Providing quality care requires positive, collaborative working relationships among the health care professionals that form the team. In today's increasingly complex and stressful work environments, these relationships can be threatened by conflict. Identifying the underlying causes of conflict and choice of conflict management style will enable practitioners, leaders and managers to build an organisational culture that fosters collaborative working relationships and create the best possible environment to engage in effective conflict management.
It is easy to assume that many multi-disciplinary teams come together with the same set of goals and no conflicts present. However, this is not usually the case. Everyone, even healthcare professionals
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Understanding positive and negative conflicts in the workplace is an important part of being an effective leader and manager. Conflict in the workplace is not always a bad thing as it can lead to healthy competition, debate and better patient outcomes.
Conflict in healthcare can manifest due to different goals, or difference of opinion between staff or patients. Ultimately it is the responsibility of all healthcare professionals to ensure the safety and wellbeing of their patients and not allow any conflicts to get in the way of this.
Catterson and price (2008) suggest that conflict between the multidisciplinary team is more likely to arise when looking after a patient with complex needs.
Almost et al, (2016) identified a number of Sources of conflict including; lack of emotional intelligence, personality traits, various aspects of the job and work environment, role ambiguity, lack of support from manager and colleagues and poor communication.
There are a number of conflict resolution strategies:
Avoiding – individuals or groups withdraw from the conflict altogether. This can happen consciously or
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This is beneficial when there is a lack of time and both parties are very invested in the conflict.
Disadvantages – there is a looser and negative emotions are often involved
Compromise – this strategy involves no winner or looser. Each party sacrifices something to gain something in return.
Advantages – no clear winner or loser
Disadvantages – conflict may return if what was sacrificed is less important than what was gained
Negotiating – this involves both parties bargaining on a solution, There will be gains and losses similar to the compromising strategy. Although both parties come to a general agreement, a consensus is not the ultimate goal. Negotiating is used when both parties are invested in the conflict and the choice to resort back to conflict is not an option.
Advantages – Negotiating can be used for any type of conflict
Disadvantages – when an agreement is negotiated it is permanent
Confronting – this strategy takes action to halt the conflict at the very first sign of it.
Advantages – does not allow the conflict process to occur
Disadvantages – confronting may lead to future conflict as the conflict is perceived to be unacceptable. Conflict may
Decisions are difficult, especially between two opposing parties determined to get their way. Most likely, some sort of agreement called a compromise is reached. Compromise, a seemingly perfect concept, can be an essential part of success as it resolves conflicts on both an international or personal level and benefits both sides of any argument. However, if this tool is used incorrectly by means of overuse, underuse, or simply wrong timing, that perfection turns into detriment.
Nurses are always exposed to situations or often interact with others where their values or belief might contradict with others. Conflict can often lead to distress and increases stress in the workplace environment, however if handled appropriately it can promote growth and understanding amongst the staff.
Conflict is the most problematic issue that we are facing in healthcare now days. As Nurses we deal with conflict daily at work. As result the manager has to resolve conflicts among staff to work towards working together to improve better patient outcomes.
College of Nurses of Ontario,(2009).Practice Guidelines: Conflict prevention and management. Retrieved April 3, 2014 from http://www.cno.org/Global/docs/prac/47004_conflict_prev.pdf
Besides assertive communication, the nurse should take a collaborative approach to conflict management. Both strategies empower individuals to work together and accomplish goals successfully (Cherry & Jacob, 2011). Considering the healthcare community is composed of such a large and diverse population, a nurse must realize that conflicts will arise, but more importantly the nurse must effectively manage those conflicts. Having an understanding of the differences which exists between varied cultures, generations, and disciplines will guide the nurse in resolving conflicts. This foundation allows the nurse to better understand how people perceive and respond to others and the environment during a time which resolution is needed. Establishing trust with ones colleagues is another step toward resolving conflicts. Team members are much more likely to be open and motivated to come to a resolution when they trus...
It has been estimated in a study by the American Management Association that managers spend between 20% to as much as 50% of their times dealing with conflict among their employees (American Sentinel, 2012). When workplace conflicts are left unresolved they can lead to dissatisfaction, depression and other problems such as aggression and violence (Whitworth 2008). The negative, sometimes hostile, environment created by unresolved conflict has been recognized to be a hazard not only to staff, but also to patient care (The Joint Commission 2008).
Hospital surveys indicate that hospital staff members often perceive the physicians as the main cause of conflicts in hospitals. Physicians are disruptive because they posses forceful personalities and have minimal training regarding interpersonal skills. A disruptive physician decreases the healthcare delivery efficiency and increases stress in the hospital environment. Many times this causes the supportive staff to lose work morale and the team spirit which may adversely lead to a dysfunctional team, poor communication, and withholding of critical information because of the fear of increasing conflict (Finkelman, 2016). This ultimately has a negative impact on the patient care because the physician may lose proper nurse support and eventually
Conflict management is an area of concern for managers and nursing leaders alike for establishing a safe, effective, and team oriented work environment. It is important that nursing leaders possess a range of skills that will unite, encourage, and direct their employees to attain and maintain the goals and visions of an organization. Conflicts happen often in the workplace and generally involve disagreements between people with opposing views or conflicting personalities (Lamberton & Minor, 2014, p. 262). They also happen defining issues, with conflicting thoughts of an individual, and from the work place itself. These topics of conflict will be explored more in depth and how it relates to my personal and professional success.
Many people enjoy working or participating in a group or team, but when a group of people work together chances are that conflicts will occur. Hazleton describes conflict as the discrepancy between what is the perceived reality and what is seen as ideal (2007). “We enter into conflicts reluctantly, cautiously, angrily, nervously, confidently- and emerge from them battered, exhausted, sad, satisfied, triumphant. And still many of us underestimate or overlook the merits of conflict- the opportunity conflict offers every time it occurs” (Schilling, nd.). Conflict does not have to lead to a hostile environment or to broken relationships. Conflict if resolved effectively can lead to a positive experience for everyone involved. First, there must be an understanding of the reasons why conflicts occur. The conflict must be approached with an open mind. Using specific strategies can lead to a successful resolution for all parties involved. The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument states “there are five general approaches to dealing with conflict. The five approaches are avoidance, accommodation, competition, compromise, and collaboration. Conflict resolution is situational and no one approach provides the best or right approach for all circumstances” (Thomas, 2000).
Although there is a plethora of possible sources of conflict in any workplace, the ones in this case are rather explicit. These include personal differences, Informal deficiencies’, role incompatibility, environment stress, perceptions, and expectations. Personal differences could be related to personal values, physiognomies, family bonds or ties, and material belongings.
Conflict is inevitable in any work environment and it is up to the human resource department to have measures in place to prevent it. Conflict in a healthcare institution can exist among medical personnel such as nurses and doctors, administration with the health team and patients with the health resources. In healthcare, the system ensures any conflicting aspect is identified quickly and resolved amicably as the health of the patients comes first. Conflict can arise from various matters such as improper turnover, misread of data collected, and assumptions of neglect of patients, superiority abuse, prescription oversight, and a lack of communication channels. Having an effective performance evaluation system in place can be beneficial in conflict resolution and can enable human resource to be more efficient in dealing with these issues when they
Before understanding how to deal with conflict, one must understand what conflict is. Conflict can be defined as, “any situation in which incompatible goals, cognitions, or emotions within or between individuals or groups lead to opposition or antagonistic interaction” (Learning Team Toolkit, 2004, pp 242-243). Does the idea of conflict always have to carry a negative connotation? The growth and development of society would be a great deal slower if people never challenged each other’s ideas. The Learning Team Toolkit discusses three different views of conflict: traditiona...
Differences within the team are the major reason for conflict. This stems from differences in opinion, attitude, beliefs, as well as cultural back grounds and social factors. The Conflict can be positive which is functional and supports or benefits the organization or a person’s main objectives (Reaching Out, 1997). Conflict is viewed as positive when the conflict results in increased involvement form the group, increased cohesion, and positive innovation and creativity. Conflict tends to be positive as well when it leads to better decisions, and solutions to long-term problems.
According to McShane and Von Glinow, conflict is “a process in which one party perceives that his or her interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party” (328). The Conflict Process Model begins with the different sources of conflict; these sources lead one or more parties to perceive that a conflict exists. These perceptions interact with emotions and manifest themselves in the behavior towards other parties. The arrows in the figure illustrate the series of conflict episodes that cycle into conflict escalation (McShane and Von Glinow 331-332).
Look up the word conflict in the dictionary and you will see several negative responses. Descriptions such as: to come into collision or disagreement; be at variance or in opposition; clash; to contend; do battle; controversy; quarrel; antagonism or opposition between interests or principles Random House (1975). With the negative reputation associated with this word, no wonder people tend to shy away when they start to enter into the area of conflict. D. Jordan (1996) suggests that there are two types of conflict: good, which is defined as cognitive conflict (C-type conflict) and, detrimental, defined as affective conflict (A-type conflict). The C-type conflict allows for creativity, to pull together a group of people with different opinions or ideas, to combine and brain storm all thoughts to develop the best solution for the problem. The A-type conflict is the negative form when you have animosity, hostility, un-resolveable differences, and egos to deal with. The list citing negative conflicts could go on forever. We will be investigating these types of conflicts, what managers can do to recognize conflict early, and what strategies they can use to resolve conflicts once they have advanced.