Address Stakeholders Concerns - Essay Example

? Miami School: Plan to Address Stakeholders’ Concerns (College) Miami School: Plan to Address Stakeholders’ Concerns The issueAs there is an unexpected increase in enrollment, the Miami school district has been forced to redraw its school boundaries. As a result, many students will be forced to find other schools to continue their studies. Admittedly, boundary changes never take place without upsetting parents because most parents abhor shifting their children to a new school. Evidently, moving children from school to school will have a lot of impact on their studies. In addition, there are various other issues too. It is identified by scholars that when moved to new locations, it is possible that children feel powerless, alone, fearful, angry and afraid to seek help. In addition, they are likely to lag behind in studies because of all these factors. Another thing is the cultural and social issues. In addition, there is the ‘new kid’ syndrome that results in bullying, ridicule, outcasting, and physical abuse on the new entrant. The effect of school boundary redrawing on the property value cannot be neglected. In fact, there are a considerable number of people who take into consideration the distance from a school when they buy a house. Stakeholders The stakeholders in this dilemma are the students who will have to leave the school, their parents, the school district, and the students and their parents who will be denied admission if the redrawing is not done. At this juncture, the conflict handling grid developed by Kilmann seems useful in handling the negotiation. The various conflict resolution styles suggested by him are “avoiding conflict resolution style, competing conflict resolution style, accommodating conflict resolution style, compromising conflict resolution style, and collaborating conflict resolution style” (Kilmann, 1-11). Negotiation Strategies In this particular case, the collaborating conflict resolution style seems the most useful one as it contains both assertiveness and cooperativeness. All the stakeholders will be working towards achieving a solution that incorporates the desired outcomes of all parties involved. This style is appropriate when the issues are complex and when there is the need for a creative or novel synthesis of ideas. In this particular case, it is evident that there are various stakeholders whose issues are to be addressed. For the school district, it is important to redraw the boundaries to accommodate the increasing number of students within the boundary, for the students who face eviction, it is important to get accommodated in a new school without a heavy impact of the transfer on their studies. For the parents of the transferred, there is the fear of their children lagging behind in studies, travel distance to the new schools, and a decline in their property value. For new entrants, not doing the redrawing will deny their right to have admission in the district. Here, the steps adopted in solving the problem will be Five A’s Technique as developed by Borisoff and Victor. The five A’s of conflict management according to them are assessment, acknowledgement, attitude, action, and analysis (qtd. Atashak and Mahzadeh). In the assessment stage, all the stakeholders collect appropriate information regarding the problem. After collecting the relevant information, all the parties collectively decide what is central to the problem. In addition, all the parties indicate in which areas they are ready to compromise and what each party actually wants. Thereafter, the acknowledgement stage comes where each party listens to the arguments of the other side so that the empathy necessary for a synergistic solution is created. This act certainly acts as a feedback to the other party, and it ensures that each party understands the other party’s position though they do not necessarily agree with it. However, acknowledgement is not only about responding to what other say, but it involves actively encouraging the other side to openly communicate their issues. The next stage is attitude that aims at removing the pseudo-conflict among the parties. At this stage, all the parties become aware about the real tendency of the opposite groups instead of having biased views. For example, it is possible for a low-context culture to feel that a person from a high-context culture is indirect or deceptive. Similarly, a high-context culture may feel that people from low-context culture are unnecessary blunt and, at times, rude. Attitude stage makes sure that each party is aware of the issues of the other party by removing all the stereotypes. The next stage is action. At this stage, the authorities will declare the possible resolution for the conflict based on the discussion and the points the parties have agreed. Here, all the parties check if the critical issues of each party are addressed reasonably. The last step is analysis. At this stage, each group in the dispute checks if their issues are addressed to the maximum reasonable extent. At this stage, the monitoring of both short-term and long-term results start. Ethical Concerns In this particular case, it is evident that the district school authorities cannot go back from its decision or cannot accommodate any variations from the decisions. However, it is possible for the authority to make the transition as comfortable as possible for the various stakeholders. In the case of children who are going to get transferred, the main issue is their integration into the new place and the fears and frictions associated with it. To handle this situation, every school in the district will be offering special attention to the newcomers. The parents and children should be assured that there will be special orientation programs to accommodate the ones who are transferred and to ensure that they are not lagging behind in studies due to cultural and social friction. Parents should be made aware of the issues associated with the overcrowding of students in schools, and the benefits associated with the redrawing of boundaries. For the claim that the redrawing will affect the property value, they should be made aware that geographical area will be the only criteria used to decide the inclusion or exclusion, and that those who are at a reasonable distance from the school will not face exclusion. It is evident at this juncture that all the claims of all the stakeholders cannot be met. Here, either one will be forced to follow the tenets of utilitarianism to reach a solution, that is, to take that step that ensures the highest good to the highest number of people. In that case, redrawing the boundaries is justified as this offers maximum good to maximum number of people. This will help the school district achieve its aim. In addition, this will offer the new entrants in the area the opportunity to study within their locality. When the students who are to be evicted are given enough time to prepare to join a new school, and are given ample guidance and assistance in getting used to the new surroundings, their issues are solved to a great extent. Now, the stakeholder group that remains unsatisfied is the parents of the transferred children. Their issue is that the property value will go down. Here, one has to remember the fact that education is in no way connected with property value and hence, this claim does not have any value even under natural law. Recommendations and Conclusion Here, it becomes evident that redrawing the school boundaries by only taking into consideration the geographical area is not a violation of important ethical theories. However, this should be done giving the children enough time to get used to the new school situation. Proper care should be paid to cultural and social issues, and everyone should be given admission in new schools. Thus, in total, it becomes evident that the conflicts associated with the redrawing of the Miami school district school boundaries can be eliminated to a great extent if the conflict handling grid developed by Thomas Kilmann is used to negotiate the issue. In addition, the problem can be solved through the Five A’s Technique as developed by Borisoff and Victor. References Atashak, M & Mahzadeh, P. (n.d.). “Sources, Methodologies and Styles of Conflict Management”. Retrieved from http://www.embaconference.com/portal/files/pages/EMBA1Articles/43/43.pdf Thomas, K. W & Kilmann, R. H. “Conflict Mode Instrument”. Pat Sample, 1-11. March 2, 2010. Retrieved from https://www.cpp.com/pdfs/smp248248.pdf Read More