allAfrica.com: Namibia: Attitudes, Skills in Conflict in Education (Page 1 of 7)

Language research is many times conducted and recommendations made without critically looking at the implementation of such recommendations.

Also, very often these recommendations and implementations do not come without conflict. In many instances, such changes are disruptive, costly and cause strain on resources.

If we are to be effective managers of conflict we need to develop certain attitudes and skills.This paper discusses how innovational conflict can arise and how certain attitudes and skills can help resolve it.

What features in this discussion as an example is a conflict and preventative measures taken during the implementation of the English National Language Policy that Namibia adopted in 1992.

Introduction

To effect any type of organized innovation, effective management requires positive attitudes, involvement of others and constant reflection to make innovation successful. Many times we fail to execute our day-to-day plans and blame others instead. This happens because we cannot properly plan and manage our time, prioritize the items on our personal agenda and to an extent because of unplanned, interruptive items which pop in and out of our programmes.

Whether at personal, group or company level, management has an important role to play in the execution of programmes.From the organization point of view in the modern world, innovation is inevitable.

It is with us at all times, it is challenging and demands those in authority to be pro-active and change-ready as per Bennet et al (1994, P.11) that:

"There is the realisation that organisational change is here to stay. We must stop opposing it and, like a judo expert, turn it to our advantage".

Innovation sometimes causes tension, conflict and instability in organizations. Whereas innovations inevitably bring with them levels of uncertainty, they also energize those involved in their development and implementation (Christison & Stoller 1997, p.33).

At various occasions many people in managerial positions find it not only disturbing but also difficult to handle.Out of frustration resulting from the said, some managers respond narrow-mindedly and cause more harm to the organizational output. Failure to implement successful innovations, according to Nicholls (1983, p. 1), is attributed to some of the following factors, e.g.,participants' limited knowledge about the planned innovation, limited knowledge of the process of implementation of innovation or lack of attention to the process of innovation.

In this paper, I use change and innovation interchangeably, although Christison & Stoller (1997, p.34), make a distinction between the two, thatchange is predictable and inevitable and that it always results from an alteration in the status quo but not necessarily improvement.

Contrary to change, they say innovation results from a deliberate and conscious effort that is perceived as new and is intended to bring about improvement. This paper refreshes our minds on what innovation is all about, about managerial principles and attitudes of managers during innovation, causes of conflict during innovation and possible solutions in diffusing innovational conflicts. Examples of typical innovational conflicts will be part of the causes of conflict discussion.

Managerial Principles and Attitudes of Managers

There seem to be varying definitions of what different writers think about educational management. (Everard & Morris 1990, p. 4).Dean (1985, p. 1) explains that being a manager in any context means getting things done through other people, and that one criterion by which a manager might be judged is his effectiveness in delegating tasks and enabling others to take them to a successful conclusion.

Everard and Morris (1990) rather summed it up differently by saying:

'What management is not is carrying out a prescribed task in a prescribed way'. (Ibid.).

I cited these definitions with a purpose to facilitate understanding on how sometimes conflict can arise during innovation.Management and innovation are inseparable, however, and this means the two supplement each other in their existence.

Each manager at the institution/department level does not only need to know the set goals or objectives of the institution/department which are sometimes general and practically inapplicable, but also the state of affairs concerning the real world and operational techniques in the fast changing environment.

Thus, as per Nicholls (1983, p. 2), good management involves working with people and resources as they are and helping them to work together to achieve agreed ends. In other words, it should not be taken for granted that holding a managerial position makes one to take unilateral organisational decisions that will affect change without the involvement of other people who might be affected by the same change.

web allafrica.com	Enter your search terms	Submit search form
OR subscribers use AllAfrica's premium search engine


Use our pull-down menus to find more stories

Today's Most Active Stories