Management and Leadership in Construction

Main Body 

1. Causes of Conflict in the Case and Various Types of Conflicts  

The two companies have decided to do a joint venture for the purpose of executing a Construction Project of Hospital in an efficient manner. But after a certain period of time both the companies BGC PTY Ltd. And High Health PTY Ltd. Started having issues in their workings and therefore it was essential that such conflicts should be resolved at the earliest, so that a public project of this importance can become a reality and will eventually help Citizens and general Public of Australia.

The Causes of Conflict

BGC PTY Ltd. And HH PTY Ltd. Were responsible to execute the construction of a public hospital. The initial phases of the project was completed easily, but after certain point of time, when the necessary equipment were needed to be installed within the Hospital, The task was Given to BGC PTY Ltd. Equipments has to be procured from GPA (Government Procurement Agency), Documents has to be submitted by this agency in proper form for the purpose of getting equipments on time. HH PTY Ltd. Made the necessary arrangements of documents and sent it to BGC PTY Ltd. , But soon the issues started to arise, when GPA denied to give equipments, on the Ground that the documents were not proper and completed (Cope, Kempster and Parry, 2011). This lead to a conflict among the Two companies as BGC was asking to provide full documents in proper form for the purpose of getting equipments on time and HH PTY Ltd. Claimed that it has provided all the necessary document and the job of getting equipments rest with BGC (Uhl-Bien and et.al., 2014).

The primary causes for such conflict was that both the companies were not ready to accept each other's mistakes and were running away from responsibility to complete the project on time. This can be termed as the primary cause of conflict in the case because, it can be seen that things started to become difficult after the issue of procurement of necessary equipments from GPA and this has to be resolved in a proper manner as soon as possible.

Types of Conflict

Conflicts are categorised into different types and therefore, it can be approached in a different manner in different situations. The different types of conflicts and approaches to resolve them can be explained in detail as follows :

• Competing(Win-Lose): This kind of approach is used by people who have the determination regrading their decisions and they believe in what they want. Such kind of approach is basically used by people who are sitting at a higher position or authority who will be having higher strength as well as expertise (Thorpe, Gold and Lawler, 2011). It is highly useful for situations of Emergency and when an immediate decisions needs to be made. This kind of style demonstrate assertiveness and offer almost no Cooperativeness. In these kind of style the The person would either want a win situation or Lose Situation.
• Accommodating(Lose-Lose): These types of people are reasonable in their decision making and do not show much assertiveness or firmness. They are ready to co-operate on  certain situations and will not hesitate in giving away some of the favourable part to opposition (Eacott, 2015). Managers use this kind of style when they want to act as a peace maker, and there are willing to yield wherever possible. Creation of the goodwill is the ultimate aim. But such managers appears to be weak and indecisive in their workings, hence a improvement can be expected from them.
• Avoiding(Win-Lose): When certain managers do not want to face the conflict, they will avoid it. The manager's own concerns is not taken care of in this approach and this will lead to an unresolved conflict. It can be useful in certain threatening situations. Such approach shall not be overused.  
• Collaborating(Win-Win): Under this, The manager would work with another individual or person to develop a Win-Win situation for both the parties. Under the current case, This Approach is not used by any of the manager as they both were reluctant to arrive at any conclusion or result. This kind of style or approach can be helpful when, the situation  is not urgent, An important decision has to be made, involvement of large number of people in the conflict etc.
• Compromising(Yield-Lose): Under this approach each side will compromise a bit for contributing in Conflict Resolution. The ultimate aim is to resolve the conflict and to get rid of the problem. Instead of fighting an Ego battle ( Griffin, 2013). This approach is appropriate when  a particular decision has to be made at the earliest and no delay can be made in the same, Powers between the two parties who are involved usually is equal. It can be said therefore that managing directors of both the company were using this approach in the end to end the conflict as soon as possible because the project has to be completed in the given time frame.  

2. Various Phases of the Conflict and Members who were involved in the conflict

The conflict between the two companies has arisen and it has taken a big size soon after when it arise. The members who were involved within the conflicts have also been increasing during the whole tenure and it has further worsen off the conflict (Sullivan, Williams and Jeffares, 2012). A detail explanation about the various phases of the conflict and people involved in that are as follows :

3. Various Peoples in the case and their Conflict Resolution Approaches

From the above analysis of various situations, it can be assessed that at different phases of the case, there were different approaches that were adopted by the key six people of both the companies. Both of them were not ready to lose on their front and wanted to prove themselves Right. This has resulted in in a prolonged conflict and a delay in overall project. The project was quite big and important and such delay has damaged the reputation of both the companies.

4. Alternative approaches that can be used in different Scenarios

Conclusion

It can be said from above discussion that construction industry is very crucial for growth and development of a Economy. It is thus quite clear that a business who is engaged in the sector of construction have to make sure that various aspects of managing and leading a construction business is fulfilled by the company. But while managing the business of construction, It is quite necessary that a partnership or a joint venture is managed properly. Because of the fact, that Construction projects are usually large and is concerned with public Utility, like Hospitals etc. There might arise certain Issues as well as conflicts, which shall be managed in a proper way by the management of company. The management can choose various approaches of different authors for the purpose of managing the conflicts within the workplace. Leadership is important in these sector as they have to lead various sections of the business like labours, subordinates, managers as well as directors.

References

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• Griffin, R.W., 2013. Fundamentals of management. Cengage Learning.
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