Impact of Different Conflict Management Styles on Healthcare Outcomes

This essay examines the impact of different styles of conflict management on healthcare outcomes. It sheds light on interpersonal conflict management styles, compares different leadership styles with different conflict management styles, and evaluates the leadership compatibility with conflict management. The essay concludes that both transactional and transformational styles are beneficial for the safety of conflict management in nursing and healthcare.

NRS3222
Leadership and management concepts of health professionals
Student name: Fatima Mohammed Al saedi
FC1100094
Semester 2
2017-2018
1687 Words

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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

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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
conflict 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

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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 culture 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 effective 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.

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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 difference 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).

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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.

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