Workplace conflict is an inevitable situation. It happens now and then as two or more parties with conflicting ideas try to push for their interests. In the current situation, the city police officers and the city management are in conflict. The three main causes of conflict between the two groups are: the police officers believe that the authority does not care for them. This is because of the comments that the mayor might have said in a press conference. The statement by the mayor has created some lack of mistrust between the two groups where the police officers feel that they are not appreciated for their loyalty and hard work.
The second reason is that the police officers feel that their job security is under threat. This is due to they suggested pay cuts and further recruitment exercise of new police rookies by the city management. The third reason for conflict is lack of inclusion of the police officers in developing a strategy to reduce workload and overtime yet the officers are the ones who are directly being affected by the suggested strategies.
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If the conflict is not resolved the two short-term outcomes are; the police officers may go on a go-slow in protest of the new suggested strategies which will hinder service delivery to the citizens. This will create work anxieties and job dissatisfaction. Another short-term outcome may be reduced amount of revenue collected as traffic officers may stop collecting fines and instead offer warnings to lawbreakers.
If the conflict is not resolved, in the long term, there may be increased labor shortages as more and more officers exit the force to look for alternatives. Another effect may be insecurity rate going higher. There may be increased crime rates as officers exit the force.
The possible actions for resolving the current overtime pay for the police officers is limiting the amount of time that one officer can put in as part of the overtime to reduce cases of officers earning excessively high overtime salaries while reducing the wage bill of the city management. This is an adequate solution that favors both parties. The other possible action is calling for a joint meeting between the leaders of both the police officers and the city management to come up with suitable mutually satisfying agreements that will satisfy both parties. This is an important strategy as it will help both parties gain a satisfactory solution to a problem that affects both sides in different ways. It will also help bring down the barriers between the two groups. Third, if the police officers and the city management are unable to resolve the conflict, then a third party who is an arbitrator can be brought in to come help find a lasting solution to the overtime issue.
In an attempt to create a more positive work culture in the workplace that reduces negative conflicts, two elements can be implemented. There has to be a clear guideline on resolving conflict in the organization. This not only helps employees to solve problems individually but to also feel empowered. Another element is to clarify the priorities of the organization at the workplace. This goes a long way in bringing people together to achieve a common goal (Heather, 2014).
Two new specifications that can be attached to improve the effectiveness of managing workplace conflict include: requiring employees to have the ability to create a workplace culture that enhances conflict resolution. This will help make the culture of conflict resolution more integrated into the daily duties at the work place and therefore become a core competency and function in the organization. Another specification is the ability to identify urgent issues to quickly and effectively handle conflicts that are relevant and without being a problem. This will help in settling conflicts quickly as they arise and identifying conflicts that are worth the effort of resolving and those that are not affecting the productivity and efficient running of the organization.
A job candidate’s competency to resolve conflict can be illuminated during the interview. Some situational interview questions that can be used to illuminate this competency are: kindly tell me or us about a time when you conflicted with a work colleague. Another situational interview question that can be asked tells us about a time you disagreed with a proposed idea that was brought forward by your manager, supervisor or boss. A third interview question that can be asked is when working in a team; there is bound to be conflicts related to the direction that the team should take. Kindly tell us about such a conflict that you were part of and expound on the resolution (Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development, 2015)
The methods that one can use to determine whether there is an improvement in the employee relations in the city police department include monitoring the number of cases that are reported by the employees of city department and the resolved cases between the employees on a regular basis. If the cases being reported are less than the cases being resolved, then there are improved relations. Another method is observing the communication patterns of employees. The number of monitored conversations among employees in the office corridors, emails or calls, etc. if there is an increased number then the employee relations are improving (Muller, 2014).
References
Muller, D (2014) 16 Key Performance Indicators for Your Employee Relations Strategy, Available at<https://hracuity.com/16-potential-kpis-to-include-in-your-employee-relations-strategy/>[Accessed 29 January 2018].
Heather R.,H.(2014) 4 Strategies for Reducing Workplace Conflict, Available at < https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/241199 >[Accessed 29 January 2018].
Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development. (2015). Getting under the skin of workplace conflict: Tracing the experiences of employees. Available at <http://www.cipd.co.uk/binaries/getting-under-skin-workplace-conflict_2015-tracing-experiences-employees.pdfn>[Accessed 29 January 2018].
