Knowledge and utilization of attitude management in interpersonal conflicts among police graduates of Lilayi training college in Lusaka urban district.
Loading...
Date
2022-06-28
Authors
Wanchinga, M Chilufya
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The University of Zambia
Abstract
This study investigated the knowledge and utilization of attitude management in interpersonal conflicts among police graduates of Lilayi Police Training College in Lusaka District. The objectives of the study were to determine the level of knowledge of Police Officers on conflict attitude management; establish police officers utililisation of attitude management when addressing conflicts in the work environment; establish the challenges faced by police officers when addressing conflicts in the work environment; establish whether attitude management is a component of conflict management training at Lilayi Police College. A descriptive survey design was adopted with a population of all police officers trained from Lilayi Police Training College based in Lusaka District. Purposive sampling was employed sampling 23 respondents comprising 2 senior management officers from the Training Department at Zambia Police Headquarters, 3 senior training officers at Lilayi Police Training College, 9 middle management officers ( 3 from each police station ) trained at Lilayi Police College and 9 junior officers (3 from each police station) trained at Lilayi Police Training College selected from Central Police Station, Emmasdale Police Station and Kabwata Police Station in Lusaka District, as they are leading police stations in terms of human resource strength, wide geographic jurisdiction and high traffic of cases handled by the officers and therefore the data collected is fairly representative of the 14 police stations in Lusaka Urban District. The data was collected using semi structured interviews with all the respondents. The findings showed that the 18 police officers based at Central Police Station, Emmasdale Police Station and Kabwata Police Station had inadequate knowledge of attitude management when dealing with conflict. Analysis of the significant portion of the respondents showed an inadequate understanding of conflict as a normal part of social life and viewed it as something negative. The findings also revealed that attitude management is not part of the conflict management curriculum at Lilayi Police College. The training officers and those in the training department at Police Headquarters felt that attitude management should be included in the training programmes offered in-house and at the initial training at Lilayi Police Training College. It was therefore concluded that police officers had inadequate knowledge of attitude management when addressing conflict in the work environment. Police officers often work in situations of conflict and hence there was a need for more effective approaches to handling conflict. The study recommended that: the Government of the Republic of Zambia is to make a policy direction towards ensuring that Police Officers are effective conflict managers with a strong grasp of attitude management in order to be better placed to provide policing services that uphold democratic and human rights principles; the Zambia Police Service High Command should be made to appreciate the significance and ramifications of attitude management in resolving interpersonal conflict in the work environment; training content for Police Officers should be redesigned to cover the subject of attitude and its relationship with effective conflict management both at the initial training of officers and during in-house refresher programs.
Description
Thesis
Keywords
Attitude (Psychology). , Attitude education. , Behavior modification. , Human behavior. , Attitude change. , Behavioral assessment.