Criminal Justice Organizations: Administration and Management

1
Criminal Justice Organizations Administration
and Management

• Chapter Eleven Organizational Conflict

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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.

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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.

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Types of Conflict

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Stages of Conflict
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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

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Conflict Behaviors
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?