Event PlanningBy Paige Solo

Currently, 100% of the funding for the visitors bureaus is collected through a 5% tax on all hotel stays in the county, 25% of which is used to fund the Ypsilanti CVB.

Both bureaus have historically served their respective communities with considerable success, but hold different ideologies for how a CVB should be

serving the public.

The Ann Arbor CVB has long acted as a traditional marketing and sales entity with a primary focus on filling the hotel and conference rooms in

Washtenaw County.

We've been impressed by the successes of the Ypsilanti CVB under the

leadership of Debbie Locke-Daniel.

The bureau's get-your-hands-dirty approach has fostered civic pride, welcomed new events and helped neighboring communities like Milan do the same.

In Ypsilanti, the CVB has had a very hands-

on approach in its community. As the sole

champion voice for Ypsilanti, it has filled a

void created by the lack of leadership and

funding the city has struggled with for

decades.

Ypsilanti may lack the hotels which would financially support the establishment of an independent CVB, but the entertainment and destination opportunities

pack a punch for a quirky college town wedged between the Motor City and Ann Arbor.

Visitors and residents alike get a peek into the past at the Michigan Firehouse, Yankee Air, and Automotive Heritage museums. Thousands fill Riverside Park each summer for the Color Run, the Michigan Brewer's Guild Summer Beer Festival and ElvisFest. At Eagle Crest, southeast Michigan's only golf resort, travelers sneak in an afternoon course round before grabbing dinner at Sidetrack or Red Rock

Downtown.

Our hope in the merger is to see the drastically increasing inventory of hotel rooms in the Ann Arbor area filled with

visitors who will not just dine, shop and sleep in Ann Arbor proper, but seek out the highlights and hidden gems our

entire county has to offer.

If the board proceeds with the merger, we expect the CVB to earmark funds and staff positions to leverage Ypsilanti in its efforts to convince travelers to choose Washtenaw County.

While unified management and resources will better serve the entire county, it would be a serious error to take a one-size-fits all approach to marketing the county as the AACVB has

done to date.

Conflict ManagementCurrently, separately the cvb’s strangely avoid each other but at the same time are massively competitive with one another. Merging into one cvb still has this label behind their name with what cvb the employee originally started from. The concern for one’s self is at a high within the company.

Competition Collaboration

Compromise

Avoidance Accommodation

high

Concern For self

low

low Concern for others high

Blake and MoutonsCurrently, within the newly merged cvb’s the management is overwhelmed with “country

club”style of managing the employees. “Country club management” is when there is high concern for people and low concern for production. This

kind of manager would concentrate efforts on the establishment of a pleasant workplace with friendly and comfortable human relations.

The newly larger cvb is in the transformation stage of re-organizing staff, structure and culture.

The company is still receiving work but more efforts are put directly inside for the time being.

Country club TeamManagement Management(1,9) (9,9)

Middle of the road Management (5,5)

Impoverished AuthorityManagement Compliance(1,1) (9,1)

Concern for people

Concern for production

New Direction Change in conflict- the goal is to change the conflict from avoidance and competition and merge into compromise and accommodation. The end ultimate goal is to reach collaboration. The cvb’s are looking at one another as different and competition with in positions but once all the wrinkles are ironed out the team will become one and accept each other. With time collaboration will rise.

Change in management styles- the goal here is to transform

from “country club” into “team management”. In order to

transform, the company has to correct the team inside in order to produce a product outside. With team management both the concern for people and

production are equal.

Distributive vs IntegrativeBargaining Bargaining

Maximize individual gains and minimize losses

Fixed-sum issues with limited resources

Compromises, trade-offs and win-lose results

Information-seeking, withholding data,and deception in disclosures

Maximize joints gains

Variable-summ issues shaped by overlapping positions

Creative solutions not attributable to specific concessions

Open sharing of information;accurate disclosure of needs and objectives.

Goals

Issues

Outcome

Communi-cation

Distributive vs IntegrativeBargaining Bargaining

I believe that the cvb’s were each at distributive bargaining separately.

Examples, -Goals; were individual gains against the other cvb within the county(AACVB vs YCVB) but also against other areas. -Issues;issues were fixed with in means and YCVB had less means therefore more issues unresolved and looked like the worse CVB out of the two. -Outcomes; compromises have to be made when having two CVB’s within one county and communicating about events that would work better at the others cvb locations then their own and what benefits that cvb will get in return for compromising. -Communication; each cvb were secretive and sneaky trying to find out information about how to bet the other with new ideas. Some sources had to side and withhold data from the other.

I believe that merging the cvb’s into one is integrative bargaining. Examples,

-Goals; Working together the goals can be larger and the competition can be geared towards another county. Maximizing gains.-Issues; together means could be more organized and distributed where needed. Overlapping positions is good because 4 eyes are better than two, better chances of something not being missed. -Outcomes; having one cvb results in less confusion and less hoops to jump throw. Merging together results in more options and solutions. -Communication; information is very broad and open to everyone within the county. All sources are revealed. More tasks are accomplished accurately.

Factors influencing the conflict management processPersonal factors;

-individual characteristic such as personality and gender strongly influence conflict. Stereotypical types say men use more competitive strategies, where women resort to accommodation and compromise.

-People’s conflict management strategies vary according to personal characterics like aggressiveness, introversion, or need of control.

-Turner and Henzel study(1987) found that women could also be very assertive when managing conflict.

-Burrell, Buzzanell and McMillan(1992) found that female managers described conflicts using the typical “male” metaphors of war and aggression.

-It may or may not be based on gender but could be based upon individual “frames” a conflict will influence the manner in which the conflict is managed. (Framing is cognitive representations of conflict and the way the conflict is enacted during interaction and the perception of self, others, and the conflict issue.)

-Example at WCCVB, the company is made up of both genders and different types of personalities which makes each section unique, but with strong personality with another strong personality conflict is expected. Taking each “frame” and understanding and resolving where the issue rooted will be the first step.

Relational factors;

-The relationship between the conflict parties appears to have a strong impact on conflict resolution. One characteristic is power or where that person is positioned on the hierarchical scale.

-Conflicts with supervisors and administrators are also more emotionally intense than conflicts with individuals that have the same hierarchical level.

-Relationship between conflict parties is how the relationship influences the interaction through which conflict is managed. Meaning, workers depend on each other but also want to maintain their own independence which would move them up or down the scale.

-Example at WCCVB, merging into one company will call for multiple people fitting into one position and will work as a team to achieve the same goal but when it comes to awarding one will want to take the cake.

Cultural factors;

Organizational, national, ethnic culture might influence the ways conflict is enacted and managed in organizations. -intercultural negotiations are less successful than intercultural negotiations between two national groups because of the miscommunication of schema's within cultures. -Ethnic and racial culture also may play a role in conflict negotiations, Turner and Shuter(2004) compared african-american women and european-american women in terms of their approaches to and perceptions of workplace conflict. Both groups viewed conflict negatively, but perceptions of african-american were particularly negative and passive. In terms of conflict resolution, european- american women were seen as being conflict-avoidance, and african-american women were seen as using more direct means of conflict resolution. -workplace could be difficult when subcultures are based on professional identity or hierarchical position do not see eye to eye.

QuestionsWhat will be the new culture for the new cvb?What changes will they make to become more

collaborated?What changes will be made in order to become

“team managed”?Will there be cultural/ethnic conflicts? And will they

be heard?

Questions?What changes will be made to become integrative

bargaining rather than distributive?How long will these changes take to take place?

With the new merge how is Ypsilanti reacting and do they think this was still a bad idea to merge?

Questions???How has employees from YCVB been treated since the merge?How many people choose to leave the CVB once the merge was official?How is Ypsilanti’s small businesses doing now that the CVB is gone? Any changes postive or negative?

Work Cited

http://www.mlive.com/opinion/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2015/09/ann_arbor_ypsilanti_cvb_merger.html

http://markmaynard.com/2015/09/ypsi-real-lets-keep-it-that-way/

Textbook; organizational Communications. Approaches and processes.Katherine Miller. Sixth Edition.