BUSINESS STUDENTS HELP GOODWILL WITH CONFLICT RESOLUTION TRAINING posted 4/25/05

The Dawson Scholars, pictured with the accountancy/business administration faculty.

Conflict resolution is an ever-present problem in the business arena. This is why Goodwill Industries International decided to called upon the Adrian College Dawson Scholars for help. This year the students worked with Goodwill in southeastern Michigan and designed a conflict resolution training program.

The Dawson Scholars are the recipients of the John Harper Dawson scholarship. Between two and five Dawson Scholarships are awarded to the top business students each year. The scholarship pays for tuition their junior and senior years. In return for the scholarships the students are required to do activities and services related to business to benefit the campus and community.

The Dawson Scholars became involved with Goodwill after AC business professor Patrick Quinlan spoke with Director of Workforce Environment John Haught, a speaker at AC's Disabilities Awareness Week, about the conflicts that were taking place within Goodwill. Resolution problems spanned from upper management down to the retail store clerks. Haught asked Professor Quinlan if the Dawson Scholars would be willing to work with Goodwill to provide conflict resolution training.

Because there are many employees at Goodwill with different degrees of physical and/or mental disabilities, disagreements tend to escalate at immature levels. "Special attention was given to develop a program that was effective for employees of various educational backgrounds. All employees, from store clerks to management, were randomly integrated into the sessions, therefore the presentation material was customized to meet these needs," stated AC senior Melissa Murray, a Dawson Scholar and one of the team's project leaders.

Before starting the program the Dawson Scholar team toured three of the five worksites involved in the training to expand their understanding of the processes at the organization and to build a relationship with those they would be working with.

All of the elements involved in this training were the responsibility of the Dawson Scholar team. The team had to secure a venue and arrange for all of the needed equipment, organize materials and schedule times to meet that would not conflict with the schedules of those from Goodwill. The team also created a 30-page training manual that the employees could take with them; the manual consists of graphs, diagrams, clip art and text. There are also plans in the works to publish the supplemental training guidebooks and catalogue them in the local libraries.

The Dawson Scholars presented the program in six two-hour sessions. The team used Power Point to present the material and also had Goodwill employees participate in a group role play exercise. This exercise provided employees with hands-on experience with some of the ideas for managing conflict. The program helped employees in three major ways: they were able to identify their conflict style, understand the different levels of conflict and recognize how to manage conflict when it arises.

Goodwill was very happy with the outcome of this program and hopes to administer it on a regional level.

"We received positive feedback from Goodwill management and employees from the training. The general response was that the information was helpful and applicable," stated Murray.

By: Jessica Osenga '05