Organizational Behavior: Human Behavior at Work 14th Edition by John Newstrom

Exercise 2

Conflict in the Division
The engineering division of a firm consists of four departments, with the supervisor of each reporting to the division general manager (GM). The four departments range in size from 2 employees in the smallest (industrial engineering) to 14 in the largest (sales engineering). The other two departments (design engineering and process engineering) each have eight employees.
Intense interdepartmental rivalry frequently arises over the allocation of resources. This problem is compounded by the favoritism that the GM allegedly shows toward the industrial and design engineering units and his reliance on majority-rule decision making (among his four supervisors and himself) at staff meetings. This practice, complain the supervisors of the sales and process engineering departments, often results in the leaders of the industrial and design engineering departments forming a coalition with the GM to make a decision, even though they represent only 10 of the 32 employees. In response, the industrial and design engineering supervisors charge the supervisors of the sales and process engineering units with empire building, power plays, and a narrow view of the mission of the division.
You are a friend of the GM, called in from another division to help resolve the problem.
Outline the approach you would recommend that the GM take.