The Loose Lips case study:

Provide a comment to the following text:

1. Describe the situation and the key players (their roles and relationship to eachother)

Sergeant Dave Ulrich and Police Chief Hugh Over-beck both worked for the Baldwin Village Police force. Both Ulrich and Over-beck grew up on the same block and had gone to the same school from elementary through high school. They were both very active in school sports and become rivals during their high school years. On a particular day about 15 years in their police force careers, Ulrich was having a drink at Montclair Tavern which was a gathering place for off duty Baldwin police force. While sitting at the bar, Ulrich happened to overhear Susan Gill, who worked for the child welfare division, tell the bartender (who was her boyfriend) that D.A Wahr was investigating a local policeman who was molesting his 13-year-old daughter. Because Ulrich had a 13-year-old daughter, he assumed that Over-Beck (Police Chief) was accusing him of molesting his daughter.

1. Identify why this case study is related to the Human Resource Frame and defend your position.

This case study is related to the Human Resource Frame because this frame focuses on the combination of human needs and organizational requirements. Due to the D.A disclosing details to Susan about an investigation his team was dealing with regarding a police officer molesting his teenage daughter, caused her to retell the information to her boyfriend. This was then overheard by Ulrich who because he had a rivalry relationship with the police chief, led him to assume that Over-Beck was purposefully trying to ruin Ulrich's career. Ulrich then became angry and acted unprofessional within his work environment which caused him to be let go from his position of over 15 years.

1. How you would have addressed the conflict if you were the Town Manager?

If I was the Town Manager, I would have to follow the five strategies to assist with effectively resolving the conflict with these two employees. Those strategies would be for me not to be bias, listen closely to the details of the matter, practice empathy and to focus on the behavior to know when to involve HR. In this case, I would have had to involve HR because Ulrich stated he would kill Overbeck which is a serious statement, especially to leave on a recorded line. I would also have given Ulrich the opportunity to retire knowing he was a good officer and was unfortunately put in a situation where he felt his reputation was being demeaned due to assumptions because of his prior issues with his coworker. I agree with how the matter was handled with Ulrich, but I would have also suspended the DA for discussing the investigation with an outsider. The DA should also be reprimanded for his actions, so this does not repeat in the future.