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- QUESTION
Most people do not like conflict; yet human services organizations are likely to experience it. For example, if organizational leadership changes procedures and practices for delivering human services, the change might cause conflict among staff. Human services administrators must develop strategies to address the multiple dimensions of conflict. Human services administrators may perceive conflict as an organizational liability or as a resource. Transforming negative aspects of conflict into something positive is an important skill for human services administrators. When used wisely, conflict can facilitate productivity and creativity among service providers and other staff within the organization.
For the Discussion, view this week's Graphic Novel in the Learning Resources. Listen to the human services administrators as they discuss their professional experiences in managing conflict. Think about how you might approach conflict if you were in the situation described. Finally, reflect on your thoughts about using conflict as a tool for administration.Post a description of the human services administrator and the conflict situation in the novel and how you, as a human services administrator, might approach conflict in the selected situation to facilitate productivity and creativity. Be specific. Finally, explain any insights you had or conclusions you drew related to using conflict as a tool for human services administration.
| Subject | Administration | Pages | 3 | Style | APA |
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Answer
Conflicts as a Tool of Administration
Human services administrator is a professional who works with people with different feelings, thoughts, ideas, and perspectives on organizational policies to offer human services (Buntz, & Radin, 1983). The key conflict addressed in the novel is lack of understanding of foster parents. Essentially, many parents hardly understand what to expect when staying with a child who they did not sire, especially when there are many guidelines and rules that must be followed. Such parents are unable to curse, whip or do things that the biological parents would adopt to discipline the child. Similarly, foster parents might be doing a great job but they too have siblings who take more parental role in the life of the adopted child. Some of the siblings often use wrong discipline technique. As such, the conflict emerges because the agency misunderstands the entire situation as they feel that the siblings have not attended a parenting training course and therefore should be arrested for offering services they are less experience in (Plocharczyk, 2007).
As a human service administrator, I would organize appropriate training for all foster parents to identify their qualifications and abilities to work with others. In particular, I would organize for diversity retreats and develop a culture that requires everyone to help one another, other functions, and to establish cross functional opportunities for everyone. Therefore, as a human service administrator, I will have foster parents doing 80% of foster parenting within the agency but 20% of the jobs delegated to either their siblings or those whom they stay with so that the parents can work jointly with these people to understand appropriate discipline methods they can use when.
In conclusion, conflict is real and it is something that human service administrators must pay attention to. From the novel, it is evident that using conflict as a tool for human services administration is the most appropriate way to increase understanding among workers, staff, professionals or members of a given organization. Conflict emanates because people do not know much about one another and hardly understand the origins of such disputes, their challenges and positions among others things (Hitt, Miller, & Colella, 2011). Therefore, as an administration tool, conflict enables human service professionals to come down to listening and communicating with one another regarding relationships resolving the differences and improving productivity amongst them.
References
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Buntz, C. G., & Radin, B. A. (1983). Managing intergovernmental conflict: The case of human services. Public Administration Review, 43(5), 403-410. Hitt, M. A., Miller, C. C., Colella, A. (2011). Conflict, negotiation, power, and politics. (3rd Ed). Organizational behavior. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Plocharczyk, L. (2007). On organizational conflict: Reaping the benefits of effective conflict management. Journal of Access Services, 4(1-2), 85-120.
Appendix
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