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Conflict Management and Dispute Resolution
Conflict Management and Dispute Resolution
Conflict Management and Dispute Resolution
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Politics or politicking is a game that is more ostensible and reserved for the political arena; however, metaphorically, much of the political discourse can also be found within organizations. Politics in organizations, then, is design for groups to reconcile differences between interests, conflicts, and power (Morgan, 2006). The case study to be analyze (Cutting Back at City Hall) is one that illustrates all three aspects of interests, conflicts, and power as the City of Smithville, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the International Association of Firefighters (IAF), and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) deliberate the city’s proposed budget.
Facts
The City of Smithville is facing a budget
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The city’s budget crisis was not a surprise, the City Manager had forecasted the shortfall and brought it to the attention of the city council. Based on the organizational structure, the City Manager clearly had more knowledge and information about the city’s budget, which was his source of power. However, the city council actually controls the resources (money in this case) and how and where to distribute the resource. Both, the City Manager and city council possess authority and power that neither want to relinquish; as a result, the employees suffered. Smithville city leaders needed to come together at the onset of the budget crisis and work together in a direct democratic fashion. When leaders come together and synthesize facts and resources, organizational members can increase the power they exert within an organization (Morgan, 2006). The budget crisis could potentially have been avoided had city leaders made an appeal to the public, explained the situation and offered a reasonable solution to the problem. Moreover, the transparency would have relieved some tension between the City Manager, city council, and the three labor unions. Because the city was not transparent and forthcoming with union leaders, the city negotiators enter the negotiation process giving members false hope of receiving salary and benefit increases when there were none to give. In summary, given the current situation, the City Manager needed to exert his expert power on the budget issue, join alliance with the union leaders, and push the city council to change city charter to implement the sales tax, which would have potentially off-set the budget
After reading the case study Welcome to the new town manager, by Mary Jane Kuffner Hirt, I established three major problems the community of Opportunity needed to correct. These problems involved the water & sewer system, the balancing budget, & the pay-as-you-go method. The city manager, Jennifer Holbrook, must implement strategies that would correct these problems quickly.
Yet, It has only been in very recent years that we have seen a trend moving in the direction of Municipal fiscal autonomy. The trend towards Municipal fiscal autonomy is possibly more prevalent today then it has ever been. The proposal of such things as Glen Murray’s New Deal for Winnipeg, and Paul Martin’s proposed change in federal-provincial-municipal relations (of the same name), provides optimism for local fiscal autonomy in the future.
There is change trying to happen, in a rural Pacific Northwest police department (PD) that is nestled in the corner of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. This Department serves a diverse population of 9000 people and encompasses roughly 4 mi.², as well as being surrounded by water on three of those four sides. When evaluating police departments, according to the state and national averages it is undersized for the population it serves. As one would expect it is a department with a long and rich 126-year history JCHS (2014). As well, as with the majority of all municipal departments, it has suffered its ups and downs, as well as suffering and prospering through healthy and poor administrations.
First we see the conflict between Mayor Jones and Athens resident Velma Dinkley. Velma represents a new group of residents in the city and she also represents a group known as the District Society of Young Professionals. This is a new group that is supposed to be helping the city grow back to its former glory. The residents feel that their voices aren’t being heard by city officials like the Mayor and his city manager, and are threatening to leave if the city keeps ignoring them or their demands aren’t met soon. We can see this happening from the amount of letters that the Mayor has received recently, in that if they don’t adhere to their demands for what they want for the city they will leave. This type of conflict shows that a lack of communication is a big problem for the city of Athens. Even though the mayor had outlined a step-by-step plan on how to fix the issues the city has been having including building a jazz club, some themed nightclubs, and etc. all of which had gotten the attention of the Young Professionals, they still feel it is not enough. The Young Professionals feel that the city officials aren’t doing enough to promote or communicate the activities that are going on in the city and its daily activities and they feel that more can be done to communicate this to the city’s
On Friday November 20, I went to a lunch with honors, where we met with Chancellor Jim Schmidt to discuss current and upcoming issues on campus. I found this experience to be highly beneficial and learned a lot about how the campus is run and the changes that will be taking place over the next few years.
The first case study “Gaining Outside Commitment in Lowell, Massachusetts” is located in Lowell, MA, 34 miles north of Boston which is an old manufacturing city with a population of approximately 100,000 (Cordner, 2016). Furthermore, in the 1990s, the city was being pushed from the outside by state and federal policy, which influenced grants and by local government which pressured all Lowell agencies to work in a more neighborhood fashion (Cordner, 2016). The Lowell Police Department (LPD) was driven a chief that was talented and articulate with a clear vision and effective management style, as well as, supported by many committed staff whose innovations were allowed to prosper (Cordner, 2016). LPD Captain Ed Davis was appointed Acting Superintendent where he initiated strategic planning and an assortment of internal operational and administrative changes (Cordner, 2016).
The efforts to undermine the collective bargaining rights of public sector workers in Wisconsin led by Republican Governor Scott Walker – and the widespread resistance of unions, workers, and supporters – represents, perhaps, the most important domestic issue in the United States at the moment. The Wisconsin protests have become the center of national media attention as tens of thousands of union workers and their employees crowd the State Capitol. The story certainly deserves the spotlight, as what happens in Wisconsin may very well spread too much of the rest of the nation. However, what is often lost in the storylines is what the protesters really are fighting for in their efforts. According to Governor Walker (R-WI) and many conservatives the protesters are simply trying to hold on to unsustainable wages and benefits that they have gained through collective bargaining negotiations in the past. The legislation Walker is attempting to push through would require public employees to contribute a much larger sum toward their pensions and health insurance plans, and therefore lessen the burden of the state. However, Walker's bill would also permanently strip the unions of their collective bargaining rights. It means that in the future public employee unions would not be able to negotiate benefits, and could only ask for pay raises at the rate of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Ten years from now if the economy is fully recovered and the state of Wisconsin is running a surplus the unions would still not be able to negotiate for better benefits or higher pay raises than the CPI because their rights to collectively bargain will be taken away. Then, maybe there is a different reason rather than economical hidden behind Walker’s ag...
Organisation politics should be considered as complex variables that are interconnected due to the self-interest of the individual within the group. Also, organisations should be aware of the different political personalities that exist within a group and be able manage these personalities. Furthermore, negative financial implication when the change does take place would be perceived as inequitable and unfair by individual because the lack of personal gain. In addition, the highly hierarchal structure can often increase the individual resistance and group resistance because the apex may want the change primarily to serve their own self-interest without taking into consideration the self-interest of the operational core and middle management.
As, Goodnow has iterated the functions of politics communicate and addresses the state’s will however, he articulates that there is no boundaries or limitations to one or more authorities when managing politics, thus eluding to no appointed organization who handles political matters and the interest of the people. Perhaps, a contributing factor to complexities in the political and government systems and the functional roles of politics and administration. Woodrow Wilson essay “The Study of Administration,” he stresses that government systems and methods are in need of great improvement. (Woodrow. 1887) However, Wilson believes politics should be separated from administration, for administration should be a “field of business.” (Woodrow. 1887) Possibly speaking, if administration was separated would politics become more organized and an authority given to
Steve Andersen, a middle-level manager in the Department of Transportation, well known for being a creative problem solver, and is facing a difficult decision. After coming up with a potential solution and a plan to address the issue of the citizen participation component of a large organizational program not being a success, Steve is turned down by the deputy commissioner in his department. Steve has been looking forward to the submission of this idea, since it has the potential of providing him with an extra income through the monetary incentive program set up to reward people just like Steve for their bright ideas. Steve has spent time and resources trying to see the root cause that accounts for the citizen participation component not being a success; and feels that his idea can solve the underlying issues within the organization. This paper will examine those underlying causes. It will also be analyzing the best analytical technique that allows Steve to re-frame the issue so that a favorable decision might result. In addition, the paper will evaluate the organization’s structure and point out the
When people get together in groups, power will be exerted. When employees convert this power into action, they are said to be engaged in politics. Organizational politics involves those activities taken within organizations to acquire, develop, and use power and other resources to obtain one’s preferred outcomes”. Organizational politics is wider construct than political behavior. It consists of three levels individual, group and organizational. In organizational politics, the politics comes from organization where as in political behavior it comes individual. Political behavior is associated with individual behaviors and usually is implemented in communications and interactions among people. In other words, people in workplace follow their
Evidence of the impact of work politics was found in a study, whereby a worker had reported that having a political stance intended a non-assertive approach, in quest of not disturbing it in anyway. Furthermore, the worker stated that workers must be very cautious of what is said and that the work must be done properly (MacLellan et al., 2016). Accordingly, this shows that opposition in the workplace have certain effects and may not favour staff members, resulting in unfavourable treatment and isolation. Power and politics both have influenced the healthcare system in
There is a great need for budget reform in the city of Deeville, particularly in the transportation department. Irene Rubin states that public budgeting are not merely technical, managerial documents, they are also intrinsically and irreducibly political because public budgets reflect the choice of government. She argues that budgets should reflect priorities. Officials of Deesville are spending money at Dees casino; there is benefit to the public in that, regardless of the explanation they may have for it.
Porterville California, is a city in Tulare County where we have roughly 59 thousand American residents living here. Porterville has its City Hall where our citizens are allowed to go ask questions. It is a place where our cities residents our allowed to come and share their concerns about how the State’s new laws affect them personally. On April 3, 2018, I attended the Porterville City Hall Council meeting, where our cities residents had come to address their thoughts and considerations about the Consent Calendar. A few people were concerned about Item 17, which was a law under State of California of SB 54 which states, “Existing law provides that when there is reason to
These negative aspects cause the organization, as a whole, to suffer. When employees aren’t encouraged, valued and empowered, the organization is not getting their best effort resulting in job performance being less than its actual potential “contemporary employees prefer to have more equal opportunities to make decisions than bureaucracies present (Cummings, S., & Bridgman, T., 2011). Politics and red tape really affect morale and are a detriment to any organization’s strength and