COMM 6100 - William Keefe

1. A Conflict between Politics and
People
By William Keefe

2. Introduction
This report is about a conflict between two parties. The first of them is Hekia
Parata, a politician who is responsible for the closing of seven local schools in
Christchurch New Zealand. The opposing party is a group of school teachers
based in wellington who are in protest against the closing of the schools.
The aim of this report is to examine the conflict and be able to understand
the different principles of negotiation.
The idea is to try and resolve this conflict as best we can.

3. Contents

Point of views

Common shared interests / understanding

Behaviours of conflict

Emotions

Strategies for negotiation

Strategies for resolution

Other strategies

Conclusion

References

4. Point of views:
Hekia Parata:

Closes 7 schools believing to be too dangerous (unsafe)

Wants to merge a total of 12 schools and open 5 new school
Teachers:

Want the schools to stay open

Believe some of the schools are not ‘Unsafe’

No need to build new schools

5. Shared understandings

Both parties want what they think is best for the children's education

Both parties still want schools to be open instead of closed (permanently)
Both parties share a common goal, they are just approaching things
differently and disagree with each others ideas – this is where the conflict is
occurring. By identifying shared understandings it supports the idea of trying
to find a resolution because there are things that both parties can agree or
partly agree on.

6. Behaviours

Hekia Parata:
Being a minister who makes all the big decisions ,this suggests she has more
control over the situation. This can possibly lead to a dominant/assertive
behaviour.

Teachers:
Being in protest against the decisions of Hekia Parata, teaches held a protest
against her, this suggests that they are upset and in turn can possibly lead to
a more aggressive behaviour.

7. Emotional factors

Hekia Parata:
- Personal
- Ranking / Hierarchy

Teachers:
- Business
In my opinion, I believe that both parties have emotional factors that
influence their behaviours and decisions.

8. Strategies for negotiation

Accommodation

Compromise
In my opinion, since both parties partially have things that they can both
agree on , it is possible for them to negotiate specific things that both parties
may agree on. These negotiations can also help both parties resolved part(s)
of there existing conflict.

9. Strategies for resolution

Are both parties able to resolve the conflict ?
My answer is both yes and no , because they have very different views as well
as common ideas. In my opinion, I believe that the conflict may even not be
able to be fully resolved but only to a certain point to where either party
disagrees.
Since this type of conflict is associated with a group of people , it can be
even harder to resolve fully because of all the individual opinions you have to
take into consideration.

10. Other strategies (Four Fs)

Facts

Feelings

Focus

Feed-back
The ‘four fs’ strategy can be useful to help resolve this conflict. This strategy is
effective in this situation because it allows both parties to see eye to eye, they
are able to reflect upon not only their own ideas / views but the opposing
parties as well. This has the potential of forming shared common logic –
reinforcing the idea of resolving the conflict

11. Conclusion
Overall there are a lot of principles involved when examining a conflict.
Throughout the examination of this particular one , I found that a lot of
different negotiating principles have to be used in order to help resolve
conflict, in addition to this I found that a particular strategy may not be
enough to solve conflict – meaning that conflict is best resolves using a variety
of strategies and techniques.

12. References

Christchurch school closure ruled unlawful - National - NZ Herald News. (n.d.).
Retrieved from
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11138079

Four Christchurch schools to close - National - NZ Herald News. (n.d.). Retrieved
from
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10885324

ohn Armstrong: Don't blame Parata for this one - National - NZ Herald News.
(n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11140059

Negotiation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved October 18,
2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negotiation#Negotiation_strategies

Retrieved from www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/local-papers/kapi-mananews/8324271/Porirua-teachers-red-sticker-Hekia-Parata