Leadership in Healthcare organization w4q
In this assignment, you will study the methods used by leaders to resolve different types of conflicts. Consider the statement “conflict can be both good and bad.” Reflect on this statement and describe a time when you witnessed or experienced conflict in your personal or professional life.
Based on your research and experience, answer the following questions:
What are the four basic types of conflict? Describe them.
What are the five levels of conflict? Describe them. What was the level of conflict in your situation?
Which of the five conflict-handling modes was utilized?
What are the three conflict negotiation models? What are the goals and indicators of success of each? Were any of these models used to resolve the conflict you witnessed or experienced?
To support your work, use your course and textbook readings and also use the South University Online Library. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.
Your initial posting should be addressed at 150-300 words. Submit your document to this Discussion Area by the due date assigned. Be sure to cite your sources using APA format.
Respond to your peers throughout the week. Justify your answers with examples, research, and reasoning. Follow up posts need to be submitted by the end of week.
Sample Answer
Conflict Resolution in Healthcare
In every setup, either organizational, social, political, or professional body where human resources are involved, conflict can never be avoided. The variation in personal values and attributes, work ethics, and general background breeds conflicts in an organization. Conflict can be both good and bad; since it is always said that people disagree to agree and reach an amicable solution even though some conflicts can be so extreme and full of discord that resolving it might prove challenging (McKibben, 2017). According to McKibben, just like any other profession, nursing needs teamwork from the nursing department and the entire medical fraternity to offer primary care to patients effectively (2017). During hospital visits, I have encountered situations where there is a heated conversation and disagreement between a nurse and the patient’s family over delayed medication or wrong prescription.
Conflicts in a healthcare setting can either be a task-based, value-based, interpersonal, or ego-based type of conflict. Task-based conflict is encountered when healthcare staff fails to agree on the appropriate procedure to administer amicably. This conflict is mainly present due to variations in the level of expertise and the training undergone by the nurses. On the other hand, value-based conflict is encountered when two or more individuals have varying values and belief inclinations that contradict the other party, hence the disagreement. Interpersonal conflict is accounted to individual differences in personalities and communication techniques that offend their counterparts, causing disunity. Ego-based conflict is almost related to interpersonal conflict; it is a disagreement caused by an inability to solve the issue due to fear of hampering one party’s self-esteem or perception of the problem. Ego-based conflict in nursing is mainly experienced in personality clashes and grudges among coworkers or with patients.
Also, conflict presents itself on different levels. Conflicts in the nursing department can be intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup, intergroup, or intra-organizational level conflicts. Intrapersonal conflict is an internal conflict within oneself, while interpersonal conflict is disharmony between two or more individuals on a professional or personal basis. On the contrary, intragroup conflict is an internal conflict between members of the same group. At the same time, an intergroup is a disagreement between two or more different groups especially working on a common or a competing goal (Piryani and Piryani, 2018). Intra organizational level entails conflicts within an organizational setup, and this can either be among staff or between the management and the staff. The case that I witnessed was an interpersonal level of conflict between the nurse and the patient’s family.
Effective conflict resolution strategies are crucial for any organization whose aim is excellence in productivity through teamwork. Some of the conflict-handling strategies that can be utilized to resolve conflicts are; accommodating, avoiding, collaborating, competing, and compromising (Piryani and Piryani, 2018). Depending on the nature of the conflict, any of the above modes can be effectively utilized to resolve conflicts. The conflict I witnessed employed accommodating and collaborative modes to bring harmony between the nurse and the patients’ families. The nurse had to lower their attitude and accommodate the grievances raised by the family members by giving them any possible assistance that assured them that their patient was in safe hands.
The three main conflict negotiation models are integrative, distributive, and interactive models. An integrative model is a collaborative approach that calls for teamwork in getting a solution to the conflict. In this model, both conflicting parties are left satisfied with the verdict since it is a win-win situation. Mostly, the decision reached considers all factors, and a solution that benefits everyone in the situation is chosen. For example, a scene where managers try to choose an insurance plan for the nurses, yet they contest. An amicable agreement at the end will be a choice of the plan that is the best fit for all the personnel. The distributive model is an approach whose results lead to a win-lose situation since one party’s interest is foregone in favor of the other party. This is most common for a task-based conflict in healthcare, where the medics disagree in the procedure since, finally, there must be only one that will be administered. The interactive model involves solving a dispute by using contributions and views made by the public members. The approach is mainly used in solving intragroup or intergroup levels of conflict operating similar tasks with common short and long-term objectives, where the members’ views are accounted for in reaching a suitable solution (McKibben, 2017). The conflict between the nurse and the patients’ family case was successfully solved using the integrative conflict resolution model.
