Transcript NUR 304\Conflict Management

Conflict Management
Conflict
• Natural
• Can be a useful growth experience
• Arises between 2 or more individuals from
a perceived threat to their wants, needs,
feelings, behaviors, or attitudes
• Organizational conflict: arises from
competition for limited resources
Conflict Theory
• Conflict closely related to power and political
issues
• May offer an individual personal gain, provide
prestige to the winner, be an incentive for
creativity, and serve as a powerful motivator
• Conflict that is managed instead of avoided,
ignored or suppressed can be used
effectively…if ineffective it can be debilitating
Sources of Conflict
• Conflict can arise because of differing
attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors
• May arise because the individuals involved
have differing viewpoints
• People working together in complex
environments encounter numerous
sources of conflict
• Conflict increases with both the number of
organizational levels and the number of
specialties
• Greater as the degree of association increases
and when some parties are dependent on others
• Competition for scarce resources, ambiguity,
communication barriers and the need for
consensus all contribute to conflict
Conflict
• Job conflict: the struggle between individual &
organizational goals
• Conflict occurs because of discord between
one’s individual values, philosophies & beliefs
and those of others
• When conflict is handled positively, there can be
personal or professional growth, improved
creativity, & satisfaction
• Conflict handled poorly can cause fear,
retaliation, anger and hostility
Categories of conflict
• Intrapersonal: arises within an individual
from 2 competing demands or ideas
• Interpersonal: the battle between 2 or
more individuals arising from
miscommunication or differences in values
• Intergroup: the result of struggles between
2 or more groups
Conflict for Nurses
• Nurses can feel conflict in form of role
overload (required to do the work of other
professionals); role ambiguity (the nurses’
responsibilities and duties expand without
a job description); and role stress (the
nurses’ boss has one idea about the job
and the nurse has a different perception)
Managing conflict
• Essential for all leaders
• Essential for positive work groups
• Nurses also need to be effective at
managing conflict with clients, physicians
and other health care providers
Escalation of conflict tactics
• Competition escalates conflict
• When we feel we are righteous we stop
listening…then we lose an opportunity to learn
• Labelling escalates conflict
• Dealing with personalities escalates
conflict…separate the person from the problem
• Constricting others and making threats escalates
conflict
• Issue expansion…need to stay focused
Stages of conflict
• Latent – antecedent conditions predict
conflict behavior
• Perceived – cognitive awareness of
stressful situation exists
• Felt – feelings and attitudes are present
and affect the conflict
• Manifest – overt behavior results from 3
earlier stages
Conflict Resolution
• Techniques include avoiding, forcing,
competing, compromising, confronting,
collaborating, bargaining, and problem
solving
Avoiding
• One party does not pursue own concerns or
those of other party
• Unassertive or uncooperative: the conflict is not
addressed
• May relate to the sense of powerlessness
associated with roles
• Creates lose-lose situations
• Withdrawal from a conflict does not resolve it, &
the individual who retreats may becoming
increasingly angry
Accommodating
• Cooperative but unassertive
• One party neglects own concerns to satisfy
concerns of others; emphasizes similarities,
minimizes differences, self sacrificing
• By complimenting one’s opponent and
accentuating points of agreement, one may
smooth out an agreement on minor issues but
the real issues still need to be dealt with
Compromising
• Assertive and cooperative
• One party gives up something to satisfy
both parties; middle position
• Because both parties feel that they
sacrifice something they are only partially
satisfied and it feels like a lose-lose
situation; may seem like a “quick fix” for
temporary settlement of complex issues
Collaborating
• One party works with other party to find
solution that satisfies both parties
• Cooperative, confronting issues
• Merge insights from different perspectives
with the commitment developed through
participation and resolution of hard
feelings
• Win-win
Competing
• Power oriented mode: assertive but
uncooperative
• One party wins, one party loses; high
concern for self, low concern for others
• Used for quick decisions; unpopular
causes; issues vital to the organization;
defence against people who exploit
noncompetitive behaviors
• win-lose situation
Deescalating
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Listening
Showing tact and concern for others
Appealing to deescalation
Goodwill gestures
Airing feelings
Negative inquiry
metacommunications
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Responding to all levels of communication
Fractionalization
Position paper
Problem solving
Establishing outside criteria
Win – Lose strategies
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Position power
Mental or physical power
Failure to respond
Majority rule
Railroading
competing
Lose-lose
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Compromise
Bribes
Arbitration
General rules
Win-win
• Consensus
• Problem solving
• Collaborating
Strategies
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Don’t blame the person for the problem
Focus on the issues, not the personalities
Protect each party’s self respect
Facilitate open and complete discussion of
the issues
• Give equal time to each party
• Encourage the expression of both positive
and negative feelings
• Encourage each party to listen actively
and try to understand the other person’s
point of view
• Help develop alternative solutions
• Summarize key points and plans
Outcomes
• Win-win: when both parties are satisfied
with the outcome
• Win-lose: when one party wins without
concern for the other
• Lose-lose: when neither party gets what
they want.