Conflict Between Mr Kelly And Mr Booker example essay topic

The city of Bedford Falls has two men who share similar duties and whose conflicts have caused a great deal of inefficiencies and stress among the other city workers. On a number of occasions, the Director of Municipal Services has been present in situations where a conflict has occurred between Mr. Kelly and Mr. Booker. He waits them out, then when both gentlemen leave with no resolution to their differences, the Director calls upon other city employees who witnessed the conflict and asks what they feel was actually going on. The city employees will comment on being concerned about Mr. Kelly's attitude toward the employees and Mr. Booker, about Mr. Booker's attitude toward Mr. Kelly's short-comings, and how often city workers are caught in the middle of the conflicts that occur between these two.

After the Director hears out the workers, no changes have yet to be noted. Mr. Kelly was hired as a laborer approximately 10 years ago. The town hired him after he left a similar job in another location. After five years, due to a rearrangement in the management structure and the departure of several upper management personnel, he was promoted to the position of Assistant Superintendent of Public Works. He worked immediately under the Superintendent of Public Works and was responsible for assisting his supervisor in various duties, overseeing work crews, and filling in for the Superintendent in his absence. Mr. Kelly held the position of Assistant Superintendent of Public Works for 2 years and basically served as an errand boy for the Superintendent.

At this time, another restructure took place and several more upper management personnel were let go. Mr. Kelly was then made Director of Public Works, which basically is the same job he already had but with a bit more responsibility. He was now responsible for assignment of work crews and personnel (approx. 40-50 employees) as needed to conduct Conflict Resolution 3 necessary town business such as: purchasing, sanitation, water & sewer maintenance, and the like. He works directly under the Director of Municipal Services, which is basically a desk job / paper pushing version of the Superintendent of Public Works.

Mr. Kelly has held this position for the last 3 years and has managed to keep his job, although not due to any efficiency of action or management skills. It is suspected he has done that with the assistance of the Director of Municipal Services, who is a personal friend to Mr. Kelly. The Director of Municipal Services often covers Mr. Kelly's tracks when there are problems in his department. During this same ten-year period, Mr. Booker was asked to fill these vacancies as they came available, prior to promoting Mr. Kelly into them. Mr. Booker was employed by the State during this period and had been there as a Supervisor (overseeing approx. 200+ employees) for nearly 15 years.

Because the town did not have a state pension plan for time served, Mr. Booker refused the offered positions during the first two restructures so he would not lose his state pension. When the last restructure took place, the town finally adopted the state pension plan and again offered Mr. Booker the opportunity to fill a new management position. Since he could then transfer his pension, and would have more time to spend with his family without losing any pay, he accepted the position of Public Works Inspector. He is his own supervisor and runs his own department.

He is under the supervision of the Director of Municipal Services, the Town Manager, the Mayor, and the Town Council. His responsibilities are: meeting with independent contractors and upper management, as listed previously, regarding contractual and construction type projects such as: downtown revitalization projects, re-zoning, town property plans / construction, new water / sewer lines, etc. He is also to assume Mr. Kelly's responsibilities in his absence. Mr. Booker's only affiliation with the Public Conflict Resolution 4 Works Department and Mr. Kelly is to arrange for the proper manpower needed for each project, and to make Mr. Kelly aware of project status / completion, etc. He also must report any emergencies, changes, or work assignments that were in effect while assuming Mr. Kelly's responsibilities. During emergency situations such as a hurricane, snowstorm, etc., Mr. Booker is to run any crew working during an extra shift.

If around-the-clock crews are needed, Mr. Booker will run one shift and Mr. Kelly the other. Mr. Kelly is under the assumption that, since he basically was an errand boy for the Superintendent when he was the assistant, Mr. Booker's position is comparable to that and Mr. Booker should also act as his errand boy. This is the root cause of much of the conflict between these two men. Mr. Booker does not work for Mr. Kelly, and he resents this.

When Mr. Kelly needs to delegate tasks he does so only so that when things go wrong, he has a scapegoat to pin the blame on. Mr. Booker knows this and of course has no respect for Mr. Kelly because of it. Mr. Kelly's belief that Mr. Booker is in an inferior position also causes resentment and is yet another point of conflict and contention. It's possible that the conflict between Mr. Kelly and Mr. Booker is going to get to the point where either one or both of them quits. They have two very different views on how to manage a department.

As for the employee's trust and respect, Mr. Kelly's style is to bully and threaten people and he likes to delegate responsibilities to others more qualified so that he can place blame elsewhere if things should go wrong. He will accept all the credit if things go right but takes no responsibility for failures or shortfalls. He never explains to his crews or anyone else why he wants things done a certain way or in a specific time frame. He also doesn't check to make sure he is assigning the right crew to the right job. Mr. Kelly incorrectly finds it unnecessary to check to see if the contractors are ready for the extra Conflict Resolution 5 manpower or if there is a delay, and never checks to make sure all necessary supplies and equipment are available before the start of a project. If there is a delay of any kind for contract jobs, he places blame on the contractor.

If the supplies / equipment are unavailable, it is the Purchasing Agent's fault. Either they had not been ordered or it wasn't understood that there was a priority on receipt of the items. Mr. Kelly will often order items required for a routine job on a, 'I needed it yesterday' basis. He never waits to confirm availability or delivery dates. He then wants to know why items don't get there when he expected them regardless of the availability of those items.

Mr. Kelly is very controlling and does not keep anyone informed about what is going on in the various departments. Mr. Booker, on the other hand, is aware of the status of manpower needs for the contract work as he works directly with the contractor's. Keeping himself in the loop with the contractors, he is aware when and if manpower is going to be needed and lets Mr. Kelly know as soon as he can. He also makes sure all supplies and equipment are on hand before assigning work details to do a job. If supplies or equipment are not available, he checks in with the Purchasing department for the most current updates on the status of the order and delivery dates if known. He then advises the Purchasing Agent what to do if something needed is no longer available and needs to be replaced, or if an item is on backorder indefinitely and will put too much of a delay on a project.

He explains why things need to be done a certain way in a specific amount of time and why he has specific parties assigned to do them. This allows the Purchasing Agent to be involved in the process, help set priorities, and make adjustments based on the needs of the project. Mr. Booker is more people oriented, has better management and delegation skills and respect for his employees. He is more at ease with his responsibilities and knows how Conflict Resolution 6 important it is to keep the various department heads in the loop as to what needs to happen, when it needs to happen, and why things are being done as they are. A recommended conflict resolution method for Mr. Kelly and Mr. Booker is for some of the work crew supervisors and other city agents who work with both men to get together. They can spell out specific incidents of when and how the men's conflicts have led to inefficiencies and employee dissatisfaction due to experiencing the frustration of the conflict.

Input could also be gathered from contractors who work with the city and see the difficulties as well. These incidents must be specific, citing times, the events as they unfolded, actions on the part of both Mr. Kelly and Mr. Booker, and how their conflict contributed to inefficiency and frustration. After each incident is spelled out in detail, an alternate recommended course of action should be listed in order to show how those affected by the mistakes see things working better. Once several incidents are documented, they should be drafted into a document that shows where the problem lies, why the conflict causes incidents that lead to turmoil, and how things could be made better by Mr. Kelly and Mr. Booker working together instead of against one another. To be effective, this document would need to have a tone of seeking solutions, not making accusations. It should be endorsed by all those affected and in agreement with its content, then presented to the two men by one or two of the work crew supervisors.

Once it's presented to Mr. Kelly and Mr. Booker, it should be respectfully mentioned that the same document will also be presented to Director of Municipal Services, as well as the City Manager who acts as the Director of Municipal Services Supervisor. This should allow the men to clearly see there is a problem and allow all parties involved to take what corrective action they see required. Conflict Resolution 7 Another possible way to fix the conflict between the two is that one of them should take the initiative and set up a meeting between the two to discuss it and try to find a middle ground. They both need to understand that they may work in different departments but they will need to be in contact for certain things. Mr. Booker should emphasize that he does not report to Mr. Kelly and that he works for himself. Mr. Kelly needs to understand that; even though the position that Mr. Booker is in was similar to his, which was an errand boy with a fancy title, it is not the same in regards to responsibilities and supervisors.

They should also try to come to an agreement that any conflict between the two should be kept behind closed doors and not discussed in front of the other employees and contractors. Having a heated discussion in front of the other employees or contractors is not only disrespectful and unprofessional, but they do not want to get involved. If that is not feasible, they should each go to their respective employers or human resources to discuss the conflict. The respective employers can talk among themselves to discuss options on how to resolve this conflict between the two, as they do not want to lose either one of them. An option would be to have a neutral party come in to speak with both employees and discuss possible solutions. Sometimes a neutral person may see something that the employers may not see because they may not be unbiased.

It may also be possible for the city manager to get both men together and point out how these differences and inconsistencies in the way they handle similar situations cause's inefficiencies and detracts from mission accomplishment. The city manager could present a situation similar to one that routinely comes up in the course of the two men's duties, and then have each man write out how he would go about handling the situation. After Conflict Resolution 8 Mr. Booker and Mr. Kelly have completed how they'd deal with the situation; each man could read the other's solution and note the differences. The city manager would then go over the strengths and weaknesses of each man's approach. In this manner, the city manager would be getting the men to understand better how the other works, and how they may even gain an appreciation for his methods and learn from them. This exercise should be done regularly using theoretical examples so as not to put either man on the defensive, where he would feel compelled to justify the way he did things already instead of learning to adapt his style to become a better manager.