CONFLICT RESOLUTION AT GENERAL HOSPITAL

Conflict Resolution at General Hospital



Conflict Resolution at General Hospital

1. Discuss the conflict that is occurring at General Hospital.

According to Hellriegel and Slocum (2011), conflict is defined as a process in which one party (person or group) perceives that its interest are being opposed or negatively affected by another party. The conflict that is occurring at General Hospital is the doctors are interested in achieving personal benefits from employees of pharmaceutical companies that distributes to the hospital. For the most part organizations consider this a conflict of interest. The doctors' focus is not on their patients but on obtaining personal benefits. The Hospital pays each doctor and clinician that is employed a high salary and the pharmaceutical companies are aware that the doctors are interested in favors if they use products at the hospital. This dilemma has caused employees of the pharmaceutical companies to easily get their products in the General Hospital which from time to time is a complicated task for many pharmaceutical companies. Since the doctors have began this practice it has become a serious dilemma for the hospital. The ways to manage the cost incurred in availing the desirable pharmaceutical resources in the Hospital are also facing some difficulties. Some pharmaceutical companies increased the prices of their products in order to give some share to the doctors that support their company. Some professionals at the General Hospital have positive thoughts of the result.

The parties that have conflict are the CEO Mike Hammer and the doctors represented by the Director of Medicine Dr. Mark Williams. Mr. Hammer faced opposition from the hospitals' board of trustees. The hospital was not competitive and was losing money. Mr. Hammer was not capable to influence the doctors or the board to adhere to any cost containing measures or resolutions. To compound this dilemma, he assigned authority to Marge Harding the Chief Operating Officer of the hospital to deal with and resolve the situation. Ms. Harding had personal goals to accomplish and would use this opportunity to attain them. The level of this conflict would be classified as Intergroup Conflict. “Intergroup conflict refers to opposition, disagreements, and disputes between groups or teams” (Hellriegel and Slocum) in this case between the doctors, the board of trustees and management. The doctors had taken a firm stand and they did not listen to any ideas or thoughts from the CEO concerning cost containment.

2. Discuss the conflict management styles that are evident in the case.

Conflict management styles are the pattern of conduct a person grows in reaction to conflict with others for example disagreements. Conflict management styles tend to be steady. Conflict management is the ability required to resolve different circumstances.

According to Hellriegel and Slocum (2011), there are five conflict handling styles: Collaborating Style, Compromising Style, Forcing Style, Accommodating Style, and Avoiding Style. In the beginning Mike Hammer started with the Collaborating Style. “The collaborating style refers to high level of cooperative and assertive behaviors and represents win-win approach to interpersonal conflict handling” ...