III.

CASE STUDY

I. FACTS OF THE CASE

 Liberty Construction Company is a small company in Colorado. More than half of its
revenue is derived from the installation of underground water and power lines, so much
of its work is seasonal and turnover of its employees is high
 Michael Franco, a college student had been employed by Liberty as a backhoe operator
for the last summer and on his return to work he was assigned the second newest of the
company’s five backhoes.
 The owner reasoned that according to strict seniority Federico had nine months of
work..
 Pedro Alvarez, a regular employee who had been with the company seven months to be
assigned to an older machine,
 Alvarez was strongly dissatisfied with this; he felt as a regular employee he should have
retained the newer machine instead of having it to give to a temporary employee. The
others soon to feel into two camps and in less than a month Alvarez left the company.

II. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

 What was the cause of the conflict within the employees of Liberty Construction
Company?

III. ANALYSIS

 Liberty Construction Company, a small company in Colorado, can be considered as a

social system. Social system, as we all know, is a complex set of human relationships
interacting in many ways. Each small group (like the two camps formed in the incident)
is a subsystem within larger group (which is the Liberty Construction Company) that are
subsystems of even larger groups (the construction industry).
 One point that stands out in the complex interactions among people in the social system
is that the behavior of any one member can have an impact, directly or indirectly, on the
behavior of any other. Like in the incident, the job conflict that arose between Federico
and Alvarez affected other employees’ perception about the company and it also
created work problems.

 Evidence of social rank. When it comes to seniority, Federico status level is higher
having nine months of work experience while Alvarez only has seven months
  While when it comes to job level Alvarez is superior because he is a regular employee.
Status symbols are also important in order to determine your social rank.
 The quality and newness of equipment used is one of the typical symbols of status.
Alvarez being reassigned to an older machine means that this status level declines.
Status and status symbols are often source of employee problems and conflicts, like
what happened in the incident. Sometimes they are also the cause of employee
separation because they don\u2019t want low-status job. But they also have good
effects; they definitely serve to motivate employees to do their best in order to acquire
higher status.
 From a more holistic view point, we can observe that a social system is present. Since all
parts of the system are interdependent, the change of one part of the system can
greatly affect the others. Like in Alvarez’s and Frederico’s situation, the work balance
was affected due to the controversy between the two parties. Leaving the company
with two opposing teams, one for Alvarez and the other for Frederico

IV. ALTERNATIVES COURSES OF ACTION

A. The supervisor should listen to the argument of 2 parties and act with reason.

ADVANTAGES:

 The supervisor can hear both sides of the story.

 He can weigh his decisions base on the feedbacks of 2 parties.
 Can give decision without prejudice to any party.

DISADVANTAGES:

 Reasoning may be influence by personal bias and favoritism

 The 2 parties would not settle for an agreement

B. the supervisor should revise the company’s system and terms of regularization, hiring
process etc

ADVANTAGES:

 Low turnover rate of employees

 Rewards system will encourage employees to stay in the company
  Highly- organized company and employees

DISADVANTAGES:

V. RECOMMENDATIONS

VI. CONCLUSIONS