Written 4Posted by Winnie Melda on February 20th, 2018 It is, therefore, the role of the agency management to hire competent people in the right positions, motivate their staff, maintain as well as upgrade their skills and offer effective leadership. The proper working of employees, however, gets affected by problems such as negative employee attitude, different types of conflicts and discipline issues. Correctional managers should provide effective leadership in solving these matters. The organization should also formulate a proper progressive disciplinary action to correct the conduct of employees in the correctional facility. Discussion Managing conflicts in Correctional Facilities Correctional managers have an ethical obligation to win the trust and confidence of the public, the employees and the mission they are expected to accomplish in the organization. Correctional managers need to resolve conflict situations correctly and also timely before they escalate to major situations. According to Campbell (2006), conflicts are useful in organizations since when managed correctly, since they can productively leverage diversity, promote cooperation, encourage innovation and create unity towards a common goal. However, when not managed effectively, they may lead to decreased employee satisfaction and motivation, as well as reduced productivity. Therefore correctional managers should develop competency in handling conflicts. First, correctional managers and supervisors should use the self-assessment instrument to assist them to understand the own response to conflict. This action assists them in determining the tendencies they have that may hinder successful conflict resolution as well as acknowledging different conflict resolution techniques and also assist in identifying several ways of achieving constructive outcomes. Correctional managers and supervisors also need to know their roles in conflict resolution depending on the situation. The various situations that require correctional manager interventions are managing conflict with the boss, managing conflict with direct reports, managing conflict with colleagues, mediating between direct reports and facilitating conflict resolution in a team setting. The core elements in building and maintain an effective relationship between a manager and a boss are by understanding them and their context, assessing one’s needs as a manager or supervisor, and establishing and maintain an effective relationship. When interacting with direct reports, it is essential that managers and supervisors establish relationships with integrity so as build and preserve trust and respect. When dealing with colleagues managers and supervisors need to build skills to negotiate in a manner that resolves differences and at the same time preserve the collegial relationship. When conflicts arise among employees, managers and supervisors should encourage employees to resolve the dispute by themselves, however, when their intervention is needed they should use their negotiation skills to mediate between the conflicting parties. When conflicts arise between teams, managers and supervisors, need to play the facilitator’s role in team meetings and follow the appropriate steps in facilitating conflict resolution.
Implementing fair and effective discipline on a staff member Negative attitudes, errant behaviors, and misconduct among the staff in correctional institutions prevent the accomplishment of organization’s objectives, hence necessary for correctional managers to implement correctional measures (Hurley & Hanley, 2010). In disciplining a staff member, correctional managers center their decision concerning disciplinary measures on two decisions. The first decision determines whether discipline is required in that particular case and the second decision entails reviewing the nature and severity of punishment that may be necessary for that particular scenario. Several factors are crucial when implementing the disciplinary action so that correctional managers achieve fair and effective discipline for the staff member. These factors are; review the source of information, follow organization rules, be reasonable, avoid making examples, respect privacy, act only on clear evidence, avoid favoritism, avoid dwelling on history and make proper documentation (Phillips & McConnell, 2005). Progressive Discipline In addition to hiring staff on merit, motivating, training and supervising them so as to help the correctional organization in achieving its objectives, a proper disciplinary policy should get adopted to discipline staff, manage conflicts and solve related problems. The most common disciplinary approach established in correctional facilities and other civil service organizations is adopting a progressive discipline policy. Progressive discipline is essentially a systematic, step-by-step process that identifies an employee with a disciplinary problem, documents the problem describes an acceptable corrective action, and prescribes the suitable level of discipline. The step-by-step progressive disciplinary approach in correctional organizations follows the following steps; 1) Counseling/Verbal instruction 2) Oral/Verbal warning 3) Written memo of instruction/Written warning 4) Before suspension - Letter of reprimand, Disciplinary reduction in pay, Disciplinary suspension without pay, and Demotion 5) Discharge from employment / Suspension and Discharge (Gladwin & McConnell, 2014) 1) Counseling/Verbal instruction Oral counseling is the first phase taken to address a particular kind of errant behavior by an employee. On a one on one interaction, the supervisor tells the employee on what is wrong with their conduct and why it is wrong. The supervisor should explain to the staff member the rules and regulations of the institution that concern the particular behavior, as well as mention the possible consequences of that behavior. The counseling session should also entail the delineating period within which the correction by the employee is expected. Oral counseling may be recorded and the document retained in departmental files and not placed in the employee’s personal file. 2) Oral/Verbal warning The next stage of the progressive disciplinary action is the oral warning that occurs with repeated errant behavior by the employee. The phase involves documentation by the supervisor on a form created for that purpose by the institution. The oral warning is recorded and the document retained in departmental files and not placed in the employee’s personal file. The verbal warning should only go into the official personnel files only as part of a subsequent warning for the behavior. 3) Written memo of instruction/Written warning The written warning phase occurs when the problem does not get corrected after undertaking the first two steps of the progressive disciplinary action. The supervisor documents the problem and places it on the employee’s personal file. If this phase fails to correct the conduct, the supervisor now brings other organizational resources into the correctional action. Before proceeding to the next phase, the department of labor relations and the head of the employee’s department discuss available options that may remain in the disciplinary action. 4) Before suspension When the problem is not resolved in the previous phases, the formal disciplinary action gets initiated in which the phase applies various set organization correction procedures. However, if there are no specific procedures needed before suspending the employee, the supervisor refers the employee to further assistance in three available sources namely the employee assistance program, the medical resource for a physical examination, and the personnel department. The organization may also discipline the employee by reducing their pay or demoting them. 5) Discharge from employment / Suspension and Discharge When the errant behavior continues to this level, the organization follows the guidelines provided by the organization’s personnel department to come up with an appropriate disciplinary action. The action may include suspension as well as dismissal from service. The step also means that formal charges will be filed against the employee. A progressive discipline policy assists correctional managers to resolve small employee challenges by initiating modest disciplinary action, and hence prevents escalation of minor concerns into major problems requiring a commensurate solution. A progressive policy also allows an employee undergo a fair disciplinary process as well as gets allowed to correct the behavior by themselves. However, in correctional institutions, certain incidents lead to immediate dismissal from service without employing the principle of progressive discipline. These events include;
Conclusion Correctional managers in prisons play a critical role in managing conflicts in the organizations. They also consider a wide range of factors when correcting a staff member so as to achieve fair and effective discipline. The progressive discipline approach is an effective systematic process of resolving problems and correcting employees in correctional organizations.
References Campbell, N. M. (2006): Correctional Leadership Competencies for the 21st Century: Manager and Supervisor Levels. US Department of Justice, National Institute of Corrections. Carlson, P. M., & Garrett, J. S. (2013): Prison and jail administration: Practice and theory. Jones & Bartlett Learning. Gladwin, B. P. & McConnell, C. R. (2014): The Effective Corrections Manager: Correctional Supervision for the Future (3rd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett. ISBN: 978-1-4496-4546-5 Hurley, M. H. & Hanley, D. (2010): Correctional administration and change management. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis. ISBN: 978-1-4398-0392-9 Phillips, R. L., & McConnell, C. R. (2005): The Effective Corrections Manager: Correctional Supervision for the future. Jones & Bartlett Learning. Author is the Managing Director of MeldaResearch.Com a globally competitive Online Essay Service which is the premiere provider of Essay Writing Services, Research Paper Writing Services at Term Paper Writing Services at very affordable cost. For 9 years, she has helped a number of students in different academic subjects. Like it? Share it! More by this author |