Question

You are the director of the HIMT department. You attend a meeting with the nursing director of the surgery department, the chief medical director of surgery, and the director of the billing department, where you discuss the findings from a recent audit. The audit indicated a decline in compliance within Dr. Smith’s department. Dr. Smith begins cursing and speaks in a condescending manner toward you when you present the findings. She is certain that the data is flawed and you are misinterpreting it. The other members of the team are stunned and do not respond. All eyes turn toward you to respond:

• You had an opportunity to complete this exercise in YouSeeU. Reflect on your responses. Which conflict management method(s) were used by the members of your group? Reference 11.3 in the Mosser book.
• Using one or more of the methods of managing team conflict described by Mosser (state which one your group will use and why), formulate a written response.
• What measures will you take to minimize the chances of this happening again?
• What source(s) of power did you use in your response and plan? Why?

Answer 1

1^st part

CONFLICT RESOLUTION

It is defined as to resolve an issue between two or more people by various strategies.

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT METHODS

This can be broadly divided into 5 categories:

STRATEGY #1 : AVOIDING or WITHDRAWING

• This method is beneficial when the discomfort of confrontation exceeds the potential reward of the resolution of the conflict.
• avoiding any conflict resolution provides a “cooling off” period to the people involved so that they can later come back for meaningful resolution.

STRATEGY #2: COMPETING OR FORCING

• In this strategy, one side wins and other loses.
• The competitive strategy works best in an emergency situation.
• It is not considered as a good strategy for group problem-solving May negatively affect your relationship with the opponent in the long run
• The disadvantage is it may negatively affect the relationship with the opponent in the long run

STRATEGY #3 ACCOMMODATING or SMOOTHING

• In this strategy the one the concerns of other people first, rather than prioritizing his own concerns.
• This will help to protect more important interests while giving up on some less important ones
• Too much accommodation can result in groups which again lead to different types of conflicts

STRATEGY #4:COLLABORATING or WIN-WIN or PROBLEM SOLVING

• This is the most satisfactory approach to resolve conflict.
• ,A team should learn to encourage each member to participate with the ability to co-create a common solution that can be embraced by everyone.
• To maintain a long-term relationship.

Advantages of this strategy

• Leads to solving the actual problem
• Leads to a win-win outcome
• Reinforces mutual trust and respect
• Builds a foundation for effective collaboration in the future
• Shared responsibility of the outcome

Disadvantages are:

• Requires a commitment from all parties
• May require more effort and more time than some other methods.
• Not effective in an emergency situation

STRATEGY #5 COMPROMISING or RECONCILING

• In this strategy mutually acceptable solution are to be considered which partially satisfies both parties.
• Compromise is considered as being fair, even if no one is particularly happy with the final outcome.
• Faster issue resolution.

Drawbacks are:

• May result in a situation where both parties are not satisfied with the outcome .
• Does not contribute to building trust in the long run

2^nd part

The most accepted strategy to resolve any conflict is COLLABORATING OR CONFRONTING THE PROBLEM OR PROBLEM SOLVING

This strategy provide every individual to make a contribution in the outcoming of result which in turn accepted by all.

This develops high level of trust between groups.

In this everyone is responsible for the result.

ADVANTAGES

• Build trust and respect for each other
• Helpful in building long term relatiom=nships
• Leads to solving an actual problem
• Shared responsibility

3^rd part

Various measures to minimize the chances of conflict are:

COMMUNICATION

• This is the key to minimize any conflict in the workplace
• Conflict generally arise when there is a communication gap between employee and owner
• Delivering clear, concise and correct information will help to reduce confusion and tension in the workplace.

TREATING EVERYONE EQUALLY AND FAIRLY

Favoritism can lead to various conflicts among employees.

To ensure everyone is treated equally and fairly lead to a healthy workplace environment

POSITIVE ENVIRONMENT

Positive environment reduces conflict between employees and help them in building trust and respect for each other.

SET A FORMAL COMPLAINT PROCESS

Employees should have the knowledge of filing a complaint about any unresolved policy so that can be investigated later by the authorities.

BY PREVENTING WITHDRAWING

• Ignoring tense situations can make them big and even worse over time.
• Avoiding makes employee uncomfortable.
• This creates an awkward atmosphere in the workplace.

4^th part

SOURCES OF CONFLICT ARE:

ECONOMIC CONFLICT

This involves competing for motives to attain scarce resources.

VALUE CONFLICT

This involves incompatibility in ways of life , ideologies, principles, and practices.

POWER CONFLICT

occurs when each party wishes to maintain or maximize the amount of influence.

A STEPWISE PLAN TO REDUCE CONFLICT

Step 1: Define the source of the conflict.

Step 2: Look beyond the incident.

Step 3: Request solutions.

Step 4: Identify solutions both disputants can support.

Step 5: Agreement.