Conflict Management and Communication in a Wage Negotiation Context
7 Pages Posted: 5 Jun 2005
Date Written: June 1, 2005
Abstract
After almost 30 months of on-and-off negotiations, three parties engaged in a dispute for a salary increase for university staff eventually agreed on a pay hike for that staff within a matter of two weeks. This formative paper examines the management of conflict issues emerging from the negotiation of a compensation package for academic, senior administrative and professional staff at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. Data compiled over a two-week period from press coverage of the conflict, and communications between the staff union and its members, the union and the employer, and the union and the government are subjected to textual analysis. Preliminary findings are presented, but are expected to be refined after further analysis. The purpose of the study is to explore the factors leading to the rapid resolution of the conflict and to attempt to develop an explanatory framework for the sudden intensification and rapid resolution of conflict that occurred after a previously protracted period of negotiations.
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