Conflict management in professional health care settings

Purpose:

As a manager, you will need to be effective at navigating conflict. You don’t need to enjoy it, but you can’t avoid it. Avoiding conflict in the short term only delays the inevitable and usually results in needing to address issues that have grown bigger in the future.

In this lesson, you will need to address an issue that is threatening the success of your information governance implementation plan.

Scenario:

The hospital has a zero-tolerance policy on bullying, though it has been enforced unevenly across departments. Some department managers seem hesitant to approach employees who are bullies. It is almost like they are afraid of the employee themselves and prefer to avoid the conflict.

You took a hands-off approach in the past out of fear of rocking the boat and losing employees. You now realize that tolerating bullying may be affecting morale, and you think you may be losing employees because of it. Because of this, it is time to step in and take action.

As you have begun to implement the IG plan, it has become apparent that Suzanne (Health information management employee) is sabotaging the plan. She has been telling other department employees that they do not need to do the new tasks associated with the project. She has also been belittling Pauline, who has been excited about the new duties. There has even been some name calling involved.

Instructions:

Develop a brief, (about 3-pages) paper for how you will address the scenario.

1. Consider the steps described in the Kislik video (also listed below) to develop an evidence-based plan to outline how you will deal with the conflict. Be specific about the actions that need to be taken (e.g., who, what, when).

Video:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l-AOBz69KU 

• Steps:
• Deal with the dysfunctional person
• Get the right people involved in the resolution
• Alignment (consistent understanding of the goals)
• Find allies at all level
• Teach new habits

2. How will you stabilize and monitor the change?

3. How does the organizational and unit culture impact on your plan to deal with the resistance?

4. Be sure to cite your sources.

Be sure to include your name on your paper. APA format is not required (e.g., running head, page numbers, abstract). However, you must cite your sources in text and on a reference page.