Developing Conflict Management Skills in Municipal Employees: a Sociological Study

The article introduces a sociological survey that featured the development of conflict management skills in municipal employees of the Belgorod region. The methods involved a questionnaire survey and a semi-structured interview of Belgorod municipal authorities, teaching staff of the Higher School of Management of the Belgorod State University, and employees of the Institute of Regional Personnel Policy of Belgorod. The reasons behind the conflicts were divided into those caused by the specifics of the municipal service, the peculiarities of team relations, and the individual characteristics of a municipal employee. The results of the study can improve the practical work of municipal personnel departments or be used in teaching sociological disciplines. Further study is required to develop diagnostic methods to identify the conflict management skills in municipal officials, collect information, define conditions and patterns of development, draft resolution procedures, etc.

Informal relations as a tool for socialization and adaptation of state and municipal employees

The article proposes an algorithm for assessing the environment of informal relations between employees of state and municipal institutions. The purpose of the study is to improve management processes by assessing informal relations as a tool for socialization and adaptation of employees of state and municipal institutions. Based on a literature review, objectives for managing informal relationships were set. Further, the characteristics of the environment of informal relations are revealed, for the assessment of which the methods and techniques of domestic and foreign authors can be applied. The paper offers recommendations on the application of methods and techniques for studying the environment of informal relations between staff of state and municipal institutions. Applied methods: analysis of sources, comparison, legal method. The novelty of the work lies in the substantiation of the application of methods and techniques for assessing the psychological climate in the team, the level of job satisfaction, conflict, informal leadership to study the environment of informal relations. The practical significance of achieving the desired level of the environment lies in the ability to increase the level of retention of employees, to provide flexibility in making managerial decisions and their implementation.

Conflict of interest: law enforcement and conflictology

The subject. The article is devoted to conflictology as one of the most relevant, almost significant, debatable problems in law theory, legal sciences, political science, philosophy, psychology and economics. The author analyzes specific examples of conflicts of interest in various corruption spheres and manifestations, for example, in the sphere of participation of economic actors in the procurement announced by state and municipal authorities.The purpose of the article is to identify the nature of conflicts of interest as the basis of corruption.The methodology. The author uses comparisons of common and private, cause and effect, patterns and randomness, content and form, essence and phenomenon, the transition of quantity into quality, as well as the methods of sociology and psychology.The main results, scope of application. The article analyzes the relationship between corruption and nepotism. The article discusses legal and moral ways to prevent conflict, the role of ethical standards in conflict prevention, regulatory framework for preventing and settling them, the ratio of conflict of interest and employee qualifications, balance of material and personal interest, Commissions to prevent conflicts of interest, guaranteeing the role of writing notice of a conflict of interest, Features of the notification procedure, moral means of preventing and resolve conflicts of interest. Exclusively legal methods are insufficient to prevent and eliminate conflicts of interest and corruption-related risks. A combination of legal and moral measures is necessary, and most importantly, the exclusion of kinship and other forms of nepotism in the formation of government bodies and the appointment of officials, the hiring of state and municipal employees. It is necessary to exclude formalism from the institution of competitive selection of civil servants.Conclusions. The elimination of the contradictions between some federal anti-corruption laws has much less effect on the state of corruption in the state than the flourishing nepotism. The exercise of official functions takes place in the form of law enforcement: if there is no application of the law – there is no corruption. The main emphasis should be directed to the process of forming the apparatus of state and municipal authorities, employees of state and municipal institutions, primarily in the educational sphere, on which the upbringing of new generations of employees depends, the steady observance of high professional and moral requirements imposed on state and municipal employees and teachers in schools and universities.

Modern Problems of Staff Training for State and Municipal Services in Russia

This chapter is devoted to the description of the existing system of training, retraining, and advanced training of state and municipal employees in Russia and the proposal of options for solving the problems facing society and strengthening Russian statehood. The organization of training, retraining, and advanced training of state and municipal employees includes a system of measures to create new, re-profile, and improve existing educational institutions and optimize the mechanisms for competitive selection and selection of trainees and teachers. At the same time, education has a decisive role in training personnel for state and municipal service.

WHY SHOULD LOCAL GOVERNMENTS HAVE A DEVELOPED COMMUNICATION STRATEGY? AN ANALYSIS OF MUNICIPAL COMMUNICATION IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

The creation of a communication strategy is an indicator of the subject's approach to communication with the public. The article, based on a sample of 160 municipalities of the Czech Republic, empirically demonstrates that an elaborated communication strategy enhances the public value of intangible assets particularly in the following areas: various segments of citizens are better targeted through a greater number of frequented communication channels, municipal employees are more frequently trained in communication issues, crisis communication plans are likely to be prepared. On the other hand, we confirmed that all these factors are limited to some extent by the size of the municipality and the financial resources allocated for communication.

Life-course socioeconomic circumstances in acute, chronic and disabling pain among young employees: a double suffering

Background: Pain is known to be socioeconomically patterned and associated with disability. However, knowledge is scarce concerning life-course socioeconomic circumstances and pain among young adults. Our aim was to examine the associations of childhood and current socioeconomic circumstances with acute pain and chronic pain with low and high disability levels among young Finnish municipal employees. Methods: We analysed questionnaire data retrieved from the Young Helsinki Health Study ( n=4683) covering 18–39-year-old employees of the City of Helsinki, Finland. We included multiple indicators of childhood and current socioeconomic circumstances and examined their associations with acute pain and with chronic pain with low and high disability levels. The level of chronic pain-related disability was assessed by the chronic pain grade questionnaire. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted with stepwise adjustments for sociodemographic, socioeconomic and health-related covariates. Results: Childhood and current socioeconomic disadvantage were associated with acute and chronic pain, particularly with chronic pain with high disability level. The strongest associations after adjustments for covariates remained between chronic pain with high disability level and low educational level (odds ratio (OR) 3.38, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.18–5.24), manual occupation (OR 3.75, 95% CI 1.92–7.34) and experiencing frequent economic difficulties (OR 3.07, 95% CI 2.00–4.70). Conclusions: Pain is a common complaint that contributes to disability among young employees, particularly the most socioeconomically vulnerable. There is a socioeconomic gradient in both pain chronicity and the level of chronic pain-related disability. Life-course socioeconomic factors should be considered in pain-preventing strategies and in clinical practice.

Reform of the organization of public power: the main directions of implementation

The monograph examines topical issues of reforming the organization of public power in our country in connection with the adoption in 2020 of the Law on Amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The logic of changes in the organization of public power and the directions of concretization of constitutional values, taking into account the laws of the development of the constitutional system of Russia, are revealed. The most significant characteristics of the updated model of interaction of federal public authorities in accordance with the principle of separation of powers are identified, the trends of constitutional transformations in the spheres of federal relations and local self-government, ensuring the fulfillment by public authorities of international obligations of the Russian Federation are investigated. Particular attention is paid to the development of the legal mechanism of interaction between public authorities and civil society. The authors of the book take into account the results of legislative support for the reform of public power in 2020-2021, a forecast assessment of the implementation of the relevant constitutional and legislative novelties is given, including taking into account the existing legal risks. Solutions are proposed to a number of legal issues of legislative regulation of public power, which can increase the efficiency of its functioning. For researchers, teachers, students and postgraduates, deputies of representative authorities, state and municipal employees, as well as anyone interested in constitutional law issues.

Sense Experiences

This article provides an account of how sense experiences are drawn into processes of contest over the boundaries of citizenship and belonging. Based on ethnographic research in Istanbul and Ankara, it examines the ruptures of the 2016 failed coup attempt in Turkey. Particular forms of listening emerged in Western urban centers, newly attuned to sounds of warfare commingled with Islamic melodic devotionals ordered by state officials. Unique and pronounced engagements with bodily liquids accompanied the handling and placement of the dead. The multi-sensory experiences of Muslim women municipal employees who wash and shroud the deceased elucidated the foundational roles of scent and body weight in constituting martyrdom. This article demonstrates how the body politic operates—with various forms of acquiescence and repudiation—through sound, smell, and touch.