APPLICATION PAPER

Application Paper - Conflict Management within a Local Town Government



Application Paper - Conflict Management within a Local Town Government

Introduction

Managing a town government can prove to be an extensively tricky challenge. The stakeholders are generally possessive about their agendas and it is imperative to keep everybody happy (Deutsch, 2006). However, keeping everybody happy can be expected to be a significantly difficult challenge, and this challenge cannot be faced unless the relevance of the leader's conflict management capacity is realized (Cheldelin, Druckman, & Fast, 2003). This application paper will seek to take important concepts from the book 'Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader', and engage in an application of those concepts in the case of a management position in a local town government (Runde & Flanagan, 2007).

Discussion

Before moving on to apply Runde & Flanagan's (2007) understanding to the case of a local town government leader, it is imperative to acquire a brief (albeit comprehensive) insight into the fundamentals of conflict management - as presented by Runde & Flanagan (2007). According to Runde & Flanagan (2007) the need of the conflict competent leader is undeniable. This is because of the fact that the conflict competent leader not only understands the complexity of the subject scenario, but also understands the intricacies of the conflict that riddles the scenario. Runde & Flanagan's (2007) insist that the conflict competent leader possesses the insight that is necessary to predict (differing) outcomes that may come forth in the case of a conflict; thereby contributing to the avoidance of the negative conclusions (Mayer, 2000). However, this requires experience and a knack for detecting conflict; besides conflict management training in more complex cases. Runde & Flanagan (2007) perceive that a conflict competent leader builds conflict competent organizations and fosters constructive contributions from the staff at hand. Finally, Runde & Flanagan (2007) stress the importance of (the development and implementation of) Conflict Management Systems.

Conflict management for a local town government leader is a challenge that involves the execution of projects that usually have far too many people overseeing them (Cheldelin, Druckman, & Fast, 2003; Gerzon, 2006). With an excess of managers, it is common for conflicts to plague project progress. This is where the unique role of the local town government leader comes in: to resolve conflict in a positive manner - while simultaneously preventing the incidence of scenarios in which conflict can arise.

To begin with, an individual working in a management position in a local town government should be in control and in a state of self-awareness. According to Runde & Flanagan (2007) there is no room for insecurities and no margin for error in cases where conflicts have to be resolved on a daily basis. In light of the author's suggestions, it is clearly imperative to realize that conflict management is a supplementary job for anybody in a management position in a local town government. According to Runde & Flanagan (2007) assert that the skill of conflict management makes a big difference in determining if the individual will be ...