The conflict between the management and workers regarding how much money should the former pay the latter for their labor is inevitable. Workers are determined to sell their skills at the highest price possible. On the other hand, the management focuses on hiring the best skills at the lowest price while pursuing the primary goals, profitability, of their organization. Therefore, the management tends to ignore any demand for higher wages channeled to them through the supervisors. Although the supervisors are eventually caught in the middle of the two partier conflicts, they should not take sides due to various reasons.
Supervisors are intermediaries between employees and the management, ensuring an effective flow of information between the parties. Equally, companies hire supervisors to facilitate the pursuance of set goals and objectives through motivations and development programs (Veshne, 2017). Therefore, supervisors should only listen to workers’ complaints and communicate them to the management. They should then disseminate the management’s feedback to the employees in a way that alleviates the possibility of fueling wage-related conflicts. Thus, supervisors should focus on ensuring a harmonious relationship between workers and not taking sides.
Taking sides can only fuel the wage-related conflict, jeopardizing the accomplishment of the company’s goals, and at some point, the supervisors may risk losing their job. For example, if supervisors take the management’s side, it means that they would not be communicating workers’ concerns. They would also be determined to increase the employees’ workload without additional payments as per management’s expectations. Conversely, if they opt to side with the employees, it would require them to support the latter’s endeavor, including going on strike and stalling all operations. Supporting either party accelerates the conflicts rather than resolving them. The supervisors may lose their jobs if the management decides to take stern against all those who initiated and supported the strike. Thus, supervisors should not take sides in wage-related conflicts between the management and workers for companies’ well-being and preservation of their job.
Reference
Veshne, N. (2017). Role of supervisor’s communication in employee engagement & employee wellbeing. Ushus – Journal of Business Management, 16(3), 27-38.