Conflict Management

Introduction

Any organisation in which people interact has a potential for conflict. Health care institutions include
many interacting groups: staff with staff, staff with patients, staff with families and visitors, staff with
physicians, and so on. These interactions frequently lead to conflicts.

Conflict relates to human feelings, including feelings of neglect, of being taken for granted, of being
treated like a servant, of not being appreciated, of being ignored, and of being overloaded. Conflict
is related to ignoring an individual’s self esteem and worth. The individual’s feelings build into anger
to the point of range. This results in overt behaviours like brooding, arguing, or fighting.

Definition

An expressed struggle between at least two interdependent parties, who perceive incompatible
goals, scarce rewards, and interference from the other party in achieving their goals. They are in a
position of opposition in conjunction with cooperation.

Characteristics of conflict

The characteristics of a conflict situation are:

1) At least two parties (individuals or groups) are involved in some kind of interaction.
2) Mutually exclusive goals and mutually exclusive values exist, either in fact or as perceived by
the patients involved.
3) Interaction is characterized by behaviour destined to defeat, reduce, or suppress the
opponent or to gain a mutually designated victory.
4) The parties face each other with mutually opposing actions and counteractions.
5) Each party attempts to create an imbalance or relatively favoured position of power vis-a-vis
the other.

Types of conflicts

Conflict has been described and studied from the standpoint of its context, or where it occurs. 3
types of conflicts are

 Intrapersonal conflict: - an intrapersonal conflict occurs within an individual in situations in

which he or she must choose between two alternatives. Choosing one alternative means
that he or she cannot have the other; they are mutually exclusive. E.g. we might internally
debate whether to complete an assignment that is due the next day or watch a favourite
television programme.
 Interpersonal conflict: - is conflict between two or more individuals. It occurs because of
differing values, goals, action, or perceptions. For e.g. when you want to go to a science
fiction movie, but your partner may prefer to attend an opera. Interpersonal conflict
becomes more difficult when we are involved in issues relating to racial, ethnic and life style
values and norms.
  Organizational conflicts: - conflict also occurs in organization because of differing
perceptions or goals. Organizational conflicts may be intrapersonal or interpersonal, but
they originate in the structure and function of the organization. Typically, aspects of the
organisations style of management, rules, policies and procedures give rise to conflict. When
a conflict occurs within an organization, it is important that the conflict be resolved in a
constructive way in order to maintain the team’s motivation. The leader’s role takes on
special significance.

Two areas responsible for conflict in organisations are role ambiguity and role conflict

 Role ambiguity occurs when employees do not know what to do, how to do it, or what the
outcomes must be. This frequently occurs when policies and rules are ambiguous and
unclear.
 Role conflict occurs when two or more individuals in different positions within the
organization believe that certain actions or responsibilities belong exclusively to them. The
conflict could relate to competition. E.g. In some hospitals, conflict have existed between the
nurse and the social workers about the responsibility for providing discharge planning. Both
groups see discharge planning as an important aspect of their own care of the patients.
 Organisational structure: - may be another source of conflict. Often this is seen as a conflict
over territory. Everyone tries to protect his or her current territory or area of responsibility
and perhaps expand it. This type of conflict increases as organization grows. To minimize it
organizations use job descriptions, organisational charts and other such mechanism.
 Scarcity of resources: - resources are not only monetary. Resources may also refer to
employees, space or other elements critical to the operation of any unit within an
institution.

The conflict process

Before managers can or should attempt to intervene in conflict, they must be able to assess its five
stages accurately

1. Latent conflict (also called antecedent conditions).

2. Perceived conflict
3. Felt conflict
4. Manifest conflict
5. Conflict resolution
6. Conflict aftermath.

Latent conflict

The first stage in the conflict process, latent conflict, implies the existence of antecedent conditions
such as short staffing and rapid change. In this stage, conditions are ripe for conflict, although no
conflict has actually occurred and none may ever occur. Much unnecessary conflicts could be
prevented or reduced if managers examined the organisation more closely for antecedent
conditions.
Perceived conflict

If the conflict progresses, it may develop into the second stage: perceived conflict. Perceived or
substantive conflict is intellectualized and often involves issues and roles. The person recognizes it
logically and impersonally as occurring. Sometimes, conflict can be resolved at this stage before it is
internalized or felt.

Felt conflict

The third stage, felt conflict, occurs when the conflict is emotionalized. Felt emotions include
hostility, fear, mistrust, and anger. It is also referred to as affective conflict. It is possible to perceive
conflict and not feel it. A person also can feel the conflict but not perceive the problem.

Manifest conflict

It is also called as overt conflict, action is taken. The action may be to withdraw, compete, debate, or
seek conflict resolution. People often learn pattern of dealing with manifest conflict early in their
lives, and family background and experiences often directly affect how conflict is dealt with in
adulthood.

Gender also may play a role in how we respond to conflict. Men are socialized to respond more
aggressively to conflict, while women are more apt to try to avoid conflicts or to pacify them. Power
also plays a role in conflict resolution. Therefore, the action an individual takes to resolve conflict is
often influenced by culture, gender, age, power position and upbringing.

Conflict aftermath

The final stage in the conflict process is conflict aftermath. There is always conflict aftermath-
positive or negative. If the conflict is managed well, people involved in the conflict will believe that
there position was given a fair hearing. If the conflict is managed poorly the conflict issues frequently
remain and may return later to cause more conflict.

Outcomes of conflict

We often hear people hear about conflict situation resulting in win-win, win-lose and lose-lose.
Filley(1975) identified these 3 different positions or outcomes of conflict.

Win-lose outcome: - occurs when one person obtains his or her desired ends in the situation
and the other individual fails to obtain what is desired. Often winning occurs because of
power and authority within the organisation or situation.
Lose-lose outcome: - in lose-lose situation, there is no winner. The resolution of the conflict
is unsatisfactory to both parties.
Win- win outcome: - are of course the most desirable. In these situations, both parties walk
away from the conflict having achieved all or most of their goals or desires.
 Conflict management
The optimal goal in resolving conflict is creating a win- win solution for all involved. This outcome is
not possible in every situation, and often the manager’s goal is to manage the conflict in a way that
lessens the perceptual differences that exist between the involved parties. A leader recognizes which
conflict management strategy is most appropriate for each situation. The choice of most appropriate
strategy depends on many variables, such as the situation itself, the urgency of the decision, the
power and status of the players, the importance of the issue, and the maturity of the people
involved in the conflict.

Common conflict resolution strategies

 Compromising
In compromising, each party gives up something it wants for compromising not to result in a
lose-lose situation, both parties must be willing to give up something of equal value. It is
important that parties in conflict do not adopt compromise prematurely if collaboration is
both possible and feasible.
 Competing
The competing approach is used when one party pursues what it wants at the expense of
the others. Because only one party wins, the competing party seeks to win regardless of the
cost to others. Win-lose conflict resolution strategies leave the loser angry, frustrated, and
wanting to get even in the future.
Managers may use competing when a quick or unpopular decision needs to be made. It is
also appropriately used when one party has more information or knowledge about a
situation than the other. Competing in the form of resistance is also appropriate when an
individual needs to resist unsafe patient care policies or procedures, unfair treatment, abuse
of power, or ethical concerns.
 Cooperating / Accommodating
Cooperating is the opposite of competing. In the cooperating approach, one party sacrifices
his or her beliefs and allows the other party to win. The actual problem is usually not solved
in this win-lose situation. Accommodating is another term that may be used for this strategy.
The person cooperating or accommodating often collects IOUs from the other party that can
be used at a later date. Cooperating and accommodating are appropriate political strategies
if the item in conflict is not of high value to the person doing the accommodating.
 Smoothing
Smoothing is used to manage a conflict situation. One person “smoothes” others involved in
the conflict in an effort to reduce the emotional component of the conflict. Managers often
use smoothing to get someone to get accommodate or cooperate with another party.
Smoothing occurs when one party in a conflict attempts to compliment the other party or to
focus on agreements rather than differences. Although it may be appropriate for minor
disagreements, smoothing rarely results in resolution of actual conflict.
 Avoiding
In the avoiding approach, the parties involved are aware of a conflict but choose not to
acknowledge it or attempt to resolve it. Avoidance may be indicated in trival disagreements,
when the cost of dealing with the conflict exceeds the benefits of solving it, when the
problem should be solved by people other than you, when one party is more powerful than
 the other, or when the problem will solve itself. The great problem in using avoidance is that
the conflict remains, often only to re-emerge at a later time in an even more exaggerated
fashion.
 Collaborating
Collaborating is an assertive and cooperative means of conflict resolution that results in a
win-win solution. In collaboration, all parties set aside their original goals and work together
to establish a supraordinate or priority common goal. In doing so, all parties accept mutual
responsibility for reaching the supraordinate goal. Although it is very difficult for people truly
to set aside original goals, collaborating cannot occur if this doesn’t happen. For example, a
nurse who is unhappy that she did not receive requested days off might meet with her
superior and jointly establish the supraordinate goal that staffing will be adequate to meet
the patient safety criteria. If the new goal is truly a jointly set goal, each party will perceive
that an important goal has been achieved and that the supraordinate goal is most
important. In doing so, the focus remains on problem solving and not on defeating the other
party.
Collaboration is rare when there is a wide difference in power between the groups or
individuals involved. In collaboration problem solving is a joint effort with no superior-
subordinate, order giving-order taking relationship. True collaboration requires mutual
respect; open and honest communication; equitable, shared decision making powers.
For a leader to gain competence in facilitating collaboration, the following ten lessons must
be learned.
1. Know thyself - as individuals come to the process of collaboration, they must be
conscious of their own goals and values so that they may be more reflective.
2. Learn to value and manage diversity - diverse perspective assist with synthesis and
improve quality of the collaboration process. Diversity includes both gender and
cultural differences.
3. Develop constructive conflict resolution skills - conflict resolution skills are essential
for successful collaboration. These skills include an understanding of the conflict
process, the nature of emotional versus task conflict, and effective conflict
management.
4. Use your power to create win- win situations - while dominant power has no place
in the collaboration process, the leader can use power to mediate, draw out others,
show respect for members, demonstrate good will, share information, and use the
power of position to facilitate the collaborative process.
5. Master interpersonal and process skills - interpersonal skills such as flexibility and
cooperation are important as well as the organisational skills of systems thinking,
especially understanding organizational connections.
6. Recognize that collaboration is a journey - establish rapport, clarifying expectations,
and requesting feedback takes time, and lack of time often limits opportunities for
effective collaboration. But each collaborative effort is a step in the journey to
establishing a climate of collaboration for future conflict.
7. Leverage multidisciplinary forums to increase collaboration - shared decision making
is a hallmark of the collaborative process. Use forums to both listen to others and to
put forth your own position.
 8. Appreciate that collaboration can occult spontaneously - sometimes, the best
collaboration may begin in a hallway conversation that results in people beginning to
work together and share ideas to solve a conflict. Such exchanges can be exciting
when a shared commitment for action is agreed up on.
9. Balance autonomy and unity in collaborative relationships - the leader must balance
cooperation with the need to meet one’s own needs to find integrative solutions.
10. Remember that collaboration is not required for all decisions - autonomous decision
making is still vital, and taking the time for the collaborative process is often not cost
effective for many conflict issues.

 Negotiation
Negotiation is probably the most rapidly growing technique for handling conflicts. According
to Hampton, Summer, and Webber, negotiation includes bargaining power, distributive
bargaining, integrative bargaining and mediation. They are defined as follows:
 Bargaining power: refers to another person’s inducement to agree to your terms.
 Distributive bargaining: What either side gains is at the expense of the other. Most
labour-management bargaining falls into this category.
 Integrative bargaining: negotiators reach a solution that enhances both parties and
produces high joint benefits. Each party looks out for its own interest, with the focus
shifting to problem solving- from reducing demands to expanding the pool of
resources.
 Mediation: mediators attempt to eliminate surrender as a demand. They encourage
each party to acknowledge that they have injured the other, but are also dependent
on each other.

Specific skills in managing conflict

 Establish clear rules or guidelines and make them known to all.

 Create a supportive climate with a variety of options. This makes people feel comfortable
about making suggestions. It energizes them, promoting creative thinking and leading to
better solutions. It strengthens relationship.
 Tell people they are appreciated. Praise and confirmation of worth are important to every
one for job satisfaction.
 Stress peaceful resolution rather than confrontation. Build a bridge of understanding.
 Confront when necessary to preserve Pease. Do so by educating people about their
behaviour. Tell them the behaviour you perceive, what is wrong with it, and how it needs to
be corrected.
 Play a role that does not create stress or conflict. Do not play an ambiguous and fluctuating
role that creates confusion among employees.
 Judge timing that is best for all. do not postpone indefinitely.
 Keep the focus on issues and off personalities.
 Keep communication two-way
 Emphasize shared interests.
  Examine all solutions and accept the one most acceptable to both parties.
 If conflict is evident at decision making or implementation stage, work to reach an
agreement. Commit to a course of action serving some interests of all parties. Seek
agreement rather than power.
 Understand barriers to cooperation or resolution and focus on the dynamics of conflict to
resolve it.
 Determine needs that are being ignored or frustrated and require recognition and nurturing.
 Build trust by listening, clarifying, and allowing the challenges to unwind completely. Give
feedback to make sure you understand. Let people know you care and that you trust them.
 Renegotiate problem solving procedures to forestall further anger, distrust, and
defensiveness.

Managing unit conflict

Managing conflict effectively requires an understanding of its origin. Some common causes of
organisational conflicts are

 Poor communication
 Inadequately defined organisational structure
 Individual behaviour (incompatibilities or disagreements based on differences of
temperament or attitudes).
 Unclear expectations
 Individual or group conflicts of interest
 Operational or staffing changes
 Diversity in gender, culture or age.

All these types of unit conflicts can disrupt working relationship and result in lower productivity. It is
imperative, then, that the manager can identify the origin of unit conflicts and intervene as
necessary to promote cooperative, if not collaborative conflict resolution.

The following is the list of strategies that a manager may use to deal effectively with interpersonal,
organisational, or unit conflict:

 Confrontation: Many times the subordinates inappropriately expect the manager to solve
their interpersonal conflicts. Managers instead can urge subordinates to attempt to handle
their own problems by using face to face communication to resolve conflicts, as emails,
answering message machines, and notes are too impersonal for the delicate nature of
negative words.
 Third party consultation: Sometimes, managers can be used as neutral party to help others
resolve conflicts constructively. This should be done only if all parties are motivated to solve
the problem and if no differences exist in the status or power of the parties involved. If the
conflict involves multiple parties and highly charged emotions, the manager may find
outside experts helpful for facilitating communication and bringing issues to the forefront.
  Behaviour change: this is reserved for serious cases of dysfunctional conflict. Educational
modes, training development, or sensitivity training can be used to solve conflict by
developing self awareness and behaviour change in the involved parties.
 Responsibility charting: when ambiguity results from unclear or new roles, it is often
necessary to have the parties come together to delineate the function and responsibility of
roles. If areas of joint responsibility exist, the manager must clearly define such areas as
ultimate responsibility, approval mechanisms, support services, and responsibility for
informing. This is useful technique for elementary jurisdictional conflict.
 Structure change: sometimes, managers need to intervene in unit conflict by transferring or
discharging people. Other structure changes may be moving a department under another
manager, adding an ombudsman, or putting a grievance procedure in place. Often increasing
the boundaries of authority for one member of the conflict will act as effective structure
change to resolve unit conflict. Changing titles and creating policies also are effective
techniques.
 Soothing one party: this is a temporary solution that should be used in a crisis when there is
not time to handle the conflict effectively or when the parties are so enraged that
immediate conflict resolution is unlikely regardless of how the parties are soothed, the
manager must address the underlying problem later or this technique will become
ineffective.

Positive aspects of conflicts

Not all conflicts are equally serious, ominous or intimidating. Not all conflicts results in contest. A
certain amount of conflict or tension is needed for our personal growth and development.

 Conflict is an impetus for change :- conflict may have many positive consequences. First, it
often provides the impetus for change through the identification of problems or differences
in procedures. New methods, procedures, policies, or approaches will be searched for,
evaluated and implemented. A situation in which individuals or departments are struggling
with one another must be resolved. Solutions must be found that will result in greater
harmony. Thus the conflict results in stimulating innovation, creativity and change.
 Conflict helps understand others jobs and responsibilities :- conflict also helps individual
understand one another’s jobs and responsibilities. The health care environment and the
medical, nursing and allied health professionals are becoming increasingly specialized. The
differences provide a fertile ground for conflict. In the process of looking for solutions to a
problem, it is necessary to learn more about the other person and the factors that impinge
on that individual’s workday and responsibilities. This knowledge results in a great
appreciation for others on the team, creating unification and bonding within the
organization. Conflict situation provide an area in which differences in values and beliefs can
be brought out into the open, re-evaluated or challenged.
 Conflict opens new channels of communication: - setting conflicts involve defining and
examining a problem. Both these activities require skills in communication. In the process,
new approaches and avenue may evolve. In this sense conflict can result in providing a
formalized channel by which to express a grievance or once dissatisfaction with the manner
in which something is being done. Thus accumulated hostility can be reduced.
 Conflict may also result in more equitable distribution of resources or power within an
organization.
 Conflict as an energizer: - conflict also serves to energise people. It wakes them up a spicy
disagreement between departments or individuals tend to get our attention, and add a new
dimension to the work environment. In this sense conflict also provide an outlet for pent up
emotions.
 Conflict as a unifier: - there are times in any organization when a staff group can be united
by a threat or challenge from outside the group. The conflict may ultimately result in
strengthening of group identity and sense of togetherness.

Summary

The interrelationship among nurses and other personnel, patients, and families offer many
potentials for conflict. For this reason nurse managers should know how to manage conflict. Conflict
management keeps conflict from escalating, making work productive, and can make conflict a
positive or constructive force.

Research Abstract:

This study investigated how the conflict management strategies (non-confrontation, control,
and solution) were influenced by culture (Korean and American), by work relationship
(superior, colleague, and subordinate), and by tenure (1-7 years and 7+years). The answers of
501 participants (Korean N = 240; American N = 261) on the Organizational Communication
Conflict Instrument (OCCI) of Putnam and Wilson (1982) were analyzed. Both Koreans and
Americans use the solution strategy most frequently in their conflict situations, followed by
the control strategy. They least use the non-confrontation strategy. Americans use the
solution strategy more frequently than Koreans, while Koreans use the control strategy more
frequently than Americans. Americans more frequently use the solution strategy with a
colleague and a subordinate than with a superior, and less frequently use a control strategy
with a superior than with a subordinate and a colleague. Koreans more frequently use the
solution strategy with a colleague and a subordinate than with a superior, and more frequently
use a control strategy with a subordinate than with a superior and a colleague. As the tenure
of Korean participants increases, the use of the control strategy also increases. As the tenure
of American participants increases, on the contrary, the use of the control strategy decreases.

Bibliography

1) BT Basavanthappa; Nursing administration; 2 nd edition; Jaypee publications. Pp 534-537.

2) Russel. C.swansburg; introduction to management and leadership for nurse managers; 3 rd
edition; Jones and Bartlett publisher. Pp 543-548.
3) Bessie L Marquis; leadership roles and management functions in nursing. 5 th edition. Lippincot
publication. Pp 523-543.
4) Rebecca A Patronis; nursing leadership and management; Jaypee publishers; first edition;
Pp.329.
 SEMINAR ON
CONFLICT
MANAGEMENT

Submitted to Submitted by

Mrs. B Uma Maheshwari Mr.Jubin Andrews

HOD, Paediatric Nursing 2nt Year M.Sc Nursing

PION PION
 Terminologies

Conflict :- is the dissension that occurs when 2 or more individual with different values,
interests, goals or needs view things from different perspectives.

Negotiation :- is the communication between two or more parties to determine the nature of
future behaviour.

Intrapersonal conflict :- conflict that occurs within the individual.

Interpersonal conflict :- conflict that occurs between two or more people.

Organisational conflict :- conflict that occurs between two or more people in an organisation
setting.

Win-lose outcome :- in this one person obtains his needs while the other loses it.

Win- win outcome :- in this both parties achieves all or both of their goals.