Conflict Management Approaches: Australian Hospitals Analysis

This report examines conflict management within Australian hospitals, focusing on the collaborative and competitive approaches. It begins by defining conflict as a natural outcome of interactions within organizations and highlights the importance of effective conflict management, especially in healthcare settings. The report then delves into the collaborative approach, emphasizing its benefits such as fostering open communication and finding mutually agreeable solutions, while also acknowledging its drawbacks, like the time and effort required. The competitive approach is then discussed, focusing on its effectiveness in certain situations, like ensuring patient safety, but also highlighting its limitations, such as potentially disregarding the other party's viewpoint. The report compares and contrasts the two approaches, emphasizing that both parties must engage in the conflict resolution process, and that both approaches have limitations. The analysis concludes by underscoring the need for nurse leaders to understand the root causes of conflict and to select and apply the most appropriate techniques. This report serves as a valuable resource for students, offering insights into conflict management in Australian hospitals, and is available on Desklib, a platform providing AI-powered study tools and resources.

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Conflict management approach Australian hospitals
Introduction
Conflict is a reality in all business organizations as long as individuals will continue working and
interacting with one another (Greig, Owsiak & Diehl, 2019). Concerning human relations theory,
conflict existing within groups can be described as a natural repercussion of an individual's
interaction. Managing conflict in organizations like hospitals is becoming a key area of concern
to many management researchers (Colvin, Witt & Lacey, 2015). Disputes within the
organization arise when the needs of that particular organization conflict with the beliefs,
opinions, values, and attitudes of the employees (Johansen & Cadmus, 2016). With regards to the
situation and when the conflict happened, various approaches can be used in addressing or
managing the conflict. Multiple criteria can be used in resolving conflict in Australian hospitals.
For instance, the competition, collaborative, compromising, avoiding and accommodating. The
key advantages of these approaches are that they help the practitioners to comprehend conflict
management (Broukhim et al. 2018). This piece will use the collaborative and competing
approach to hypothetical nursing instances in hospitals in Australia to support the practical use of
conflict management theories in hospitals.
Body paragraph 1: Collaborative approach
The collaborative concept is the key in the analysis of solving the management conflicts in
hospitals of Australia (Hanson, 2016). Many management researchers have the use of a
collaborative approach when one is dealing with differences in organizations like hospitals. The
concept is an integrative procedure that involves ideas, feelings, and beliefs (Vollmer, 2015).

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The approach plays are the central part of personal preferences that can create difficulties in
interacting collaboratively.
Hospital’s management will as well believe that if they become competitive, they have achieved
their success. Such social dynamics may discourage inclination towards collaboration. Therefore,
the collaborative approach requires open-minded individuals who agree that there is more than
enough for every individual and a lot can be acquired through cooperation without competition
among the nurses (Lapkin, Levett & Gilligan, 2015).
The second benefit of a collaborative approach is that a solution can be generated where more
than one party have developed a different opinion on something. The main thing in such
instances is determining how much the involved parties are willing to agree. For example, if two
individuals are in disagreement on accomplishing a particular task, the management must look
for a better medium to make them feel satisfied and appreciated (Okely et al. 2017). This is one
of the significant roles of a collaborative approach, which focus on looking on a compromise the
conflicting parties achieve what they wanted. In order to succeed in developing the right
resolution, the collaborative approach emphasizes a need for a mediator to take note of fears,
desires, concerns, and needs of both sides.
For example, the nurses in Australian hospital apply the collaboration when negotiating the
cover-off with other team members during meetings. During the session, they spend more time
focusing on and discussing what is more critical for every individual member. When it comes to
increments of salaries, mediators play a crucial role in encouraging a conducive environment in
which both parties express their views comfortably (Hopwood & Nerland, 2018).

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The critical negative impact of the collaborative approach is that it can take a lot of energy, time
and efforts before arriving at the final solution (Kark, Tulloch, Gordon, Mazor, Bunnefeld &
Levin, 2015). More time and energy are consumed because the mediator has to consider several
solutions before coming up with a resolution. Such delays can impact the productivity of nurses
while causing the resentment and tension among patients.
Secondly, the collaborative approach may not provide a solution that favors the two parties
engaged in conflict resolution. In case one of the parties will not commit to compromising the
conflict management will fail.
For instance, it's complicated to apply collaborative when the hospital's management is
discussing the new policies especially if the nursing team is unable to make various adjustments
(Hopwood & Nerland, 2018).
Body Paragraph 2: competitive approach
The competing technique to conflict management is critical in demonstrating a high degree of
commitment. People who apply competing theory help them to accomplish their objectives with
the expense of the other parties. Individuals who are taking this particular technique will have to
employ all efforts to win (Albrecht, Bakker, Gruman, Macey & Saks, 2015). The method can
play a more prominent role in defending one's interest, values or positions and mostly the
approach is supported by structures like sales quotas, courts, and legislature.
The second advantage of the competing for the approach is that the position and concerns of the
second party engaged parties are entirely ignored. Thus, using this kind of conflict resolution, the
mediators will have no issue with the feelings of the second party that loses the case and how

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they will cope with the decision. Therefore, this technique is vital in quick action goals or when
there is little no hope of getting the final solution.
The principal limitation with this approach is that one has to be very sure of his or her capability
of making individual decisions. That means the other party has to agree with the decisions made
as well as acknowledging the power used to arrive at the final judgment. Secondly, the only
metric is winning the case by one of the conflicting parties. This is because the conflict, in this
case, can only be won through, ranks or power.
A competition approach conflict management is used in Australian hospitals to rectify errors in
case one noticed a mistake made by the other medical practitioner. The approach is very critical
in instances like the wrong administration of medication to the patients. This is practiced by
recognizing the mistakes before the medical practitioner enters the patient's room. In this case,
the person who has identified the error is required to take the wrong medication from his or her
hands and replace it with the right medication. The safety of the patients, in this case, is more
critical than the commitment to the employees' relation in such circumstances (Cogin, Ng & Lee,
2016).
The challenge of competition approach is that it can make the vital voice of the other party not to
be considered since it will be ignored in any case. In such cases, the domineering individual or
the partner in office may find their way out but at an expense which can impact the decisions.
Therefore, individuals who are applying the competition approach in conflict resolution will
always find it difficult and their ideas may not count because their loyalty does not run deep.
Concerning conflict management in Australian hospitals, it's very challenging for the medical
practitioner to believe in oneself when your co-worker double checks the amount of dosage and

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the danger with errors in medication. However, the main goal of the double-checking point is to
establish a good relationship with the colleague although a different technique is vital.
Body Paragraph 3: Comparing the competition and collaborative approaches
With both the competition and collaborative strategy, parties or individuals must enter into the
engagement processes in resolving the conflict. The two parties have to bring a particular
orientation on the negotiation table in the efforts of trying to find the resolution. Two
fundamentals adhered when engaging in conflict resolution are competitive and collaborative.
The two techniques work intending to negotiate solutions that are likely to create a good
relationship, trust and coming up with the mutual beneficial ideas. This aspect has a significant
impact on the fact that it forms an enabling working environment manifested in cases where a
team of workers is not willing to cooperate with others. These are the difficulties experienced in
cases where there are many individuals where some want to take the lead of other people. This is
the case with many Australian hospitals where a defined group of medical practitioners have
different working styles and does not mesh appropriately. Another instance is when some of the
employees take advantages of their partners by showing fewer efforts knowing there are other
individuals to compensate for their mistakes (Chandra, 2015).
Secondly, the negotiation solutions have some limitations with the both collaborative and
competitive approach in which both parties will remain divided into one or the other even after
resolving conflict. This because in all cases the parties must make a voluntary decision and they
always have a feeling of collaborating or competing to meet their set objectives. That means both
collaborative, and competition approach is essential to a certain level to resolve. Achieving a
decision requires a high degree of cooperation in the two types of conflict resolution methods.

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Thus, enhancing the more natural way to find the balance between the two approaches, is
fundamental to an excellent negotiation.
Lastly, some differences exist between the collaborative and competing approach. The first
difference is where the aggressive approach is attributed to a single interaction. In this case, no
expectation or desires of forming a long-term link and its primary goal is to minimize the loss.
On the other hand, collaborative approach is attributed to a prolonged relationship in which the
main objective is to maximize the benefits. There is as well a high desire and some expectations
of trust and interactions contrary to competition technique. Secondly, the competition approach
establishes a sense of insistence for the workforce that feels the need for increased efficiency and
productivity. No one can remain comfortable at the workplace in the case where colleagues do
the work faster, efficiently and effectively. Collaborative on the other side does not increase the
efficiency but stress among the employees and feel not relaxed (Heirati, O'Cass, Schoefer &
Siahtiri, 2016). This is because some members of staff members could develop a resent to his or
her colleagues to make the individual work look better. Thirdly, with the collaborative approach,
negotiation cannot take place with no trust. This is because the critical aspect is comparing the
common elements between the conflicting parties other than their differences, interests, and
needs. Competition approach can take place with or without trust.
Conclusion
Conflict management is critical, especially for the business organization's management. Effective
and efficient nurse leader takes time to understand the cause of the dispute and find out
appropriate techniques to resolve the conflict. One of the critical steps to contain the conflict is
reflecting on personal experiences and understanding the right approach of managing the
conflict. After identifying their technique, a good manager will take time to comprehend the

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procedures of his or her colleagues and suit in them accordingly. That means resolving the
conflict in hospitals is not something that should be taken with significant weight but something
to be learned and put into practice.

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