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| Recognizing personalities to alleviate staff division |
| By Jim Montalto, News Editor |
| Published: 07/03/2006 |
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Last week, Corrections.com spoke with Joe Bouchard, a librarian at the Michigan Department of Corrections and a college instructor on the topic of corrections and psychology, about staff division. He recently presented a lecture on this topic to the Michigan Corrections Association at Lake Superior University. He hopes to help corrections officials recognize and prevent staff division by examining certain personality types that promote this problem. Bouchard says inmates can not only sense divisiveness among staff, but also try to foster it. They might try to trick COs who feel alienated by their peers into thinking that they are their friends. This is a danger, says Bouchard, because it can cause COs to put their guard down just enough to cause them great harm. He discusses several detrimental personalities that lead to staff diversity including: the town crier - someone who feels compelled to tell everyone about tragedy or personal troubles; and those that contribute to making others feel uncomfortable like the critic, the complainer, and the program-basher. Bouchard also encourages staff to look out for different bully types as well. These include physical, obnoxious, intellectual, necessity, together one that has a group mentality and singles out a weaker co-worker, and sexual bullies who coerce others into getting what they want or pressure others to do things they otherwise might not. This, of course, leads to uncomfortable work settings. His tips in managing these types are grouped as U.M.B.R.E.L.L.A. and L.U.C.K. strategies. He says promoting Uniformity, and a Mission statement to discourage this behavior; Breaking destructive behavior; having a sense of Realism, Empathy, and Loyalty; understanding Local culture and Acting professionally can all help alleviate this problem. Listening, Understanding, Communicating and gaining Knowledge of why and how a person acts, can also help manage the difficult personalities that lead to staff division. For more on this topic, listen to last week's Corrcast with Joe Bouchard. |
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