The purpose of this paper is to research the conflicts among public officials and to investigate how these conflicts affect government organizations as a whole in an effort to seek ways to settle them.
For this experiment, theoretical and practical ...
The purpose of this paper is to research the conflicts among public officials and to investigate how these conflicts affect government organizations as a whole in an effort to seek ways to settle them.
For this experiment, theoretical and practical research was conducted. The practical research included a survey given to 460 public officials. Of the 460 surveys, 245 were returned. The results were analyzed with the statistics program SPSS WIN.
The participants of the practical survey were selected from various education organizations in North Chungcheong Province. The selected organizations included: the provincial office of education, regional offices of education, supervisory organizations, and primary and secondary schools. The survey subjected included teachers, general public officials, school staff, school administrators (principals or vice-principals), and specialized educators (academic supervisors, head supervisors, etc.) who worked in these education facilities. In order to get a balanced sample, each region of the province was divided into south, north, and middle areas, and subjects were chosen based on geographical area.
The focus of study was divided into: conflict among public officials, conflict that occurs at the workplace, and conflict that arises from personal issues.
The results show that the most common conflicts were between school administrators (principals or vice-principals) and teachers due to varying scope of work with 45.5% of the causes reported being work-related.
General public officials had the most conflicts with teachers with 93.3% being work-related. According to survey responses, 40% of school staff reported that the most conflict occurred with the general public officials. The most common cause of conflicts between general public officials and school staff was reported as stereotypes and career-level differences which accounted for 66.7% of the cases reported. School administrators reported having the most conflicts with teachers with 57.1% stating the cause as career differences. Specialized educators had the most conflict with other specialized educators. The greatest cause was a difference in employment level such as supervisor versus head supervisor.
When asked for possible solutions, 70.6% of the people thought problems could be solved by putting more effort into the situation and changing the way one thinks. The second highest reported solution polled in at 16.7% stating that effort from the government or office level could solve issues. When asked about problems related to the workplace, 91.7% responded that there were problems. The chief cause of problems in the workplace was reported as differences in the work situations by 58.8% of those surveyed. Reports that believed transfers to other workplaces could solve conflict included: 24.5% of supervisory organizations, 16.3% of secondary schools, 15.9% of the provincial office of education, 14.3% of primary school, and 13.9% of the total reponses from regional offices of education. Of those responses, 35.5% believed that transfers could give opportunity for group harmony. To avoid conflict 30 out of 245 people said they requested a transfer. Of those people 27 said the move resolved many of the problems. According to the results, moving is a legitimate solution. Solutions to workplace-related problems in order of most popular responses: 216 stated improving the working environment, 207 people responded a change in staff, 204 reported settling differences in treatment based on position, and 198 said an increase in chances for staff exchanges with other organizations. Regarding conflicts that arose from personal circumstances, such as age, level of education, etc., 59.6% of the workers stated that personal circumstances affected the rise in problems. When asked if amount of salary had any effect on the cause of problems, 72.7% answered no which contrasts with previous research on the cause of conflicts due to pay. When asked if gender played a role in problems, 73.9% said no. Therefore, it can be safely concluded that sex plays no role as a cause for conflicts. Furthermore, this research shows problems caused by the differences between men and women have decreased a lot.
The main causes of the problems between public officials in education have changed from differences in salary to lack of understanding of each other's work based on differences in position, and generation gaps. As time has changed, the cause of problems have also changed. In conclusion, public official workers in education organizations should change their way of thinking and the workplace should educate employees of differences to avoid problems. To solve problems related to the workplace, the given workplace conditions need to be improved by every worker having his fare share in responsibility, and people have to change the way they think. After finding out the causes of these problems and dealing with them effectively, our education culture will progress much more than now.