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Management Practices and Organisational Behaviour

Notes 5. Avoider, delegator or impetus provider: A category of roles that involve exerting little
control over the process and the outcome. They are:
(a) Avoider: tries to ignore the conflict and minimize its significance.

(b) The delegator: asks another person to help in the negotiation.
(c) Impetus provider: delegates the conflict to the parties along with a threat that if they
fail to resolve it, the manager will dictate a solution they are sure to dislike.

Case Study James Farris

ames Farris was a college student who, during the summer, worked in the Denver
plant of Western Gypsum Company, a manufacturer of drywall material, various
Jready-mix patching compounds, and other assorted home-improvement products.
The plant was a small one and employed only twenty-five people. Farris worked on the
second floor and mixed raw materials (diatomaceous earth, dolomite, limestone, sand,
etc.) together in specified proportions to make the ready-mix compounds. Consumers
needed only to add water in the right amount to use the product. Because of this, quality
control was a key function in the production process.
Farris hated his job but felt it was necessary to pay his way through college. On several
occasions, he had argued with his foreman about the level of work demanded, but to no
avail. One hot afternoon, the foreman approached Farris and the following discussion
took place:
Foreman: Farris, you've got to be more careful when mixing the compound. Walters (the
quality control inspector) tells me that six of the last eight batches you mixed were no
good. All that stuff has to be remixed and that's going to cost the company a lot of money.
We're paying you to mix those batches right! And another thing, you're not mixing the
required seventeen batches a day. What's the problem?
Farris: I'm making mistakes because you're too demanding. I'm doing only fourteen
batches a day instead of seventeen because I physically can't do seventeen. I'm not about
to kill myself running around up here in this heat just so I can mix seventeen batches a day.
Look, I'm the fifth guy to have this job in the last seven months, right?

Foreman: Right.
Farris: Doesn't that tell you something?
Foreman: Yeah, it tells me that most people today don't want to do an honest day's work!
Farris: Don't give me that! To do this job right, I can only do eleven batches a day. Besides,
I'm not so sure those batches were actually bad. I've heard that Walters is very picky when
checking batches because it gives him a sense of power over the other workers. Besides,
he's just trying to get me because he thinks I scraped his new car in the parking lot the
other day.
FOREMAN: You college guys are all alike! I used to do this job and I never had any
trouble. You're just too lazy. And stop blaming Walters; he's been here for twenty-three
years and knows a lot more about ready-mix compounds than you'll ever know! Now get
back to work and start pulling your weight around here.

One week later, the foreman was told by the personnel manager that Farris had quit.
Contd...

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