Conflict: Government and Policy Team

Case Study3 The Poisoned Chalice By Matthew Mcdonald, University of virgin South Wales Joseph had been a aggroup up leader for both years and felt he was ready to posit the next step in his public proceeds career. He had begun his career as a receive trainee in the Department of Agriculture after completing a double degree in trading and environmental science. After his traineeship he was offered permanency as a policy officer, at last rising to the agency of group leader. As a aggroup leader Joseph felt he had gained the trust and respect of his quaternity staff member and had learnt the basic skills of being a palmr.Joseph applied for various management come ins within his birth discussion section without success. Undeterred, he applied for a position in anformer(a) disposal department credi iirthy for environment and heritage and was successful. The role involved taking over the position of manager of a Taskforce that had been hang up five months formerly. The taskforce was do up of 10 squad members responsible for developing and implementing a revision of government policies and programs designed to assist primary producers to manage relegate the environmental threats to their land.Joseph couldnt have been happier with his sweet promotion and he looked forward to go foring what he had lettered as a team leader to the challenges of his stark naked post. The taskforce itself was divided into two teams. The initiatory team- the policy team was responsible for developing policies in consultation with the parsons office that would underpin the programs to be eventually rolled put all over the coun extend. This team was made up of highly experienced member. The here and now team- the executing team was responsible for implementing the policies developed by the policy team.The job of the carrying out team was to fill with the logistic of implementing the programs and working with the numerous stakeholders involved. For Josep h, everything started put come up in his new position. He gradually got to sack out distributively of the team members, who seemed skilled and competent in each of their roles. He also began to understand better the job that the taskforce was required to do. However, as the days turn into weeks some study capers in the taskforce began to appear.The first major problem was that other sections within the department were unaccommodating and knotty to deal with when he made requests of them or sought to initiate collaborations. When he asked his staff why this was the case, the most common response was that the department had had it in for the taskforce as posing a threat to their consume positions. The bad blood between the taskforce and the easing of the department made Josephs position vary difficult because he and his staff were heavily reliant on other areas of the department for their expertise, advice and assistance in order to manage the project successfully.The second major problem was the taskforce itself, Joseph began to realize that the two teams were highly antagonistic towards each other. This was evident in taskforce come overings, where there was an obvious antagonism between them. Joseph also discovered that very atomic had been achieved since the taskforce was setup, and found that it was now substantially behind the governments schedule. However, the full implications of Josephs predicament became unembellished only after a revealing talk with Alison, a junior member of the implementation team, temporary hookup working back late one evening.Alison told Joseph that the prior manager of the taskforce, John, had left the position because of the problems associated with it, everything had started out well however, then the policy team had begun to treat the implementation team as inferior because the implementation team members were younger in age, were less experienced and had made a major blunder in the first few weeks by pass wa terting a field of study farmers union offside. After this blunder the policy team had begun to refer to the implementation team as the idiots.The policy team had also taken a captain attitude towards members of other sections within the department because of their closely relationship with the ministers office. This problem came to a head after a chain of emails had been leaked to the rest of the department by a member of the implementation team, who had inadvertently received them, in the emails, members of the policy team had made disparaging remarks about people from other section with whom they had been working, this had created a furors in the department.As a result, a number of formal complaints about members of the policy team had been made. Instead of dealing with this and the other problem associated with the taskforce, the previous manager, John, had closeted himself away in his office, hoping they would go away. Realizing that events were starting to get out of contro l, Johns manager. Max, had stepped in to try and sort out the situation. He had through this by utter with all of the taskforce members both individually and as a group.This had made a difference for a short time however, the antagonism between the two teams in the taskforce had eventually returned, and it had seemed the nothing could be through with(p) to repair the damage inflicted by the leaking of the emails. It was at this storey that John had resigned. Due to the taint that hung over the taskforce, no one in the department had been willing to apply for the now vacant position of taskforce manager. After speaking with Alison, Joseph realized he had been handed a poisoned chalice that nobody else wanted.He became very worried that the taskforce would not meet the departments and the governments objectives and timelines, and the he would be infernal for its failure, adversely affecting his long-term career and next promotion prospects. Discussion Questions 1. Using the model of contravene processes, identify the sources of conflict between the policy team and the implementation team. 2. Were Maxs actions appropriate in this situation? If so, why? If not, what should he have done instead? 3. What actions should Joseph take to ensure that the taskforce meets the governments objectives and timelines?