Essay: Managing Conflict In The Workplace - A Critical Review" (70 Characters)

In this assignment you are required to introduce a conflict situation that occurred within your workplace and provide a critical review of the situation including the following:

Explain the event that led or resulted in the conflict situation;

Introduce the reader to your position in the institution/ward/workplace ( i.e. RN, Associate Charge Nurse, Charge Nurse)

Describemeasures you applied to seek immediate resolution;

Discuss the leadership style employed in the management approach/es that you took to resolve the conflict

Discuss the outcome/s for the patient (s) and/or staff

Discuss the change/s that took place as a result to eliminate the probability for a similar event to arise,

Discuss the key recommendations for improving the outcomes and/or preventing a similar situation from occurring again. 

Event Resulting in Conflict

Conflicts are common in any workplace. As long as there are two or more people in a workplace, tension is bound to build up at one time or another within the workplace (Wallensteen, 2018). Nurses play a variety of roles within the workplace such as acting as  health educators, coordinators, advocates to patient’s rights and managers in different workplace areas. The roles that nurses have increase the probability of having interactions with other health professionals during their activities and processes. These interactions increase the friction between the different groups of health professionals working within the hospital environment (Dukes, 2018).

Conflict in itself is dynamic and can either be positive or negative in nature. Based on the fact that conflict has the capability of developing into a dysfunction in the processes that continue in the workplace , it is critical that conflicts are managed appropriately to avoid confusion in roles and functions of health professionals within the workplace (Rubenstein, 2018; Singer, 2018).

  Conflict in itself is the cumulative consequence of experiences or  perceived variations in the common goals,  ideas,  attitudes, and  the associated feelings and actions of individuals in the workplace (Jeong, 2018).

 In order for leaders to  adequately deal with the conflicts, it requires that they  are both assertive and considerate. The ability to employ aspects of active listening and maintaining an atmosphere that does not have bias of any kind is essential during the process of decision making and problem solving (Avruch & Black, 2014).

Conflicts with the hospital workplace occur due to a variety of reasons. Conflict among health professional in the hospital workplace can occur due to competition among them, due to variations in the economic or even professional values that each of the professionals posses.

In the case that I dealt with , as the nurse in charge of a medical ward, a conflict came into being as a result of nurse and doctor confronting each other over the admission of a patient in the ward. The doctor wanted the hospitalized patient to receive admission into the ward. However, the nurse was hesitant to admit the patient who had just left the post-operative room. The said patient had undergone a surgery to remove  a tumor. The nurse argued that the patient needed more time in the post-operative room for appropriate monitoring and soon after should have been moved to the surgical ward and not the medical ward (Polley, 2017).

The nurse coordinator spent a lot of time explaining the reasons for her hesitation, but the doctor was reluctant to listen. As a result, the nurse was annoyed by the doctors inability to listen and an argument ensued. The doctor argued that the nurses role was only to follow the commands that he gave. The argument was further fueled by this comments. Both the doctor and the nurse almost fought, while I moved to the location to calm the situation.

As the nurse in-charge,  my duty is to ensure that activities are running smoothly. The nurse in-charge also has the duty to ensure that there is solidarity and that all activities are running without huddles. Apart from that, the nurse in-charge has to ensure that all equipment are provided for within the unit. The nurse in-charge ensures that all aspects of the institution are running smoothly and without any huddles of any kind. Ensuring peace and tranquility within the health department is also the associated duty of the nurse in-charge which I had to ensure was appropriately maintained throughout the workings of the hospital workplace.

Position in the Institution

In order to effectively deal with a conflict, it is important for a leader to have an established means of dealing with the conflict in a timely an effective manner. Conflict resolution begins through the use of adequate communication skills (Autesserre, 2014).

In order to deal with the conflict, I had to talk with both the doctor and nurse on duty in a private setting. Privacy is important so as to reduce the tension that had been generated after the long periods of strife among the nurse and the doctor.

The first thing that was done was to call the nurse and doctor in a separate location where it was possible to talk to each of them in private (Lumsden,2018). After realizing the extent of the heightened state of conflict that had ensued, I called both parties to my office were we could have an extensive conversation as to the cause and possible solution of the disagreement that ensued in the workplace.  

Once privacy was actualised, I had to focus on the behavior and particular events that had led to the conflict and avoid being personal with the cause of the conflict. Being personal during the process of problem solving creates bias that further worsens the conflict and situation in general.

Active listening is an effective way of ensuring that one is able to communicate effectively and listen to each parties complains (Nelson, 2017). I listened to each person’s side of the story critically and in manner that did not exude bias. I gave both the doctor and the nurse some time to speak and air out their individual complains so that the situation can be appropriately dealt with. Communication is an effective way of not only reducing stress levels but also fostering understanding between parties. Lack of communication is responsible for strife and war within the workplace. Communication between parties can also help in finding out or dealing with the situation by finding suitable solutions from the identified needs.

Afterwards, after analyzing the situation, I was able to identify the areas of disagreement that existed between the two parties. I found out that the disagreement was based on personal assumption of superiority and competition between the two parties. I then made sure that both of them understood that there is no one who is above the other in the medical field and that all the medical personnel work together so as to improve the health state of the patients under their care.   

Prioritizing conflict in terms of urgent matters is highly crucial. I was able to prioritize the conflict in terms of what needed attention first and what needed to be attended  to later. Since the patient is the most important consumer of healthcare, it was critical that the needs of the patient receive the first attention. The patient had to be taken to the appropriate ward. I was also critical that the parties avoid such unnecessary confrontations in future as this would risk both their reputation and that of the hospital in the long-run. It was also crucial that both the medical workers came to an agreement that showed they would never perform such an act in the future.

Measures Applied to Deal with the Situation

There are a variety of leadership styles that a leader can employ in an institution, among this are the autocratic, democratic leadership, transformational leadership, team leadership, facilitative leadership, cross-cultural leadership, facilitative and team leadership. In this in this instance, I used the autocratic leadership style (Azar & Asiabar, 2015; Paramova,& Blumberg, 2017).

I had to coerce and give threats to the two for causing a commotion within the institution premises. I had to make sure that both of them were made aware of the effects of their actions and what the result of this actions would lead to at the end of the day. The use of autocracy is not effective in most instance. However, it is effective in managing difficult situations where individuals are not ready to cooperate with institutional policy (Komer,  Jason,  Harvey,  & Olson, 2015; Valle, 2016).

Autocracy causes deviant workplace behavior when used in multiple occasions. However, it is critical to use the approach when workers fail to follow organizational norms in singular occasions. It is not effective to use the approach in multiple occasions as it leads to deviant behavior in workers. Workers should only be warned in order to avoid deviant behavior and not left to work under pressure during most occasions as this further leads to deviant behavior among the workers in questions  (Ardestani,  Asiabar,  Azar & Abtahi, 2016).

In-order for effective conflict resolution to be achieved, it is crucial that some warning are given to those involved in the conflict. The nurse and doctor involved in the conflict were let go on a disciplinary leave of one week. Both the nurse and doctor were to meet with the disciplinary committee after the end of their leave.

Patient care had to be continued within the surgical ward until the patients condition improved. The patient was wheeled to the surgical ward to receive patient centered care that met the patient’s needs.

In order to avoid the development of a similar conflict in the near future, a list of patients who could receive admission to the medical was developed. The laying down of guiding principles that show how activities are supposed to be performed within the ward is effective as it ensures that it is possible to differentiate which patient needs to be admitted in which facility and at what stage of disease.

Nurses and doctors were also briefed on the expected workplace behavior while working in the hospital. Those nurses and doctors who do not follow hospital policy were to face disciplinary action.

Further it is critical for the mental health of nurses and doctors to face consideration. Due to this fact, it is thus critical that all nurses were to visit the counselors office every once a month. Depression affects work and performance. Medical workers who received medical care were able to perform better at the workplace and produce better results compared to those who do not.

It is also easier for the management of emotional and other attributes related to the workplace.

Leadership Style Employed in the Management Approach

Within the workplace environment, clinical leadership  is  critical  in maintaining and fostering cohesiveness in the workplace. Clinical leadership in itself describes the activities of leadership that are practiced in the workplace. Aspects of leadership that are practiced in the clinical lsetting are crucial in maintaining both personal and individual peace.

Poor clinical leadership is linked to poor patient prognosis and employee satisfaction. For better employee satisfaction, appropriate frameworks of leadership that follow the hierarchy of command and unity of direction must be appropriately established. A lack of unity of command and unity of direction hampers progress in the workplace and leads to poor results at the end of the day.    

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is essential to mange conflicts within an organization appropriately. The failure to mange conflicts is linked to poor performance within the organization. Additionally, the reputation of the hospital or medical facility is linked to how the worker respond to pressure and conflict.

In-order to control conflict in the workplace and prevent future conflict from coming into form within the workplace environment, it is crucial to promote a cohesive environment through having formal gatherings that give both doctors and nurses to converse with each other. Holding tea, building activities helps to build cohesiveness in the workplace. Team building activities such as conferences and seminars where topics are discussed aid in bridging the gap between community members.  

References

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Autesserre, S. (2014). Peaceland: Conflict resolution and the everyday politics of international intervention. Cambridge University Press.

Avruch, K., & Black, P. (2014). Conflict resolution in intercultural settings: Problems and prospects.

Azar, F. E., & Asiabar, A. S. (2015). Does leadership effectiveness correlates with leadership styles in healthcare executives of Iran University of Medical Sciences. Medical journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 29, 166.

Dukes, E. F. (2018). Structural forces in conflict and conflict resolution in democratic society. In Conflict Resolution (pp. 155-171). Routledge

Jeong, H. W. (2018). Research on conflict resolution. In Conflict Resolution (pp. 3-34). Routledge..

Lumsden, M. (2018). Breaking the Cycle of Violence: Three Zones of Social Reconstruction 1. In Conflict Resolution (pp. 131-151). Routledge.

Komer, A. C., Jason, L. A., Harvey, R., & Olson, B. (2015). Leadership Styles of Oxford House Officers. Journal of addictive behaviors, therapy & rehabilitation, 4(2).

Nelson, W. E. (2017). Dispute and Conflict Resolution in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, 1725-1825. UNC Press Books.

Paramova, P., & Blumberg, H. (2017). Cross-Cultural Variation in Political Leadership Styles. Europe's journal of psychology, 13(4), 749.

Polley, D. B. (2017). Multisensory conflict resolution: Should I stay or should I go?. Neuron, 93(4), 725-727.

Rubenstein, R. E. (2018). Conflict resolution and the structural sources of conflict. In Conflict Resolution (pp. 173-195). Routledge.

Singer, L. (2018). Settling disputes: Conflict resolution in business, families, and the legal system. Routledge.

Valle, D. (2016). 2015 Victor A. McKusick Leadership Award Introduction: Charles Scriver. American journal of human genetics, 98(3), 431.

Wallensteen, P. (2018). Understanding conflict resolution. SAGE Publications Limited.