Recommendations
on employment
problems in Tunisia

2.6 Evaporating cloud technique to resolve disputes

Guideline for employment problems / RESOLVING: 2.6 Evaporating cloud technique to resolve disputes

Most plausible interventions

During the orientation process of the available literature, we identified the following interventions as most plausible for discrimination on the workplace disputes:

Goldratt introduced the evaporating cloud in the late 1980s as a problem-solving, thinking process to help people invent simple, practical, win-win solutions ^[1]. It achieved this by using a structured approach that: (a) identify and display all elements of a conflict situation; (b) identify underlying assumptions that cause the conflict to exist; and (c) develop solutions that invalidate one or more of the assumptions ^[2]. The evaporating cloud is especially useful for solving conflict on multiple levels and Goldratt illustrated its usefulness in resolving a variety of inter-organizational, intra-organizational, interpersonal, and intra-personal conflicts ^[3].

in the first stage, the mediator has a private meeting with each separate party. At each of these initial meetings. The mediator asks those involved to discuss in detail how they see the situation and what they feel about it. The main issues involved are clarified and ways of resolving them explored.
meetings: these meetings can only take place if the mediator and parties involved choose to participate and agree to the meeting arrangements and procedures. When facilitating these meetings, the mediator ensures that they are safe and controlled, allowing those involved the opportunity to speak and to respond to the issues raised. Each of the parties involved is then given an opportunity to speak about the situation, without being interrupted. The issues to be discussed at the meeting are clarified and confirmed. The mediator works through these issues with the parties, helping them to communicate, negotiate and work towards their own agreement.
in the final process, any agreement reached is the responsibility of the parties themselves and is not legally binding ^[7].

The ombudsman has proven to be a promising intervention and has been praised by several scholars in resolving and mitigating workplace disputes by using different tools to solve the problem such as mediation. This is what makes it interesting to compare it with the mediator role and tools in resolving a workplace dispute.

How it works

The evaporating cloud is composed of five structured entities. Most problems faced by managers can be viewed as conflicts, either between two parties (people or departments) or, frequently and importantly, internal conflicts experienced by the project manager (or any staff member of an organization). What one party in the conflict wants is entity D and what the other party wants is entity D. These two entities must be in conflict either because they are mutually exclusive or due to resource contention, that is to say, the organisation cannot afford to do both. The structure of a cloud shows that each party’s want is necessary in order to satisfy a specific need denoted by entities B and C. In addition, both needs must be met in order to achieve the parties’ common goal, denoted by entity A. In other words, these two needs are necessary conditions for accomplishing the common objective ^[4].

As introduced by John Mayer & Peter Salovey in 1990, emotional intelligence is the combination of interpersonal intelligence which is the capacity to understand the intentions, motivations and desires of other people and to work effectively with them and intrapersonal intelligence which is the capacity to understand oneself and to use this information effectively in regulating one’s life ^[5]. According to Goleman, the five components of emotional intelligence are self-awareness, self-regulation, social skills, motivation and empathy ^[6].

It is recognized from studies that besides the technical skills, the employees are required to enhance their emotional intelligence skills, which eventually will increase their work productivity. The skills will assist in developing interpersonal skills of the peers with management of emotional intelligence of the team members. For the organisation to be successful, the organisation needs to develop employee’s emotional intelligence skills as it can assist the employee working more efficiently within the organisation. This is based on the fact that emotions create an effect on everything that is done by people, so emotions are required to be managed properly to prevent an unfavourable impact on an employee or their performance ^[7].

PICO question

For parties to a work floor dispute, is evaporating cloud or emotional intelligence training more effective for well-being?

Search strategy

The databases used are: HeinOnline, Westlaw, Wiley Online Library, JSTOR, Taylor & Francis, and ResearchGate.

For this PICO question, keywords used in the search strategy are: evaporating cloud, conflict resolution, workplace dispute.

Assessment and grading of evidence

The main sources of evidence used for this particular subject are:

Victoria J. Mabin et Alan Barnard, DRAFT-The Change Matrix Cloud Process, Goldratt Research Labs, Cambridge, 2016.
Vijaykar Shreekant, Prasanna Karhade et Mahesh Gupta, « Work-From-Home vs. Work-At-Home: A Strategic Conundrum in the Digital Age », 2021.
Mahesh C. Gupta et Sharon A. Kerrick, « A Conflict Resolution Tool for Project Managers: Evaporating Cloud », Journal of International Technology and Information Management, vol. 23, no. 3, article 4, 2014.
Mahesh Gupta, Lynn Boyd et Frank Kuzmits, The Evaporating Cloud: A Tool for Resolving Workplace Conflict, University of Louisville.
Marjaana Gunkel, Christopher Schlaege et Vas Taras, « Cultural Values, Emotional Intelligence, and Conflict Handling Styles: A Global Study », Journal of World Business, 2015.
Mohit Kumar, Kuldeep Singh et Dr. Vijaishri Tewari, « Workplace Conflict Resolution through Emotional Intelligence (EI) », International Management Conference, première impression – november 2018, p. 41.
Leila Karimi, Sandra G. Leggat, Timothy Bartram et Jiri Rada, « The Effects of Emotional Intelligence Training on the Job Performance of Australian Aged Care Workers », Health Care Management Review, vol. 45, no. 1, 2020, pp. 41-51.
Sandhya Vijayakumar, « The Impact of Emotional Intelligence Training on the Quality of Work Life Amongst Employees », Texila International Journal of Management, vol. 4, no. 1, mars 2018.
Umashankar K., « Conflict Resolution Through Training on Emotional Intelligence and Empathy in a Workplace – An Empirical Study », Research in Business and Management, vol. 1, no. 2, 2014.

Mahesh C.Gupta and Sharon A.Kerrick in their paper demonstrate how a theory of constraints-based logical tool, an evaporating cloud, can enable IT managers to better understand conflicts underlying most problems. Using a commonly encountered conflict as an example, they demonstrated how this tool verbalizes a problem through the logic of cause and effect, surfaces the assumptions causing the conflicting actions and decisions and presents injections – potential solutions – that can cause the conflict to evaporate (i.e., disappear or be resolved).

Mahesh Gupta, Lynn Boyd and Frank Kuzmits identified in their paper the shortcomings of existing conflict management approaches and how the evaporating cloud complements existing approaches. In addition, the applicability of the cloud to a wide range of workplace conflicts, from intra-personal to inter-organizational.

Mohit Kumar, Kuldeep Singh and Dr. Vijaishri Tewari presented a conceptual understanding of the role of emotions and emotional intelligence in conflict formation, and resolution at the workplace. They explored the extent of the relationship between EI and conflicts in an organisational setup.

Umashankar K, Charitra HG, the researcher incorporates emotional intelligence and conflict management styles as the important variables in studying the conflicting nature of the subjects that were under observation. The hypothesizes that an intervention program on emotional intelligence and empathy may reduce the frequency of conflicts among the subjects. Further, the researcher designed the intervention program for the experiment group and the control group was kept under observation.

The research conducted by Sandhya Vijayakumar aims at identifying the impact of emotional intelligence training on the quality of work life amongst employees. A literature study was conducted to explore what the existing literature revealed about emotional intelligence, quality of work of work life and the relationship between the two constructs. Special attention was given to emotional intelligence training and its impact on the quality of work life amongst employees. A two-day structured emotional intelligence training program was delivered to a group of thirty employees. The results from the literature review and empirical study revealed that emotional intelligence training was extremely beneficial to employees, specifically with regard to improving their emotional intelligence competencies, which led to a better, happier work life.

Quality of evidence and research gap

According to our research method, we grade the evidence comparing evaporating clouds and emotional intelligence training as moderate.The sources used to compare are medium-sized or large empirical studies.

Recommendation

Desirable outcomes

Evaporating cloud (EC)	Emotional intelligence training (EI)
Separate people from the problem by making them goal oriented. The cloud diagram, as a visual representation of the conflict, allows the participants’ attention to be focused on something other than each other. It becomes much easier to consider the goal – that of reaching agreement–separate from the person one is negotiating with ^[8].	Emotional intelligence training allows employees to model better behaviour, work directly with employees on applying skills to work situations, and provide a space for open reflection on the topic. It also communicates the seriousness of the topic to those who may not realise its importance. The results can be transformative, as employees and managers become better equipped to communicate, collaborate, and improve their performance. Indeed, according to a study, employees who were contacted for EI training echoed that emotional intelligence training was very critical in educating them to be more aware of their emotions and thus be proactive in managing it. This has greatly helped them to create a positive environment where they enjoyed better relationships with their colleagues. They also mentioned that the training added value to their personal lives ^[13].
Focus on interests, not positions, which is more likely to lead to results. A major source of difficulty in negotiations, and a major cause of outcomes that are unsatisfactory to at least one, if not both, parties, is positional bargaining: bargaining over the parties’ stated positions, rather than focusing on ways that both parties’ interests might be met. A major advantage of the EC is that interests must be explicitly stated in the diagram. By clearly stating both parties’ interests, each party is more likely able to achieve its interests rather than having its stated position accepted ^[9].	Emotional intelligence training assists people with the competency to manage interpersonal conflicts effectively and in a more constructive way. Research has shown that there is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and subordinates’ styles ^[14]. A study held by Umashankar aims at investigating the relationship between emotional intelligence and conflict management styles among the trainers in Zest Education Services Pvt. Ltd, Bangalore ^[15]. The researcher conducted a two-day training program for the experiment group on various modules like emotional intelligence, conflict management styles, team effectiveness and transactional analysis. Parallel to this, the control group was kept under observation. After the training program, they were closely observed over the period of one month. Study results show that the experiment group had more frequency of conflicts prior to training and the conflicts considerably decreased post training ^[16].
Generate a variety of possibilities and opportunities. Positional bargaining often results in limited options for a solution because the parties assume that the outcome will lie along the linear path between the positions, i.e. a compromise. The EC improves on this situation in two ways. First, explicitly considering interests rather than just positions encourages thinking about alternative means of achieving what each party really needs rather than what the parties say they want. Second, invalidating any assumption underlying an arrow of the cloud results in the resolution of the conflict. Since there are five arrows, with several assumptions behind each, the cloud provides a structured method of directing participants’ attention to opportunities for resolution of the conflict. Another benefit of the EC is that the most promising potential solution would be tested in a future reality tree to ensure that it works and doesn’t result in significant new undesirable effects. If the potential solution passes this test, it would be adopted, as each party would be more satisfied following negotiations than they expected to be when they started the process ^[10].	EI training leads to higher employee productivity. Through examining the impact of EI training on staff and residents of an aged care facility, research has demonstrated the benefits of EI training for higher quality of care delivery, results showed significant improvement among workers in the training group for EI scores, quality of care, general well-being, and psychological empowerment ^[17]. Also, according to a study conducted in a healthcare organisation in Qatar, it has validated that training on emotional intelligence helps employees to improve their emotional competencies which lead to higher employee productivity, better employee relationships, improved decision making and low employee turnover. All the above contribute to better quality of work life ^[18].
Insist that the result be based on an objective standard. Fair standards or a fair procedure for determining the outcome is helpful when the parties are engaged in positional bargaining, but these approaches really address a need of both parties, that of feeling that the outcome is fair. The strength of the EC, however, is in helping negotiators reach agreements that address both parties’ interests but not necessarily their stated positions and we believe that if each party’s interests are achieved, fairness need not be explicitly addressed ^[11].
Evaporating clouds provide a framework for identifying positives and negatives of opposing positions, which leads to solutions and decisions. The EC surface assumptions behind the seemingly opposing positions and can eventually ‘evaporate’ conflicts by identifying innovative solutions. This EC-based framework can facilitate harmonious dialogue among various stakeholders. The application of a systematic, step-by-step process like EC, by writing down the entities, surfacing the assumptions, and then identifying injections, even in the face of urgent and high-risk situations like COVID-19, is a valuable tool to practising managers in making strategic decisions ^[12].

Undesirable outcomes

Evaporating cloud (EC)	Emotional intelligence training (EI)
The evaporating cloud method provides no specific guidelines on which of the many assumptions that can be raised by stakeholders should be challenged and also ignores an important part of why we sometimes get stuck (inertia) or make bad compromises (ineptitude). There are not only positives to each of the two conflicting actions or decisions in D and D’, but there are also negatives to D and D’ that are not always opposite of the B and C. The negatives can be the fears we have if we do D or D’ that could be responsible for our past or future inertia or ineptitude ^[19].	Emotional intelligence is influenced by national culture. Previous studies have demonstrated cultural variation in emotional expression as well as in the accuracy of emotion recognition. Emotions are also regulated to a different extent in different cultures and some cultures tend to use emotions more than others. Gunkel and al. show in their empirical study that the four dimensions of emotional intelligence are all influenced by national culture ^[21].
Further research should be conducted to validate the effectiveness of ECs as a conflict-resolution tool ^[20].	The inability to manage impulse emotions. It results in severe conditions among individuals, sometimes career derailment, lack of information processing, permanent cessation of communication takes place ^[22]. In response to their insecurity towards job loss, low EI employees behave defensive, performing acts of buck-passing, hypervigilance, avoidance, etc. Low EI employees become defensive decision makers, ignorant, and self -service biassed resulting in loss of control over negative emotions caused by job insecurity ^[23].
	Levels of emotional intelligence are related to the conflict handling styles of avoiding and dominating. As individuals with lower levels of emotional intelligence have less the ability to be aware, control, and manage emotions ^[24].
	Formal upskilling appears to be more closely focused on technology skills, while emotional intelligence skills are less frequently targeted with formal reskilling. According to the Jobs of the Future report ^[25] published by the World economic forum. It’s not enough to simply mention the importance of EI in a staff meeting. Improving emotional intelligence requires focused effort.

Balance of Outcomes

Taken together, the available research suggests that evaporating clouds is more effective in resolving workplace disputes for multiple reasons. Actually, this latter helps to separate people from the problem by making them goal-oriented and to Focus on interests, not positions, it also introduces a variety of possibilities and opportunities which is more likely to lead to results. Even though it may not provide any specific guidelines on which of the many assumptions that can be raised by stakeholders should be challenged. Still provides better results compared to emotional intelligence training where it does not always provide efficient results as it is highly related to the national cultural context and to the employees’ level of emotional intelligence. Moreover, improving emotional intelligence amidst employees requires a real focus work from the organisation.

The desirable outcomes of evaporating clouds outweigh those of emotional intelligence training, and the undesirable outcomes of emotional intelligence training outweigh those of evaporating clouds. Therefore, evaporating cloud is preferred.

Recommendation

Taking into account the balance of outcomes, the benefits for parties to a discrimination dispute in the workplace and the quality and consistency of the evidence, we make the following recommendation: for parties to a workplace dispute, evaporating clouds is more conducive to well-being than emotional intelligence training.

View References

^[1] Victoria J. Mabin et Alan Barnard, DRAFT-The Change Matrix Cloud Process, Goldratt Research Labs, Cambridge, 2016, p. 9.

^[2] Mahesh Gupta, Lynn Boyd et Frank Kuzmits, The Evaporating Cloud: A Tool for Resolving Workplace Conflict, University of Louisville, p. 399.

^[3] Mahesh C. Gupta et Sharon A. Kerrick, « A Conflict Resolution Tool for Project Managers: Evaporating Cloud », Journal of International Technology and Information Management, vol. 23, no. 3, article 4, 2014, p. 64.

^[4] Ibid., p. 65.

^[5] IJCRT,p.1

^[6] Umashankar K., « Conflict Resolution Through Training on Emotional Intelligence and Empathy in a Workplace – An Empirical Study », Research in Business and Management, vol. 1, no. 2, 2014, p. 124.

^[7] IJCRT,p.3

^[8] Mahesh Gupta, Lynn Boyd et Frank Kuzmits, op. cit., p. 408.

^[9] Ibid.

^[10] Ibid.

^[11] Ibid.

^[12] Vijaykar Shreekant, Prasanna Karhade et Mahesh Gupta, « Work-From-Home vs. Work-At-Home: A Strategic Conundrum in the Digital Age », 2021, p. 8.

^[13] Sandhya Vijayakumar, « The Impact of Emotional Intelligence Training on the Quality of Work Life Amongst Employees », Texila International Journal of Management, vol. 4, no. 1, mars 2018, p. 15.

^[14] Umashankar K., op. cit., p. 123.

^[15] Ibid.

^[16] Ibid., p. 133.

^[17] Leila Karimi, Sandra G. Leggat, Timothy Bartram et Jiri Rada, « The Effects of Emotional Intelligence Training on the Job Performance of Australian Aged Care Workers », Health Care Management Review, vol. 45, no. 1, 2020, p. 42.

^[18] Sandhya Vijayakumar, op. cit., p. 15.

^[19] Victoria J. Mabin et Alan Barnard, op. cit., p. 9.

^[20] Vijaykar Shreekant, Prasanna Karhade et Mahesh Gupta, op. cit., p. 8.

^[21] Marjaana Gunkel, Christopher Schlaege et Vas Taras, « Cultural Values, Emotional Intelligence, and Conflict Handling Styles: A Global Study », Journal of World Business, 2015, p. 573.

^[22] Mohit Kumar, Kuldeep Singh et Dr. Vijaishri Tewari, « Workplace Conflict Resolution through Emotional Intelligence (EI) », International Management Conference, première impression – novembre 2018, p. 9.

^[23] Ibid., p. 11.

^[24] Marjaana Gunkel, Christopher Schlaege et Vas Taras, op. cit., p. 573.

^[25] https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2020.pdf