following:

• Identify the signs, stage and level of conflict.
• Use negotiation as conflict resolution technique.
• Deal employee by using active listening, questioning techniques and appropriate language style of communication technique.
• As a manager, talk with Joe, identify the potential for conflict, analyse the situation and ensure personal safety of employee and customer and act to prevent the escalation of conflict due to roster change request. You can use appropriate assistance and resources to handle the situation.
• Listen to the employee to ensure the issue is understood clearly. Take responsibility to seek for the solution and identify and implement the best solution to manage the situation within scope of your role and responsibilities.
• Log the incident in Employee Conflict Incident log book as provided below: