Public health infrastructure was introduced in Module 2. This module focusses on a critical infrastructure component- workforce. For almost all organizations, its workforce is its most valuable and expensive asset. An effective public health administrator must appreciate the diverse knowledge, skills and abilities of professionals who make up this workforce to gather and lead a team poised for success. Personnel selection, management and development is one of the most challenging and time consuming responsibilities of a public health administrator. Additionally, a culture or environment of mutual respect, adequate resources and acknowledgment must be created in the workplace to promote productivity and commitment to the organization and its mission.

In this discussion, you will be addressing workplace conflict. In your initial post, you are to take the role of the manager in dealing with conflict. Describe how you would address one of the scenario below based on your last name. In your two subsequent posts, select a different scenario and react to the manager’s approach as one of the parties in conflict. Last name starts with A-G Sally, Jim and Jill are employees in the Vaccination Clinic at the Welford County Health Department. Each year in September parents flock to the clinic seeking school mandated immunizations for their school age children. There are annual problems with wait times and vaccine stocks run out. They have volunteered to work on a quality improvement effort to improve the services during this rush period. Jim repeatedly misses meetings, does not follow through with assignments and is distracted on his phone and making jokes when he does participate in the team work sessions. Sally and Jill come to you and ask for you to deal with it. They are sick of carrying his load and his unprofessional behavior. Last name starts with H-O (my last name is Osiah) Bill and Terry work at the Accounting Office of Youth Moves, a non-profit organization with a mission to end childhood obesity in Oakland County. Bill is a staunch conservative and openly and loudly supports a local TV show host who is a candidate for governor. The TV host’s show is critical of social services and denies the need to address wealth and health disparities. Terry is on the opposite end of the political spectrum. She is an equally staunch opponent of Bill’s candidate. One afternoon, a shouting match erupts in the breakroom between many employees. Everyone agrees that the argument started with a heated debate peppered with profanities and insults between Bill and Terry. You hear the noise and enter the breakroom during the argument. Last name starts with P-Z Mary is a twenty-something IT technician at the Moore Family Foundation, an organization that funds health and education programs that promote employment development skills for chronically unemployed women in Flint, MI. Mary has a fun and sunny personality. She is competent and gets along well with coworkers. She is a behind the scenes employee who rarely meets with clients or the public except in passing. Mary wears very short skirts and tops that reveal much of her ample breast. She favors leggings to slacks and spike heels to loafers. One of Mary’s coworkers in IT comes to you to complain that Mary’s wardrobe choices make him uncomfortable, especially when she is bending around and down over computers and servers. He talked to Mary who dismissed his concerns telling him not to look at what he did not want to see.