Clinical Leadership: Conflict Management Strategies in Nursing Unit

This report examines the critical role of clinical leadership in managing conflicts within a nursing environment, particularly in an intensive care unit setting. It details a conflict situation involving a medication error and miscommunication, highlighting the negative impact of poor leadership styles, such as autocratic leadership and avoidance strategies, on staff morale, patient care, and employee turnover. The report discusses various conflict resolution measures, including problem-solving, forcing, and avoiding, and advocates for the adoption of transformational and participative leadership styles. It emphasizes the importance of strong communication, interpersonal relationships, and addressing staff needs to improve job satisfaction, patient outcomes, and overall organizational performance. The report concludes with key recommendations for nurse leaders, such as providing support, identifying conflict causes, treating staff with respect, and developing alternative solutions to foster a positive and effective work environment.

Clinical leadership and management in nursing

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Conflict Situation........................................................................................................................................2
Job Position.................................................................................................................................................3
Measures.....................................................................................................................................................3
Leadership Theory.......................................................................................................................................4
Outcomes for patient and staff.....................................................................................................................5
Changes.......................................................................................................................................................7
Key Recommendations................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................8
References.................................................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
This report outlines the concept of the conflict management and this concept is explained with
the help of situation that occurred within the workplace in nursing. The report includes the
description of the event, the leadership role along with the recommendations to resolve the
conflicts. The conflict at workplace can be managed by adopting various strategies. According to
the estimations, it is found that maximum time of manager is devoted on conflict management. If
the conflict is not managed in the organization or health care settings, then it may have the
negative impact on the interpersonal relationships and long term professionalism(Abd-Elrhaman
& Ghoneimy, 2018).
Conflict Situation
I have joined intensive care unit in one of the hospitals during my internship during my diploma
in nursing. In the intensive care unit, there were total ten beds and three staff nurses, one medical
officer and one manager for the floor. It was found that the turnover of nurses in the hospital
organizations is more in comparison to other employees. The reason behind the high turnover
among the nurses is its poor communication, lack of acceptance, lack of cooperation and lack of
respect by co workers (Erzen & Armagan, 2015).
One day, during my internship, doctor came on round for follow up of his male patient suffering
from the problem of urinary tract infection and also has the problem of diabetes. The doctor
started shouting on the nurses because patient is not catheterized as it was conveyed at the time
of patient admission. The nurse also missed one patient’s dose of insulin. It is found during the
investigation that the nurse who did this mistake had some of the issues with senior doctors and
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its co workers. The conflict among the health care workers and senior doctors was the reason
behind the worse condition of the patient. It is observed that manager of the nurses adopted the
avoidance strategy and avoid the nurses complaints coming from the staff members regarding the
interpersonal problems and this avoidance of the manager results in worse situations (Al-
Hamdan, 2009). The manager adopted the autocratic leadership style at the time of dealing with
the staff members and it is observed that they never listen to the members but only disregarded
them. Because of this leadership style, three nurses left their job including me.
Job Position
The job role that played within the workplace as an intern in the hospital where my jobs
responsibilities and duties includes taking care of the patients that admitted in the hospital. Being
an intern, I had the opportunity to learn something new about the nursing practices. Being an
intern at hospital, I was able to analyze the different situations as I have identified that the patient
and staff members were highly affected by the conflict at the hospital.
Measures
There are many reasons behind the occurrence of the interpersonal conflicts such as the
competition, cost control, downsizing, restructuring and new technology. To resolve or minimize
the interpersonal conflicts, the leaders are the most significant part. According to the research
model introduced by Romer, there are three ways of resolving the conflict within the workplace
including problem solving, forcing, and avoiding (Römer, Rispens, Giebels, & Euwema, 2012).
 Problem solving: This strategy is about to identify the problems or matter of concern and
find out the relevant solutions to address these problems.
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 Forcing: This is the second way which involves into implementation of decision taken by
leaders.
 Avoiding: it is the strategy when the leader does not want to involve in the conflict as he
or she prefer to avoid the conflicts or complaints of the co workers. This was the strategy
that adopted by the manager of hospital where I have joined as an intern.
The increase in the employee job satisfaction and creating flexible working conditions for
employees or nurses will help in providing the better solutions for the conflicting situations. The
participative leadership style is also another strategy which can be used to resolve the conflicts
within the workplace by minimizing the stress of nurses and making them feel important by
increasing their participation of nurses in decision making processes.
Leadership Theory
Effective leadership within the workplace is the most important component for the success of the
health care organizations. It is found that leadership approaches are used for the different
situations. There are many leadership styles which can be adopted by the leaders to perform in
different situations. It is found that the transformational leadership theory pay great attention to
the interpersonal relationships and this theory considers all higher level of needs including self-
esteem and self-actualization. These needs include the achievement, respect, confidence,
creativity, acceptance and problem solving (Shah, 2017).
A vision must be clear to all leaders to overcome the conflicts and creating strategies of achieve
the vision. Nurse leaders should also focus on the adoption of the transformational leadership
styles and participative leadership styles where they can give the importance to employees as
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well as their needs. Leaders are the one who can manage the staff members in efficient way by
using its knowledge and skills.
The manager adopted the autocratic leadership style at the time of dealing with the staff
members and it is observed that they never listen to the members but only disregarded them.
Because of this leadership style, the employee turnover rate has been increased. Considering the
conflict situation at hospital, it is found that the employee retention becomes difficult as the
manager did not listen to the problems of coworkers and this creates job dissatisfaction among
the qualified people. Therefore, the conflict at workplace is creating a stressful and unpleasant
environment (Alasow, 2016). From the case analysis, it is found that the missing of dose is the
most alarming sign for a leader. There is need to find out these skills for Strategies and
implement those Strategies to handle the situation as missing of dose of the patient results in
worse situations for hospitals. The most important strategy for any organization is to maintain
the strong communication and good relationships among coworkers (McKibben, 2017).
Outcomes for patient and staff
It is very essential to manage the conflict in the organization and also a good interpersonal
relationship is of great significance for the high productivity of the organizations. The desired
goals of the organization can only be achieved by managing the conflicts in the organizations. In
the above conflict situation, it is found that there are multiple issues in relation to the conflict
among the nurses and senior managers. The biggest impact of the conflict situation in healthcare
organization is on the patient care as the scenario reflects that the patient suffered critical health
condition because of the interpersonal conflicts in the intensive care units (Yufenyuy, 2018).
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The outcome of these conflicts in the hospitals was high turnover and high employee
dissatisfactions. However, the manager failed to handle these situations due to which reason
employees were leaving the job. The lack of job satisfaction and poor managerial style was
investigated during this case scenario. There are few studies on conflict management in health
care organizations. According to Guidroz, Wang and Perez (2011), it is found that nurses within
the workplace faced issues because of use of violent language, non-supportive behavior by
doctors. The importance of the issue is also analyzed through this analysis. Looking at the event
situation, the situation is uncertain (Guidroz, Perez, & Wang, 2012). Sometimes, it is hard to
handle such situations in this type of environment. Also, the impact of nurses with conflicts to
doctors is negative on their professional career. The conflicting situation within the workplace
also increased the feeling of exhaustion, lack of job satisfaction and also has greater intentions to
leave the nursing profession.
Conflict is directly or indirectly linked with the organizational performance. The manager has
adopted the avoidance strategy towards conflict which also results in the negative impacts and it
is found to be non-strategic style. The interpersonal relationship among the coworkers is highly
affected if the seniors avoided all the problems and complaints of its coworkers. The best way to
handle such issue is to protect self-Valves and enhancing the interpersonal relationships.
Considering the conflict situation at hospital, it is found that the employee retention becomes
difficult as the manager did not listen to the problems of coworkers and this creates job
dissatisfaction among the qualified people. Therefore, the conflict at workplace is creating a
stressful and unpleasant environment. From the case analysis, it is found that the missing of dose
is the most alarming sign for a leader. There is need to find out these skills for Strategies and
implement those Strategies to handle the situation as missing of dose of the patient results in
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worse situations for hospitals. The most important strategy for any organization is to maintain
the strong communication and good relationships among coworkers. The lack of communication
is found to be the main source of conflict in the organization. According to the reports of Dana, it
is estimated that 80% of conflict occurs in any organization is because of poor relationships
whereas his research also reported that 40% of time spends in resolving the conflict (Dana,
2017). It showed that managerial behavior in the organization plays important role as it can be
positive or negative in particular situation.
Changes
The change that took place as a result to eliminate potential to similar event to arise again is to
adopt the transformational leadership style. The transformational leadership style of manager
will help the health organizations to solve its problems and focus on managing the conflicts. The
manager having transformational leadership style will listen to the employee’s problems and
understand their needs. Also, the hospital organization also needs to improve its communication
systems. These changes are useful to eliminate the potential to raise the problems.
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Key Recommendations
The adoption of leadership style is the most important strategy to manage the conflict at the
organizations. The nurse leaders need to change its autocratic style into the participative and
transformational styles as the company and should listen to the complaints of the staff members
to avoid the situations. Some of the recommendations are given as below:
 The leaders should provide full support to the nurses and understand individual’s needs
within the group (Akpabio, John, Akpan, Akpabio, & Uyanah, 2016).
 Leaders should need to find out the real cause of the conflict instead of blaming others.
 There is a need to focus on the issues and how to overcome those issues.
 Treat each and every nurse in the organization equally, with respect and dignity
 Leaders should develop the alternative solutions and plans to manage the conflict at
workplace.
 Following up of plans and positive feedback should also be involved while resolving the
conflicts within workplace (Alshammari & Dayrit, 2017).
Conclusion
Conflict is defined as the recognition of difference between two or more people, group and
departments due to variation in attitudes, values, beliefs, behaviors and goals. Conflict can be
occurred because of two reasons, staff to staff interaction and manager to manager interactions.
According to the estimations, it is found that maximum time of manager is devoted on conflict
management. If the conflict is not managed in the organization or health care settings, then it
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may have the negative impact on the interpersonal relationships and long term professionalism.
The most important strategy for any organization is to maintain the strong communication and
good relationships among coworkers. There are many leadership styles which can be adopted by
the leaders to perform in different situations. It is found that the transformational leadership
theory pays great attention to the interpersonal relationships and this theory considers all higher
level of needs including self-esteem and self-actualization.
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References
Abd-Elrhaman, E., & Ghoneimy, A. (2018). The Effect of Conflict Management Program on
Quality of Patient Care. American Journal of Nursing Science, 7(5), 192-201. Retrieved
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Akpabio, I., John, M., Akpan, M., Akpabio, F., & Uyanah, D. (2016). Work-related conflict and
nurses’ role performance ina tertiary hospital in South-south Nigeria. Journal of Nursing
Education and Practice, 6(2), 1-9. Retrieved from
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d14c/c0823e039b2e6f8efa25186edce65b3e8f66.pdf
Alasow, H. (2016). Leadership styles and conflict management. Retrieved from
https://www.academia.edu/24915681/LEADERSHIP_STYLES_AND_CONFLICT_MA
NAGEMENT
Al-Hamdan, Z. (2009). Nurse managers, diversity and conflict management. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233558524_Nurse_managers_diversity_and_co
nflict_management
Alshammari, H., & Dayrit, R. (2017). Conflict and Conflict Resolution among the Medical and
Nursing Personnel of Selected Hospitals in Hail City. IOSR Journal of Nursing and
Health Science, 6(3), 45-60. Retrieved from
http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jnhs/papers/vol6-issue3/Version-1/G0603014560.pdf
Dana, D. (2017). Conflict Resolution By Daniel Dana. Retrieved from
http://antarcticatwo.com/conflict-resolution-by-daniel-dana.pdf
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Erzen, E., & Armagan, Y. (2015). The Effect of Leadership on Conflict Management. Retrieved
from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273635901_The_Effect_of_Leadership_on_Co
nflict_Management
Guidroz, A., Perez, L., & Wang, M. (2012). Developing a model of source-specific interpersonal
conflict in health care. 28(1), pp. 69-79. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22259160
McKibben, L. (2017). Conflict management: importance and implications. Retrieved from
https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/bjon.2017.26.2.100
Römer, M., Rispens, S., Giebels, E., & Euwema, M. (2012). A Helping Hand? The Moderating
Role of Leaders' Conflict Management Behavior on the Conflict–Stress Relationship of
Employees. 28(3), pp. 253-277. Retrieved from
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Shah, M. (2017). Impact of interpersonal conflict in health care setting on patient care; the role
of nursing leadership style on resolving the conflict. 2(2), pp. 44-46. Retrieved from
https://medcraveonline.com/NCOAJ/NCOAJ-02-00031.pdf
Yufenyuy, C. (2018). The Impact of Interprofessional Conflict on Quality care –The Nurse’s
Role. Retrieved from https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/149800/My
%20Thesis%20Final%20Version.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
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