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Criminal Justice Organizations: Administration and Management

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Define conflict management. ... A dynamic process in which two or more individuals in an organization interact in such as way as ... The Chief of Police and District ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Criminal Justice Organizations: Administration and Management


1
Criminal Justice Organizations Administration
and Management
  • Chapter Eleven Organizational Conflict

2
Learning Objectives
  • Understand a definition of conflict.
  • Know the major types of conflict in
    organizations.
  • Define intraorganizational conflict.
  • Know the types of intraorganizational conflict.
  • Define interorganizational conflict.
  • Describe the stages of a conflict episode.
  • Know conflict behaviors.
  • Define conflict management.
  • Describe process interventions and structural
    interventions.
  • Understand the limits to conflict management and
    its application to criminal justice
    organizations.
  • Understand the role of conflict in organizations.

3
Conflict Defined
  • A dynamic process in which two or more
    individuals in an organization interact in such
    as way as to produce conflict episodes that may
    or may not lead to hostile behaviors (Pondy,
    1985).
  • Pondy (1983) suggests four ways of understanding
    conflict in organizations.
  • Antecedent conditions resource scarcity, policy
    differences, disagreement over outcomes.
  • Producing affective states in workers stress,
    hostility, or anxiety.
  • Individual employees cognitive states the
    employees awareness of the conflict.
  • The conflict behavior itself passive
    resistance, outright confrontation, or aggressive
    behavior.

4
Types of Conflict
  • There are four general types of conflict within
    organizations.
  • Personal
  • Group
  • Intraorganizational (within the organization)
  • Interorganizational (outside the organization)

5
Types of ConflictPersonal Conflict
  • Exists within the individual.
  • Usually caused by some form of cognitive
    conflict.
  • Typically the result of failed expectations.
  • Cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957)
  • Occurs when an employee cannot reconcile his own
    expectations with those of his superiors.

6
Types of ConflictGroup Conflict
  • Occurs when individuals disagree or compete for
    resources.
  • Resolution is essential to the survival of the
    group.
  • May even enhance the groups effectiveness in the
    long run.
  • Group conflict can be defined by its nature and
    scope.
  • Task conflict conflict among group members
    about the content of the tasks being performed.
  • Relationship conflict conflict caused by
    interpersonal incompatibility among members of
    the group.
  • Task and relationship conflict may affect group
    cohesion, but the effects may vary.

7
Types of ConflictIntraorganizational Conflict
  • Caused by the structural makeup and delegation of
    authority in an organization.
  • Four major types
  • Vertical conflict exists between workers at
    different levels in an organizational hierarchy.
  • Horizontal conflict exhibited by units that are
    at the same hierarchical level in an
    organization.
  • Line-Staff conflict apparent in public
    organizations, when staff personnel are used to
    augment and supplement the work of line managers.
  • Role conflict occurs when an individual is not
    able to comprehend or accomplish assigned tasks.

8
Types of ConflictRole ambiguity versus role
conflict
  • Role conflict should not be confused with role
    ambiguity.
  • Role ambiguity occurs when a subordinate
    perceives that information about the required
    tasks of the job is unclear and inconsistent.
  • Role conflict occurs when a subordinate perceives
    incompatible expectations about how the tasks
    should be performed.
  • Role conflict appears to be widespread and
    potentially problematic in criminal justice
    agencies.

9
Types of ConflictInterorganizational Conflict
  • Occurs when different organizations share a
    common purpose but disagree about how that
    purpose will be achieved.
  • Common form of conflict between components of the
    criminal justice system.
  • Best solved through improved communications
    between agencies.
  • Even when solved it can exist among individual
    actors within separate agencies.

10
Stages of Conflict
  • Five stages of a dynamic conflict episode.
  • Latent conflict - occurs when the conditions
    that are the underlying sources of the conflict
    are present.
  • Perceived conflict occurs when at least one of
    the two parties recognizes that a conflict
    situation exists.
  • Felt conflict occurs when a party personalizes
    the conflict situation.
  • Manifest conflict characterized by overt or
    covert behavior to bring out the conflict.
  • Conflict aftermath may occur when the
    antecedent conditions of the conflict are not
    resolved satisfactorily.

11
Stages of Conflict
12
Conflict Behaviors
  • Awareness of conflict behaviors helps us
    understand the role conflict plays in criminal
    justice organizations.
  • Thomas (1985) proposed a two dimensional model
    each representing an individuals intention in a
    conflict situation.
  • Cooperativeness
  • Assertiveness

13
Conflict Behaviors
14
Conflict Behaviors
  • Different combinations of cooperativeness and
    assertiveness produce five distinct conflict
    behaviors.
  • Competing (assertive, uncooperative) when one
    person places his or her concerns above those of
    the other person.
  • Accommodating (unassertive, cooperative)
    satisfies the concerns of the other individual
    rather than ones own.
  • Avoiding (unassertive, uncooperative) neglects
    both concerns.
  • Collaborating (assertive, cooperative) - attempts
    to satisfy the concerns of both parties.
  • Compromising (intermediate in both assertiveness
    and cooperativeness) - seeks the middle ground.

15
Conflict Management
  • Thomas (1985) identifies two ways of dealing with
    conflict situations.
  • Process interventions attempts to become
    directly involved in the ongoing sequence of
    events that resolve the conflict. Two types.
  • Structural interventions attempts to alter the
    conditions in a organization that influence the
    direction of the conflict episodes. Two types.
  • Each approach attempts to resolve conflict.
  • Equally effective in intraorganizational and
    interorganizational conflict.

16
Conflict ManagementProcess interventions
  • Consciousness-raising interventions direct
    attempts (by supervisors) to change experiences
    that shape the parties behaviors. Occurs in six
    stages.
  • Confrontation each party assumes ill intent.
  • Truce confrontation ended by a third party.
  • Collaboration ill intent remains but work goes
    on.
  • Cooperation common activities are completed.
  • Interdependence both work to resolve conflict.
  • Integration support for common good and growth.

17
Conflict ManagementProcess interventions
  • Interaction management when supervisors
    intervene directly in the conflict and suggest
    resolution and avoidance of future conflict.
  • The organizational conditions that can be
    altered, by supervisors, during process
    interventions include.
  • Personal characteristics personality conflicts.
  • Informal rules used when necessary for
    resolution.
  • Constituent pressure pressure from other
    groups.
  • Conflict of interest incompatibility between
    parties.
  • Power and status affects intensity of conflict.
  • Organizational policy can resolve or initiate
    conflict.

18
Conflict ManagementStructural interventions
  • Designed to reduce conflict by examining and
    altering the organizational preexisting
    conditions that promote conflict.
  • Selection and training interventions. (people)
  • Screening procedures to find qualified people.
  • Training to insure employees understand
    objectives.
  • Contextual-modification interventions.
    (situations)
  • Change the context in which the parties interact.
  • Aggressive leadership in policy development
    process.

19
Conflict ManagementLimitations
  • Conflict resolution may be beyond the scope of
    the organizations involved.
  • Agencies may not have the authority to intervene
    in the conflict.
  • Agencies may not have the resources to resolve
    the conflict in the long term.
  • Administrators must accept that sometimes they
    will not be able to handle a conflict situation.
    They might even make it worse.
  • This does not, however, absolve the administrator
    from the responsibility to at least attempt a
    resolution.

20
Conflict ManagementPossible in Criminal Justice
Organizations?
  • Because compromise is not always possible,
    resolving conflict through goal attainment may
    not be likely in criminal justice organizations.
  • Administrators must be aware of the consequences
    (e.g. loss of productivity) of unresolved
    conflict between competing groups.
  • Conflict management must be economical of time
    and effort.

21
Role of Conflict in Organizations
  • Conflict can be both beneficial and harmful.
  • Beneficial conflict
  • Improves system responsiveness,
  • Promotes change, or
  • Improves relationships.
  • Harmful conflict
  • Jeopardizes the functioning of the unit, or
  • Escalates to the point of violent confrontation.

22
Chapter Summary
  • Conflict is a dynamic process that affects
    workers differently.
  • The major types of conflict are personal, group,
    intra-organizational and inter-organizational.
  • The types of intra-organizational conflict are
    vertical, horizontal, line-staff and role.
  • Inter-organizational conflict occurs when
    differing organizations sharing a common purpose
    but disagree on how that purpose will be
    achieved.

23
Chapter Summary
  • The stages of a conflict episode are latent,
    perceived, felt, manifest and aftermath.
  • The types of conflict behaviors are competing,
    accommodating, avoiding, collaborating and
    compromising.
  • There are two types of interventions in conflict
    management process and structural.
  • Conflict management in criminal justice agencies
    may be limited by competition, consequences and
    economics.
  • Conflict within criminal justice organizations
    can be both beneficial and harmful.

24
Thinking Point
  • The Chief of Police and District Attorney at are
    at odds with each other.
  • The Chief of Police believes that the District
    Attorney is too quick to offer plea bargains to
    driving while intoxicated defendants, thereby
    reducing their sentences and the potential for
    increased penalties for subsequent offenses.
  • The District Attorney argues that plea deals
    improve her efficiency, especially when dealing
    with borderline cases.
  • Both parties have publically expressed their
    conflict in the local media.

25
Thinking Point Questions
  • What type of conflict is this?
  • From the perspectives of both the Chief of Police
    and the District Attorney, what stage is this
    conflict in?
  • Using Thomas (1985) model, how would you
    classify these individuals conflict behaviors?
  • Which strategy (process or structural) would most
    likely resolve this conflict?
  • What limitations exist (within the criminal
    justice system) that would impede a resolution of
    this conflict?
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