Role of Leader in Managing Conflict - Essay Example

?Role of a Leader in Conflict Management Introduction Conflict is inevitable in any human interaction. People face conflicts in their personal, aswell as professional lives. Conflict management is an art that needs to be learnt if one desires to succeed in the endeavours of life. In a professional environment, conflicts can be solved amicably if the leader possesses commendable capabilities and interpersonal skills for conflict resolution. The possession of these skills might be natural or learned by the individual. Prior to the discussion of conflict management, it is vital to comprehend the meaning of conflict. Kleynhans (2009) described a conflict as an active disagreement between people with different opinions, values or interests. The Foundation Coalition (n.d) defined conflict as the bone of contention among individuals or groups due to differing goals, needs and ideas. Marshall (2006) defined the sources of conflict to be diverse in nature; Differences in the values and customs of the individuals Presence of limited number of resources, thus provoking individuals to compete Lack of information or barriers in communication Presence of hostility in relations In terms of the initiation of conflicts, the health care industry is no different. Health care sector faces numerous instances of conflicts on a daily basis; some of the instances might be witnessed between doctors and nurses whereas others amongst the nurses. Pierre, Hofinger and Buerschaper (2008) stated that health care professionals are faced with intense moments of unexpected scenarios, rare illnesses and reactions that require dynamic and effective decision making. Such capabilities are even greatly required in the Critical Care Unit (CCU) where patients are faced with life threatening situations. Therefore, this study seeks to critically discuss the role of a leader in managing conflict in a CCU, using real life examples and case studies from the health care sector. An example is drawn from critical care unit in Riyadh Military Hospital to identify the real life instances of conflicts in a health care organization. This paper seeks to critically analyze the different types of conflict management strategies and techniques with the aid of the available literature and theories, as well as the approaches that can be adopted to avoid conflicts in the health care sector. 2. Nature of Conflicts in a Health Care Organization Certain degree of clashes of ideas about tasks and projects are often witnessed in a health care organization. Hovatter (n.d) stated that conflicts are mainly initiated when needs are not met effectively. He further stated that conflicts involve the inhibition of achievement of tasks of an individual or group by the actions or ideas of an individual or a group. In the light of this notion, it can be stated that there are mainly two types of conflicts that are found in an organization; group and individual conflict. Group conflict pertains to collective disagreement over something by a group of people in the organization. On the other hand, individual conflict is more personal and it mainly involves individuals. In order to solve the conflicts, the leaders need to assume the responsibility of ensuring an amiable and supportive environment in the organization. The health care sector has witnessed great changes with the passage of the years. Fagin and Garelick (2004) stated that doctors have been considered as the main sources of knowledge and authority over the possession of medical information. Doctors have been known to be educated while nurses have been trained to follow the instructions of the doctors in the most effective manner. However, Fagin and Garelick (2004) also stated that the gap in the acquisition of knowledge has been reduced by the improvement of standard of training of nurses, which became effective in 2000 by the Department of Health’s Project. Vivar (2006) also agreed that the broadening of the scope of training and education of the nurses has resulted in greater conflicts between doctors and nurses. Life threatening instances in critical care unit requires effective communication and coordination among the doctors and nurses to ensure that no impairments are witnessed in patient care. According to Bass, Talente and Wood (2006), power conflict is also witnessed among the different hierarchies of the health care professionals. The nursing staff may suffer conflicts due to the differing styles of management between the superior levels of staff and the subordinates. This aspect has been further explained with the aid of a relevant example of Riyadh Military Hospital. This unit had been experiencing high rate of turnover of qualified and expert nurses. Some of the reasons of the high turnover rate have been the increased nature of work load, increased duties and responsibilities of bedside nurses, alongside lack of support and motivation. There was also a need to improve the performance of new nurses. The leader nursing staff, including sister-in-charge, head nurse and administrator, was designated to devise lasting solutions to this problem which meant that some changes were supposed to be introduced in the workplace. In the scenario under consideration, the likelihood of conflict among the sister-in-charge, head nurse and the administrator is great since they have been jointly designated to take measures that would improve the competence of new nurses in their workplace and reduce the employee turnover rate. The sister-in-charge, head nurse and the administrator have their individualistic consents and opinions that find their origin in their respective roles in the organization structure. The head nurse has the most direct interaction with the nurses that are practically facing the problem of lack of training and education. In order to reduce the employee turnover rate, the head nurse has to pay due consideration to the collective opinion of the nurses that practically work in the hospital. Therefore, the head nurse has little choice but to favor the mutual consent of all working nurses in order to retain the workforce and develop team work. The sister-in-charge, on the other hand, is sandwiched between the head nurse and administrator. Therefore, the sister-in-charge has to pay due respect to the concerns of both, head nurse and administrator, and also supposed to get her individualistic opinion recognized by them. The administrator is loaded with the responsibility of managing the resources of the hospital and allocating appropriate funds to right activities that would benefit the staff as a whole. The administrator cannot blindly approve the request raised by the head nurse or the sister-in-charge. He assumes the responsibility to provide explanation about any action to the owners and needs to give justification about the allocation of funds to all activities. Owing to the difference of roles and responsibilities, it would not be wrong to state that the main source of probable conflict between these three individuals is due to the ‘conflict of interest” with respect to different aspects of the structure of the organization, for example the head nurse would opt for introducing a change in the company while ensuring that her subordinates are contented, whereas, the administrator would consider the appropriate allocation of resources to be his main aim. According to Asian Development Bank (2007), if conflicts of interests are not managed in an effective and timely manner then they can have disastrous consequences for the workplace. The case of Riyadh Military Hospital saga presents a good example of group conflict. There is another conflict about the authority of decision making between physicians and sister-in-charge in the unit. The on-call doctors may give orders to transfer patients to the CCU without consulting the availability of resources (staff, bed space etc) with the sister-in-charge. This results in extra workload for the staff in the CCU. There is a general feeling among all nurses that the tasks related to the acceptance or discharge of patients should be managed by the head nurse to ensure that there are no instances of extra workload on the staff and effective medical care to all patients. The nurses think that the head nurse can evaluate the ability and capacity of the nurses of the unit in the most fitting manner and communicate with the nursing administrator to either increase number of staff or decrease the load on the unit. 3. Modes of Conflict Resolution The Foundation Coalition (n.d) explained five of the conflict resolution modes that have originally been devised by Thomas Kilman as the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) (Consulting Psychologists Press, n.d.). There are different ways in which conflicts are addressed; competing, avoiding, accommodating, compromising and collaborating. None of these ways are considered to be perfect and neither advised to be used in every situation of conflict; rather every mode has its own set of circumstances where they can be used. Marshall (2006) also discussed these modes in his paper: Figure 1: Five modes of Conflict Management (The Foundation Coalition, n.d) 3.1 Competing Marshall (2006) explained that competing mode of addressing conflicts in a workplace involves complete dominance that has no room for collaboration or cooperation. It is considered to be a situation when absolute decision making is enjoyed by an individual. This type of mode is most suitable when vital and urgent actions are needed to be made that cannot afford the mutual content and collaboration of all the participating parties or individuals. Competing is also witnessed when personal interests are aimed to be safeguarded. 3.2 Avoidance Avoidance is another mode to tackle conflicts in workplaces. The Foundation Coalition (n.d.) stated that avoidance involves low assertiveness and low coordination. Individuals or groups tend to avoid the problem, rather than addressing the problem or aiming to improve matters. There might be several reasons of avoiding issues, such as fear of confrontations, lack of time and lack of urgency of the problem. 3.3 Accommodation The Foundation Coalition (n.d.) stated that accommodation involves high coordination and low assertiveness. According to Vivar (2006), accommodating modes encourages the individuals or groups to give in for the needs of the others. This type of conflict management technique is mostly witnessed to develop performance and to keep peace in the workplace. However, every individual should ensure that accommodating modes are followed by different colleagues at different occasions, rather than expecting the same ones to give in all the time. 3.4 Compromising The Foundation Coalition (n.d) stated that compromising mode involves medium level of assertiveness and cooperation. Compromising mode is considered to be a winning situation for both parties if they are asked to be flexible to an equal level. Compromising modes are witnessed when both the parties enjoy equal power and they show commitment to resolve the matter. 3.5 Collaborating According to the Foundation Coalition (n.d), collaborating mode is considered to be high assertiveness and high coordination. It demands great commitment from participating units since it might require great deal of time to devise an effective solution to the problem. 4. Conflict Mode Adopted by Nurses in Critical Care Units Goodman (2004) stated that avoidance is commonly adopted by nurses as the mode to resolve conflicts. One of the possible reasons for this action can be that they work in stressful conditions which do not give them the leverage or time to address the issues. Vivar (2006) and Valentine (2001) also agreed that nursing staff tends to opt for the avoidance mode with their doctors and superior nursing staff. Vivar (2006) provided useful reasons as to why avoidance is adopted by nurses; fearing of making matters worse and fear of losing their jobs. New nurses are dependent on their superiors for knowledge and expertise; therefore, they choose to ignore the issues that they might be facing in the health care workplace. 5. Strategies for Effective Conflict Management The interface between leadership and management often becomes quite invisible, since the two are highly related to each other. Reiling (2007) explained that the most basic difference between leadership and management is that the former stresses upon vision while the latter emphasizes upon its implementation. Owing to their great power and authority, leaders can effectively manage conflicts. Family, Career and Community Leaders of America Inc. (n.d.) described conflict management as an important part of leading a team and organization. He also stated that conflict management is one of the valuable qualities of dynamic leaders. Solving problems or conflicts requires good communication skills. Friesen et al (2009) stated that lack of communication gives rise to hostility. Ariani and Ebrahimi (2010) explained that under normal circumstances, no organization can successfully survive without communication since it involves dissemination or exchange of information between the employees and the management. Communication plays a pivotal role in influencing the activities of nurses to achieve the goals of the hospital. The following are some of approaches to manage conflicts; the approaches have been discussed separately under group and individual conflict categories: 5.1 Group Conflicts Khadra (n.d.) stated that there are three principal ways of resolving inter-group conflict: peaceful coexistence, compromise and problem solving: 5.1.1 Peaceful Coexistence Malloy (2007) stated that the leader directs individuals and groups to make successful transitions from conflicts to peaceful coexistence. A facilitative leader has the capacity to help antagonistic groups work together towards their shared goals. Levine, Leholm and Vlasin (2001) explained that the manager provides encouragement and support, releases tensions, harmonizes misunderstanding and deals with disruptive or aggressive behaviour. The nurses in the Riyadh Military Hospital come from different cultures. Therefore, the leader needs to take measures that would facilitate a professional working environment to improve the efficiency of the hospital. The management should encourage the health care professionals to accept the differences among individuals, in terms of their languages, customs, religions since preconceived and stereotypical ideas about certain races or religions proves to harm relations to a great extent. 5.1.2 Compromise Christensen (2010) stated that compromise can be considered as a point of mutual consent among all the participating units. The issue can be resolved through negotiation or bargaining in which case, neither party wins nor loses. In such a conscientious situation, it is the role of leader to ensure that a compromise is reached so that the conflict does not further complicate a delicate situation. Vivar (2006) stated that this can be achieved by fair compromises at each ends of the conflicts. In case of a compromise, there is no right or wrong answer. Brenner (2005) asserted that all of the conflicting parties cannot be contented at the same time; therefore, a leader should have the skill to deal with the conflicting parties in order to pursue a winning policy. He should make use of impartial terms instead of being emotional. Choice of words should not be offending and facilitating tone should be used. Open-ended questions are advised since they do not limit the individual in expressing his feelings. A leader should use terms that are understood and acceptable to all parties. This particular section is applicable to the conflict between the head nurse, sister-in-charge and the administrator in the chosen example. The three of them should respect one another’s opinions and should make use of friendly language. It is apparent that there exists no mutual point of consent among the people in the hospital. The physicians can be made to refer the patients to the sister-in-charge who can then assign nurses to individual patients, with due consultation of the head nurse. In this case, the decision making power to admit or discharge patients would rest with the head nurse. This can be the most useful way of managing conflict in the Riyadh Hospital since the nurses place confidence in the head nurse and are most comfortable with their decisions. The sister-in-charge can give suggestions regarding the placement of a nurse to a particular patient, though the ultimate decision will be made by the head nurse. This is a very rational way of managing the conflict in the respective hospital, though the doctors need to accede to give the authority to the head nurse. 5.1.3 Problem solving Another approach to the management of conflict is problem solving. Vivar (2006) stated that the problem is met in such a manner that a win-win solution is devised for all the participating units. This conflict resolution technique enables the organization to create better solutions. Both, the leaders and employees, discuss the problem and agree on the objectives to be attained to solve the conflict. However, Vivar (2006) also stated that this approach tends to take longer than other conflict resolution strategies. One factor that a leader must take into consideration is the confidence factor. Checketts (2007) stated that parties who have a high confidence factor do not hide or distort any useful information from others to resolve the dispute, and overtly express their views. They are not afraid to overtly express the facts or their personal ideas in front of the conflicting parties. Such instances of expression from inexperienced nurses can harm their credibility to a great extent since their information or knowledge may not be accurate all the time. Another problem, in the case under consideration, is the improvement of competence of the nurses. This can be achieved by providing them with training courses on the job. The training courses would formally educate the nurses on different types of cases, and the necessary care that needs to be provided to them. The administrator can have reservations in arranging training courses because they would incur additional costs. However, it needs to be realized that the training of nurses through on-job training sessions would benefit their level of competence and provide an effective service to the customers. The cost of training would be far less than losing business, due to incompetent health care services. 5.2 Individual Conflicts In the health care sector, Fontaine and Gerardi (2005) stated that conflicts may arise when there is misunderstanding over issues such as allocation of duties or perception of lack of knowledge. These can be just individual sentiments that can be amicably solved if the leaders take a leading role in promoting dialogue. Such cases can be resolved through communication. In any case, communication plays a pivotal role in promoting mutual understanding between members of an organization. 5.2.1 Constructive Confrontation Constructive confrontation is one viable approach that can be implemented to bring individuals together. As stated earlier, nurses mainly tend to adopt avoidance as a mode to handle conflict. Kelly (2006) explained that self-sacrifice is appreciated in the profession of nursing; however, the avoidance of the problem ultimately results in low morale and motivation among the individuals. Kelly (2006) also stated that low morale and passive behaviour among the nurses in a CCU does not reflect well over the patients who are struggling for their lives. Therefore, it is the task of the leader to encourage the nurses to confront conflicts in a respectful and constructive manner. This results in the initiation of communication between the parties who can be lead to reach a mutual point of consent. The leaders should also play an important role in keeping the confrontations free of any ambiguities to facilitate a resolution of the problem. The leaders should be able to monitor the way negative feelings are expressed and encourage the conflicting parties to reach an amicable solution. 5.2.2 Effective Communication Skills Iliopoulou and While (2010) identified lack of effective communication as one of the most significant aspects of the initiation of conflicts in an organization. A leader has the power to direct the team towards a single goal. The unison of the vision is only possible if there is effective communication present in the team therefore he should take extensive should measures to promote interpersonal, as well as formal communication in an organization. DeVito (2005) explained that interpersonal communication is primarily concerned with communication between two or more people in which they freely express their feelings and ideas. This kind of communication is very effective in conflict resolution since there are great chances of the development of understanding between the conflicting parties. Some members in the organization may even share constructive ideas that would be helpful to the organization. The ability to resolve conflicts among individuals in an organization is mainly influenced by their interpersonal skills and commitment to the development of an amiable environment. Kelly (2006) explained that introduction of an initiative meant to resolve conflicts is a process which requires concerted efforts by all the members who are involved in the process. Failure to do this may have a negative impact on the outcome of the initiative. Thus, the main role of a leader, in this particular case, is to facilitate dialogue among the members of the organization to achieve mutual understanding. Friesen et al (2009) stated that effective communication bears even greater relevance in a CCU in a hospital since any miscommunication can result in severe consequences for the patients. In a nursing environment, the leading nursing staff can take up an exemplary role and ensure that the workers, who have conflicts with each other, are encouraged to communicate directly. In this manner, they can express their feelings and clear the misconceptions. 5.2.3 Good Listening Skills Iliopoulou and While (2010) stated that effective leadership in conflict management involves the task of listening actively to the affected individuals. A leader, who is able to carefully listen to both sides of the story, can effectively contribute to a productive discussion which can play a major role in conflict resolution. There should be feedback from both participating parties to ensure that the employees important and worthy in the organization. The leaders can positively influence the workers to put aside their differences and work towards the attainment of the goals of the organization. Conflicts block the flow of effective communication. According to Friesen et al (2009), timely response is crucial in a CCU to facilitate quick treatment of illnesses. He gave importance to this aspect since life threatening instances of patients cannot afford any barriers of communication. 5.2.4 Impartiality in Solving Conflicts The other critical factor in conflict resolution is impartiality. Sharland (2008) explained that the leader should adopt the role of a mediator who cannot take any sides in the process of conflict resolution. Fairness is a virtue. Being the responsible authority, the leader should be neutral and should not favor any side as this would endanger his likelihood of resolving conflict. According to Kelly (2006), the existence of unresolved conflicts in an organization negatively impacts on individual’s performance which in turn affects the whole organization. Biasness from the leader would leave the employees unmotivated to perform their jobs; such demoralized feelings can result in careless mistakes and absenteeism from the employee’s side. CCU requires full attention of the nurses and cannot afford any instances of careless mistakes therefore the leader should be able to facilitate a fair resolution of the conflict. \ 6. Adoption of Constructivism to Manage Conflicts Barrett & Wilkerson (2004) suggest that there might be a problem in trying to meet diverse needs by means of a single approach. In the event of managing conflicts in an organization, it can be noted that some paradigms differ from each other in their entirety. Barrett & Wilkerson (2004) explained the two concepts that shall be helpful to devise two approaches for conflict management; positivist and constructivist approach to learning in an organization. The positivist approach promotes the concept that logic and meaning of information is the same among all users, contexts and purposes. This approach advocates that the leader of the group or organization has to convey the contextual meaning of the subject at hand to his learners. On the other hand, the constructivist approach promotes a platform on which the acquirer attempts to devise the logic and meaning of the concepts on his own; it is due to this self-dependency that the meaning is dissimilar among different individuals. The learner even possesses a different purpose of acquiring the information. Although, these approaches are dissimilar to each other, they play a significant role in the comprehension of conflict resolution in an organization. The preconceived ideas of the possession of all knowledge by the leader of the group or organization should be eradicated and due credit should be given to the subordinates. The employees of the organization may also be capable of extracting constructive and meaningful information from situations and instances; such extraction of information can be helpful in resolving conflicts that may arise in an organization. Every member in an organization is capable of contributing meaningfully to the organization regardless of the position held. In the case of Riyadh Hospital, the head nurse should seek opinion of all the nurses prior to giving her decision. In this way, she will adopt the constructivist approach and acquire the valuable opinion of the employees of the organization. This step can prove to make the nursing staff feel worthy and valuable to the organization; this might even improve the turnover rate and retention of the employees. 7. Strategy to Avoid Conflicts in the Health Care Organization Health care is one of the most fast-paced professions where the influx of patients and thus allocation of resources can never be predicted. The rapid nature of the profession makes the individuals face numerous instances of conflicts during their daily lives. Gerardi (2003) stated that one of the most effective strategies for ensuring amicable environments in a health care organization is to promote conflict resolution training and development. In the case of Riyadh Military Hospital, the nurses were skeptical about investing extra hours for attending training sessions since they are occupied with critically ill patients in the CCU. However, after suitable shift rotations of nurses, training and development programs were put in place to give them knowledge about the benefits of the initiative. Before commencing the training programs, the administrator had conducted a brief survey in which all nurses were asked to name the areas that were felt as undertrained. The training programs were arranged according to the needs of the nurses. Cyprus (2011) stated that the duration of training is often considered to be one of the main problems of on-job training. The training programs were arranged to be conducted before the start of duty every day so that the nurses would grasp the information with fresh minds. The lectures were offered free of charge, but attendance was made compulsory. After three months of conducting the training program, there was a remarkable improvement in their response and perceptions of the individuals. Amos (2008) stated that one advantage of offering training to the employees is that it promotes learning within the organization where they can have practical experience of the operations. According to Gerardi (2003), teamwork is defined as a group of individuals working towards a common goal, accompanied by means of effective communication. Effective teamwork is not possible if conflicts are not resolved on a timely basis therefore conflict resolution training and development is an effective strategy to improve the performance of the employees. 8. Conclusion Conflicts are unavoidable instances in any organization. They are witnessed in the health care sector at an increasing rate due to the uncertain conditions of the patients. Critical Care Unit (CCU) is an even more challenging section of health care since severely ill patients are treated there. Ineffective conflict management can have severe consequences as it would hinder the provision of effective medical care to the critical patients. Some conflicts often lead to underperformance which ultimately affects the operations of the organization as a whole. Therefore, it would not be wrong to state that effective leadership is imperative for conflict management in CCU in the health care sector. Group conflicts involve greater number of people while individual conflicts are specific to a certain individual. In a health care organization, conflicts may be witnessed among nurses or between doctors. The increasing nature of the conflicts between nurses and doctors is due to the changing nature of training and development of nurses; the acquisition of greater level of knowledge by the nurses makes them question the possession of higher authority of doctors. Conflicts between nurses usually result from power conflicts. There are different modes of handling conflict resolution; competing, avoidance, collaboration, compromising and accommodating. Different situations call for the adoption of different conflict management modes, however, it has been found in this research study that nurses mainly opt for avoidance to manage conflicts. The adoption of this approach may tackle the issues on a temporary basis, however long term consequences of this approach will be demoralization, absenteeism, incompetent service etc. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the leader of the unit to ensure that the nurses opt for confronting conflicts, rather than avoiding them. The leader of any team has the responsibility of ensuring the progress of his team members towards a single goal and objective. Conflicts tend to become hindrances in the achievement of the goal. It is vital for the leaders to establish the reasons of the conflicts, as well as its degree of effect for the operations of the organization as a whole. In an organization, it can be noted that conflict is inevitable but it can be solved amicably depending upon the leader’s capability and interpersonal skills towards finding ways of resolving conflicts. Leaders can manage group conflicts by promoting problem solving, peaceful coexistence and compromising approaches, whereas, individual conflicts are resolved by promoting constructive confrontation, effective communication skills, good listening skills, maintaining impartial attitude in the process. Constructivist approach can be adopted to promote the resolution of conflicts on an individual level, rather than being facilitated by the leader. References Amos, TL et al 2008, Human Resources Management, 3rd Edition, JUTA. Asian Development Bank 2007, ‘Managing Conflict of Interest’, ADB/OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia and the Pacific. Ariani, MG., Ebrahimi, SS 2010, The Role of Managerial Communication and Employee Participation in Trust in Organization, viewed 14th June, 2011, Barrett, HC., & Wilkerson, J 2004, Conflicting Paradigms in Electronic Portfolio Approaches, viewed 6th March, 2011, . 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