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Conflict and Confrontation

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Institutional Affiliation

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Date
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Conflict and Confrontation

It is clear that Sally is angry, and dealing with such outbursts requires calmness and

patience. As a supervisor, I must effectively deal with Sally's outbursts to avoid further

escalating the situation and find a better solution to her demands. I will have to maintain my

emotions and not lose my cool, raise my voice, or shout at her. The other best approach to handle

the situation before sitting down and deliberating on the solutions is to avoid making comments

about Sally's anger or tell her not to be angry. McConnell's (2018) advice to all supervisors is not

to patronize or lecture. I would have listened keenly to her concerns without interrupting during

the outburst. It would have helped Sally calm down and made her feel respected. Immediately

after Sally had finished expressing her concerns, the best thing I would have done was to engage

her in questions. The person who inquires most pertinent issues always controls the agenda and

the direction of the exchange (McConnell, 2018). The exchange between Sally and me is to meet

her demands and calm her down. Therefore, I will have to assure her that I have understood her

problem and we will do something if possible.

The possible solutions to the situation are compromising and collaboration. To

compromise, I will have to meet Sally's demands so that she can get part of what she wants.

Sally is demanding to have a full-time person to help her out by Friday and an end to the

treatment she is receiving from the supervisor. According to Sally, the supervisor is overworking

her and ignoring her. We will stop ignoring her and give her an aide. The solution will partly

meet her wants. In collaboration, I will have to work with Sally in supervising. She has regular

duties in the unit and supervising. The solution will partly solve her concern of feeling

overworked.
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The advantage of compromising is that it is a partial-win strategy. Everybody leaves the

situation satisfied and appreciated (Bamson & Zeb-Obipi, 2019). Listening to Sally's demands

and providing solutions to some of her demands will satisfy her. It will make her stop

considering quitting the hospital. The other advantage is that it will maintain the relationship

between Sally and the supervisor. The disadvantage of this approach is that Sally will not have

all her demands met. Another disadvantage is that the unit will remain short-staffed because the

solution will involve releasing one employee from their regular duties. The advantage of

collaborating is that it will strengthen the relationship between Sally and the supervisor.

McConnell (2018) states that collaboration helps build positive relationships. The potential

disadvantage of this approach is that one party will benefit more than the other. The supervisor

will get extra work, that is, helping Sally, while Sally will get part of her work reduced.

Two other employees in the unit have the same duties as Sally, and none has complained

so far. Therefore, meeting Sally's demand will put me in a trap because it will be unfair to

provide an aide to one working group leader and leave the rest. The best approach is to make a

decision considering all the working group leaders, including Sally. Hence, I will ask them to

work in collaboration instead of providing an aide to each one of them. They will be conducting

their working group regular duties as usual. The collaboration will be on the supervision part.
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References

Bamson, D., & Zeb-Obipi, I. (2019). Compromise conflict management style and its impact on

the organizational health of federal agencies in rivers state, Nigeria. International Journal

of Business School Annals, 6(1), pp. 54-61.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343892631_Compromise_Conflict_Manageme

nt_Style_and_its_Impact_on_Organizational_Health_of_Federal_Agencies_in_Rivers_St

ate_Nigeria

McConnell, C. R. (2018). Umiker’s management skills: For the new healthcare supervisor. (7th

Ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning,