M: Organizational Behavior 2nd Edition by Steven McShane, Mary Von Glinow

Exercise 116

Scenario: Widget Co.
Salespeople at Widget Co. complain that they lose sales bonuses when the production department is out of stock of a particular item. This causes customers to buy elsewhere rather than wait for the next production run. The sales department also blames customer service for being unable to deal with their customer's orders in a timely fashion. Meanwhile, production employees complain that salespeople don't appreciate the need to minimize inventory costs, for which production staff is rewarded. At the same time, the customer service department feels that the sales people should provide their customers with more realistic time frames.
The conflict between sales and production is mainly an example of conflict due to:
A) rule ambiguity.
B) communication problems.
C) pooled task interdependence.
D) differentiation.
E) goal incompatibility.