Conflict Resolution Sample Paper

Conflict is a common thing in almost all institutions. It is more common in healthcare facilities since there are plenty of human interactions, and the workload is sometimes hefty. Conflicts are more likely to occur during working hours, which are busy, like when there is an emergency. Professionals in the healthcare sector play different roles like caregiver, educator, leader or manager.

In all of these roles, there are various types of interactions between physicians, between physicians and members of staff, and between the health care team or staff and the sick person or patient’s family (Sexton & Orchard, 2016). When there are all these interactions, the chances of having a conflict at the facility increase substantially. The following excerpt discusses a scenario in an oncology setting as it evaluates the type of conflict involved, the conflict resolution adopted, and the best strategies for resolving such a conflict.

Analysis of the Conflict

In the scenario, there is a conflict in the Safety and Quality Department where the staff often cross paths with the department leader. The staff members feel that the quality and safety manager has excess power and authority, which sometimes results in most of the disagreements between them and their leader. Nonetheless, not each one of them has bothered to protest about it because they are afraid of getting fired or making things worse. Thus, there seems to be a conflict between the healthcare team. To resolve the conflict, the eleven staff members have opted to use the accommodation approach where the party affected continues to lose. In contrast, the other party (Safety and Quality Department leader) proceeds to win.

The scenario is a win/lose since one party does not mind forfeiting their position. It seems that the junior staff team wishes to safeguard the relationship between them and the manager rather than quarrel about the issues involved. They also fear losing their jobs. This conflict resolution approach is not very healthy since the junior staff team will continue to suffer. As much as they want to safeguard their jobs, working under such circumstances is not healthy. It may affect their productivity and how they relate to other professionals outside their department. The manager might also be unaware of the issue since it has not been brought up.

Recommendations

Instead of utilizing the accommodation approach, the junior staff should try using the collaboration approach, which has been deemed the most effective strategy for settling differences. This approach involves empathizing and trying to understand the other point of view (Wallensteen, 2018). It requires everyone to commit to arriving at the best outcome for every party involved. With this strategy, the junior staff team should raise the issue and try to talk to the management about reducing the powers of the safety and quality department leader, or ask him or her to change their leadership style.

They can also go for the compromise approach, where each side will have to forfeit one thing to gain the other in order to arrive at a middle ground. For instance, the junior staff team may choose to confront the manager and risk their relationship with them. The leader may choose to change their leadership style to accommodate their woes and have a better working environment where everyone is comfortable. That would be a win/win situation (Almost et al., 2016).

In conclusion, not making any efforts to resolve an issue leads to a situation where one party feels victimized. In specific scenarios, the party in the wrong is sometimes unaware of the effects of their actions on others. Thus, better conflict resolution approaches have to be adopted to bring a better outcome. Different strategies fit different circumstances and choosing the best strategy is the secret behind arriving at the best resolution.

References

Almost, J., Wolff, A. C., Stewart‐Pyne, A., McCormick, L. G., Strachan, D., & D’souza, C. (2016). Managing and mitigating conflict in healthcare teams: an integrative review. Journal of advanced nursing, 72(7), 1490-1505.
Sexton, M., & Orchard, C. (2016). Understanding healthcare professionals’ self-efficacy to resolve interprofessional conflict. Journal of interprofessional care, 30(3), 316-323.
Wallensteen, P. (2018). Understanding conflict resolution. Sage