Conflict Resolution in The Workplace

Conflict Resolution in The Workplace.
Student Name:
Student Number:
Tutor:
Affiliate Institution:

Abstract
Organizations and institutions in general suffer from diverse types of conflicts. It is in such
moments of conflicts that the leadership styles and attributes of the leaders are put to the test.
This paper analyses in detail how I dealt with a conflict that arose when I was the nurse in-charge
of a medical ward. The purpose of this paper is to explain in detail how I dealt with the conflict
and prevented it from arising again in future within the ward that I work in. This paper will also
analyze leadership styles that I used in the management of the conflict and its termination.
Conclusively, this paper will offer appropriate alternatives to prevent a similar situation from
occurring in a similar or different hospital scenario.
Introduction
Conflicts are common in any workplace. As long as there are two or more people in a workplace,
tension is bound to build up at one time or another within the workplace (Wallensteen, 2018).
Nurses play a variety of roles within the workplace such as acting as health educators,
coordinators, advocates to patient’s rights and managers in different workplace areas. The roles
that nurses have increase the probability of having interactions with other health professionals
during their activities and processes. These interactions increase the friction between the
different groups of health professionals working within the hospital environment (Dukes, 2018).
Conflict in itself is dynamic and can either be positive or negative in nature. Based on the fact
that conflict has the capability of developing into a dysfunction in the processes that continue in
the workplace , it is critical that conflicts are managed appropriately to avoid confusion in roles
and functions of health professionals within the workplace (Rubenstein, 2018; Singer, 2018).

Conflict in itself is the cumulative consequence of experiences or perceived variations in the
common goals, ideas, attitudes, and the associated feelings and actions of individuals in the
workplace (Jeong, 2018).
In order for leaders to adequately deal with the conflicts, it requires that they are both assertive
and considerate. The ability to employ aspects of active listening and maintaining an atmosphere
that does not have bias of any kind is essential during the process of decision making and
problem solving (Avruch & Black, 2014).
Event resulting to conflict.
Conflicts with the hospital workplace occur due to a variety of reasons. Conflict among health
professional in the hospital workplace can occur due to competition among them, due to
variations in the economic or even professional values that each of the professionals posses.
In the case that I dealt with , as the nurse in charge of a medical ward, a conflict came into being
as a result of nurse and doctor confronting each other over the admission of a patient in the ward.
The doctor wanted the hospitalized patient to receive admission into the ward. However, the
nurse was hesitant to admit the patient who had just left the post-operative room. The said patient
had undergone a surgery to remove a tumor. The nurse argued that the patient needed more time
in the post-operative room for appropriate monitoring and soon after should have been moved to
the surgical ward and not the medical ward (Polley, 2017).
The nurse coordinator spent a lot of time explaining the reasons for her hesitation, but the doctor
was reluctant to listen. As a result, the nurse was annoyed by the doctors inability to listen and an
argument ensued. The doctor argued that the nurses role was only to follow the commands that