Significance of Conflict Resolution Management Strategies by Nurse Managers - Essay Example

? Significance of Conflict Resolution Management Strategies by Nurse Managers Lecturer: Conflict is inevitable in people’s daily personal and professional lives; however, at the center of every conflict are the basic human needs since conflict occur when people needs are not met or inconsistent opposition of the needs of others. One of the several steps leaders in nursing can take in helping nurses and other healthcare workers in managing conflict is reminding them that conflict is normal and often unavoidable. The next step involves helping nurses to identify the various ways that they can respond to conflict; even though, people respond in different ways in different times with different people. In contemporary healthcare settings, nurse leaders refer to every registered nurse including normal registered nurse, nurse supervisor, nurse unit manager, clinical nurse specialist, clinical nurse educator and director of nursing (Stanley, 2006). Nursing leadership involves the ability to build a vision that guides health career workers toward attaining the vision while maintaining collaboration, commitment and effectiveness in delivering excellent patient care (Bally, 2007). Once leaders understand the several approaches and reactions to conflict, helps them in being able to handle and deal with conflict better as it arises. Several experts identified ways in which people respond to conflict one of which is tool that identifies 5 ways people respond to conflict determined the need to maintain or improve relationship with others. Nursing profession bases on collaborative relations with colleagues and patients, which necessitates working closely with other people with various backgrounds and cultures. Diversity in individuals within the profession can potentially affect their relations resulting in conflict; however, good communication from nurse managers with conflict resolution skills significantly reduces risks of conflict. Management of conflict is essential for effective functioning of organizations; however, constructive and creative conflict management is a challenge and goal for professionals interested in assisting others and organizations. There is no single way to manage conflict; hence, it remains the responsibility of the individual and the group to be conscious of the problem in order to select the most appropriate strategies depending on the context within which the conflict emerged in managing it. Compromise is one of the main options described by various experts as a viable alternative to conflict situations, which means that everyone gets something out of a situation; hence, everyone gives up something and loses something. Compromise results from moderate concern for an individual as well as others and involves intermediate levels of assertion and cooperation (Al-Hamdan, 2009; Pavlakis et al, 2011). The approach aims at quick and mutually agreeable decisions that partially satisfy the concerned parties; therefore, compromise emerges when negotiation and interchange occurs, with each individual gaining something and giving up something in the process (Al?Hamdan, Shukri& Anthony, 2011). For example, this approach can be used when a nurse within a unit decides to leave early one day as a result of a personal matter. Therefore, the nurse manager can schedule for another nurse working night shift to arrive early and relieve the daytime nurse, this would result from a consideration that the daytime nurse would arrive early the following day and relieve the night shift nurse. Although compromise involves bargaining that often results in less-than-ideal solutions, the tactic remains useful in attaining temporary settlement for complex issue and also offers a quick fix when time is crucial. As well, the approach is useful in issues that are mild or of moderate importance; for instance, it is not necessary to compromise the issue of patient safety. Compromising is crucial in instances where goals are important and not worth major disruption and as a backup in case collaboration and competition fail. This strategy is often the second option for nurse managers in managing conflict since the approach ensures that no one can win something without losing something else(Valentine, 2001; Siu, Laschinger & Finegan, 2008). Avoiding conflict is usually not recommended; however, this can be used strategically like creating ma delay that allows individuals to cool down or collect more information. Experts advocate the use of avoidance when the issue is not significant like when an individual can knows that he or she cannot prevail against a powerful opponent and when the potential of damage resulting from confrontation outweighs its benefits. However, nurses who always avoid conflict are at odds with the profession’s objective of advancing the standard of delivering care to patients; hence, nurse managers who act in the same manner are not leaders (Garner, 2011). Avoidance is a lose-lose strategy where a nurse avoids dealing with conflicting situation evaluating the use of this strategy is crucial since some cases it is crucial to avoid conflict. For instance, when nurses within the same unit engage in a heated discussion, either nurse may decide to walk away in order to avoid that situation until their emotions cool down. After their emotions have cooled they can revisit the situation in a positive and a respectful way hence in this case avoidance is used as a timeout period. When this strategy is used to make sure situations are never revisited, the strategy can result in employee dissatisfaction. This strategy is used as an initial strategy by nurse managers in case there are conditions that favor the use of this approach, since the approach is often unassertive and uncooperative in conflict resolution (Valentine, 2001). Collaboration is the true conflict resolution strategy since its goal is to find a mutual solution when the different sets of interests are too essential to be compromised like when an issue of patient safety is in conflict with the need to use limited resources strategically. The process of collaboration involves huge amount of assertion and cooperation because parties with different perspectives attempt to combine their insights in working through the conflict (Garner, 2011; Al?Hamdan, Shukri & Anthony, 2011). Therefore, this approach is often considered the most effective style in managing conflict; although it has its disadvantages because using this approach in every situation would result in spending a lot of time in trivial issues. The approach involves all parties in conflict working together to find a solution that is fitting to both parties and involves the confrontation of issues since it results from concerns for both self and other people. Moreover, the approach involves consideration of preferences and priorities and makes trade-offs between important and unimportant issues, which ensure that each party tackles the problem with the same, high consideration (Leever et al, 2010).An example of an instance for using this approach is when a nurse and a doctor collaborate to come up with a decision on a patient’s pain management on whether to use morphine or dilaudid. This would involve a discussion regarding what ought to be done for the patient while considering past experiences in pain management. Even though, the approach is time consuming, the patient would benefit in the end since the discussion would incorporate multi-disciplinary team in implementing care to the patient. Though, there is no distinct pattern of using this approach by nurse managers, the approach involves a win-win aspect since it is a fully assertive and cooperative approach in long-term conflict resolution (Valentine, 2001; Hiemer, n.d). Using collaborative approach helps the involved parties to uphold a positive relationship. Competition is often a negative way of managing conflict since its goal is to win at all cost and the approach is often characterized by high assertion and low cooperation like when an individual uses her rank to force resolution of an issue. This tactic may be useful in emergency situations that require quick, decisive actions or in cases where unpopular course of action has to be implemented. In some instances competition is crucial like when trying to change the work environment in an attempt to meet continuous regulatory compliance. For instance, in emergency situations like a cardiac arrest within the patient care unit leaves no time for negotiation between team members; thus, someone will have to take charge and lead the others. Nevertheless, when the approach is used for intimidation and winning, then its use is unethical and troublesome for any work environment. The approach is used in issues that are vital to the organization and as a defense against people who abuse on-competitive behaviors (Shortell & Kaluzny, 2006). Accommodation involves smoothing things with the goal of this approach being to yield in order to maintain harmony and relations at all costs. The approach involves one party ignores its own concerns to satisfy the concerns of others by minimizing differences and self-sacrifice. This occasionally results in ignoring the issue of concern, which can be detrimental in coming up with a long-term solution for the conflict (Garner, 2011). This approach is not passionate about an individual getting his or her needs since the individual is willing to allow others obtain what they need. For instance, a nurse manager can be asked to help another colleague with a task even when the leader has not finished her own tasks. This is form of accommodation since the leader puts aside her needs to help a colleague first. The approach is useful in routine issues, when one is wrong, when outmatched, to preserve harmony and building credits to later use; nevertheless, this approach is infrequently used by nurse managers (Valentine, 2001; Montoro-Rodriquez & Small, 2006). In conclusion, management of conflict is crucial in effective functioning of organizations for personal, cultural and social development of humans. Even though, constructive and creative conflict management is challenging, conflict resolution remains a goal for any professional interested in helping others in changing unfavorable conditions into positive and relatively peaceful directions. Effective conflict management promotes motivation, boosts morale and enhances individual and organizational growth. There are various ways of managing conflict although the ways specifically focus on the conflict situation and the person-situation interaction since there is no single way of managing conflict. The five ways of dealing with conflict dealt with in the essay include avoiding, compromising, accommodating, competing and collaborating. Conflict management refers to styles employed by either one or both parties to cope with conflict and the degree to which an individual satisfies the concern of others; besides, bringing together two opposing dimensions results in the five ways of handling conflict. References Al-Hamdan, Z. (2009). 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