Conflict Management on Healthcare Outcomes-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the impact of different styles of Conflict Management on healthcare outcomes. Answer: Effective nursing leadership is a medium, which helps in comprehensive fulfillment of health care delivery needs and consumers demands (MacPhee et al., 2012). However, according to Doody and Doody (2012), nurses are over-managed and are led inadequately and as a result, they experience numerous unprecedented challenges while handling patients and delivering care to them. This leads to the generation of emotional tension and conflicts in the workplace (Saeedet al., 2014). The notion of leadership in nursing and healthcare is changing constantly with the discovery of several new theories and frameworks and this leads to generation of different styles of leadership that goes with different conflict management styles (Saeedet al., 2014). The main aim of this study is to examine the impact of different styles of conflict management on healthcare outcomes. The study also aims to analyse how these health care outcomes can be modulated via guiding different conflict management styles with compatible leadership style under specific cultural context. The essay initiates with shedding a brief light on the healthcare issues associated with interpersonal conflict management styles. Under this theme, the essay gives an insight on avoidance and compromising conflict management styles. Towards the end, the essay aims to compare different leadership styles with different conflict management styles. The essay also attempts to evaluate the leadership compatibility with conflict management and how these are helpful in modulating the overall healthcare outcome. Interpersonal conflict management via accommodating and avoidance style According to Johansen (2012), under critical care units and medical-surgical units, nurses prefer avoidance approach in order to cope up with the interpersonal conflicts. During nurse-physician conversation, when a nurse feels intimidated by the "power" or authority" of the doctor, she (nurse) hesitates to counter the physicians regarding the need of the patient and thus giving birth of avoidance conflict management style. A study carried by Baddar et al. (2016), showed that there is a strong relationship between nurses' application of conflict management strategies and their age. For example, young nurses who are less than 30 years old tend to employ more compromising conflict resolution strategies with their clients and accommodating conflict resolution strategies with the physicians. On the other hand, older generation prefers to use collaborative approach with both the physicians and patients. Baddar et al. (2016) further explained that young nurses tend to vouch for approval coming from other people and prefer to share healthy yet tolerable relationship with their clients and try to avoid having enemies in their workplace. Baddar et al. (2016) is of the opinion that compromising conflict resolution strategy brings medium benefits as it attempts to satisfy everyone involved in the conflict. However, Johansen (2012) believed that compromising conflict management style is a kind of poorly managed con flict and such unresolved conflicts may have negative outcome over organisation, individuals and on clients outcomes. According to Thomas-Kilmann Instrument for conflict management accommodating conflict management style is helpful to preserve harmony between the relationships at all cost but such management style give rise to a sense of ignorance that may be detrimental for a long term situation (Riasi Asadzadeh, 2015). Compromising conflict management style may lead to temporary settlement but the long-term outcome may be negative (Riasi Asadzadeh, 2015). Hence it is better that the nurses win over their personal inferiority can engage in dialogue with the doctors in order to avoid any long-term confusion. Such avoidance of confusion will help the healthcare professionals to deliver quality care to the patients. Moreover, the tactics of engaging in dialogue is particularly important under acute care settings because such settings are susceptible to frequent conflict arising out of chaotic nature of the environment (Johansen, 2012). Transactional and conflict management Transactional leadership style shares a positive relationship with compromising styles of conflict management (Saeed et al., 2014). Transactional leadership emphasize on the exchange of process based on the fulfilment of comprehensive contractual obligations. Moreover, a transactional leader identifies and clarifies the subordinates key responsibility areas (Saeed et al., 2014). They also subsequently communicate to them regarding how to execute the task and provide feedback. This mode of guidance or instructive nature of leadership promotes the style of compromise in conflict management (Saeed et al., 2014). Here a nurse working under a transactional leader feels that the leader is pioneer in drafting the correct way towards any medical situation and hence work according to their instruction without raising their owns voice. According to Aritz and Walker (2014), the concept of transactional leadership style and compromising style of conflict management is more applicable in Asian cu lture in comparison to US culture. Nurses belonging from US mainstream culture tend to employ more strategies like dominating to protect the self-interest. They also prefer confrontational and competitive styles of conflict management. Furthermore, nurses of US origin become friends again on the next day after having an open confrontation. On the contrary nurses of Asian origin tend to employ strategies like avoiding, obliging and compromising in order to maintain personal harmony. In Asian nurses, open or direct confrontation are always avoided at any cost and hence generating the significance of transactional leadership management via employing compromise as an important way out in conflict management among the Asian nurses (Aritz Walker, 2014). Thus compromising style of conflict management though has certain drawbacks in proper exchange of knowledge between the nurse and the doctors, but at the same time helps in the maintenance of harmony of the workplace and providing effecti ve treatment in proper time. Transformational leadership and conflict management According to Saeed et al. (2014), integrating or collaborative style of conflict management involves rigorous exchange of information with a gesture of openness. It involves stringent analysis of personal differences in order to arrive on an effective conclusion. When nurses employ integrating style for conflict management, it reflects that they have concerns for the patients. The integrating style of conflict management also reflects that nurses have a problem solving nature and are solution oriented. Chan et al. (2014) stated that nurses who employ integrating style for conflict management are successful in achieving behavioural compliance and are less likely to go through a persistent conflict at professional sector and have comparatively less dispute. According to Saeed et al. (2014), transformational relationship has significant influence over obliging and integrating style of conflict management. This is because, transformational leaders focus on the long-term needs and not on immediate needs to the employees. Their concern focused over the future issues provides a holistic approach towards influencing nurses towards practicing integrating style for conflict management. Such leadership style is more effective during turbulent environment and conflicting situation, which is common in health care practice especially during emergency setup. A transformational leader seeks new ways of working in a conflicting situation. This they do via managing the entire situation in a positive way (Saeed et al., 2014). For a transformational leader to be successful, he or she needs to become a role model for the subordinate staffs. In order to become a role model, a transformational leader needs to update his or her knowledge and respond on the basis of evidence-based approach (Doody Doody, 2012). Moreover, for a transformational nurse leader to be successful and to manage the conflict in an effective manner, they are required to be charismatic. Here charisma is dependent on the personal trait like self-confidence, persuasiveness and extra-ordinary ideas that generate affection along with commitment towards the vision and goals (Doody Doody, 2012). However, within transformational leadership, there are numerous levels like direct leadership roles at the grass-root level and higher leadership roles at the service level. The differenc e in job role leads to conflict while taking the final decisions. Direct leaders lies at a vulnerable position as ideas are transmitted through direct leadership. They are in a pressure to meet the requirement of the clients and at the same time are restricted by the upper level leaders who always force to provide emphasis on organizational and strategic issues (Doody Doody, 2012). Direct leaders are also unaware of the budgetary constraints of the organization and hence in a difficult position to balance staff conflict management and conflict management with their own hierarchy. Thus for a transformational leader to promote conflict management through integrating conflict management strategy, they need to be smart enough to communicate their vision to the staffs while recognising the pith fall within their job role when shared vision comes into the scenario (Doody Doody, 2012). As a summary, it can be said that both transactional and transformational styles is beneficial for the safety of conflict management in nursing and healthcare. Here transactional leadership is way more compatible with the nurses of Asian origins as they try to avoid face to face conflict in order to dodge direct confrontation and this abide by the compromising and avoidance style of conflict management. Thus proper training along with proper implementation of developmental programmes should be undertaken in order to make specific links between the behaviour of the leader and subsequent impact on the style of conflict management by the subordinate nurse and it healthcare outcomes. References Aritz, J., Walker, R. C. (2014). Leadership styles in multicultural groups: Americans and East Asians working together.International Journal of Business Communication,51(1), 72-92. Retrieved from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2329488413516211 Baddar, F., Salem, O. A., Villagracia, H. N. (2016).Conflict resolution strategies of nurses in a selected government tertiary hospital in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.Journal of Nursing Education and Practice,6(5), 91.DOI: 10.5430/jnep.v6n5p91 Chan, J. C., Sit, E. N., Lau, W. M. (2014). Conflict management styles, emotional intelligence and implicit theories of personality of nursing students: A cross-sectional study.Nurse education today,34(6), 934-939.https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2013.10.012 Doody, O., Doody, C. M. (2012).Transformational leadership in nursing practice.British Journal of Nursing,21(20), 1212-1218. Johansen, M. L. (2012). Keeping the peace: conflict management strategies for nurse managers.Nursing Management,43(2), 50-54.doi: 10.1097/01.NUMA.0000410920.90831.96 MacPhee, M., Skelton?Green, J., Bouthillette, F., Suryaprakash, N. (2012). An empowerment framework for nursing leadership development: supporting evidence.Journal of advanced nursing,68(1), 159-169. DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2011.05746.x Riasi, A., Asadzadeh, N. (2015).The relationship between principals reward power and their conflict management styles based on ThomasKilmann conflict mode instrument.Management Science Letters,5(6), 611-618. DOI:10.5267/j.msl.2015.4.004 Saeed, T., Almas, S., Anis-ul-Haq, M., Niazi, G. S. K. (2014). Leadership styles: relationship with conflict management styles.International Journal of Conflict Management,25(3), 214-225. https:// dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683941311300252