A few years ago, a clothing manufacturer was expanding rapidly so the CEO hired several executives from other large corporations.Unfortunately, the new executives clashed with the current executives regarding business strategy.The CEO explained: 'We ended up with an old team and a new team and they weren't on the same wavelength.' Identify the source(s) of conflict in this situation and explain two strategies to minimize this conflict in the future.

This question is a condensed version of actual events at a clothing manufacturer.The quotation was an actual statement from the CEO.This incident illustrates how conflict can occur through differentiation.The brief incident does not provide detail, but it is evident that the old and new team members had different points of view on issues.They had distinct backgrounds - big business versus long-term experience with the smaller clothing firm.Students might also note that the old and new teams experienced conflict due to high task interdependence (they probably worked reciprocally) and resource scarcity (they probably fought over how to invest or make market decisions with a limited budget).Ambiguous rules probably also allow for conflict here.It is unlikely that they had different goals because all executives probably experience similar rewards and career objectives.
The most important solution to minimize this conflict in the future is to reduce differentiation.This might occur by hiring executives with more background similarities to the existing executives.If diverse executives are hired, the organization might consider team-building activities that generate a common bond among executives.With respect to resource scarcity and task interdependence, it is probably difficult to increase resources or separate the new from the older executives.Ambiguity is also inherent in top-level decisions, so there is no easy solution to this source of conflict.