Role of Leader in Managing Conflict - Essay Example

?Role of Leader in Managing Conflict Introduction Conflict is inevitable in any organization but it can be solved amicably depending on the leader’s capability and interpersonal skills for conflict resolution. It is also important to explain the meaning of conflict as a way of gaining a clear understanding of the interpersonal skills that are considered to be important in solving conflicts. A conflict is an active disagreement between people with different opinions, values or interests (Kleynhans, 2007). Conflict can be on individual basis or group conflict where a group of people are disagreeing on something. The leaders need to have good interpersonal skills in order to be able to resolve conflicts as discussed below. Thus, leadership is defined as the ability to influence a group of people towards the achievement of organizational goals (Robins, Odendaal and Roodt, 2001). This study therefore seeks to critically discuss the role of leader in managing conflict using real examples and case studies from a clinical area. An example is drawn from Riyadh Military Hospital which had encountered certain conflicts when it embarked on a drive to implement some changes in its operations to improve efficiency. The hospital has been experiencing inefficiency of qualified nurses related to high rate of turnover between expertise, because of increased work load, increased duties and responsibilities of bedside nurses and lack of support and motivation. There was also a need to improve the performance of new nurses. The leader nursing staff including sister in charge, head nurse and admin tasked to take the lead in finding lasting solutions to this problem which meant that some changes were to be put in place. Change was normally met with resistance because of different factors like lack of budget and military role. This essay seeks to critically analyze the different types of conflicts as well as the approaches that can be implemented in order to resolve conflicts in a clinical set up. Analysis of scenario: In the scenario under consideration, there is great likelihood of conflict among the sister in charge, head nurse and the admin that have jointly resolved to take such measures that would improve the competence of new nurses in their work and reduce the employee turn over rate. The fundamental point of consideration in this paper is the different types of conflicts that can occur between the three staff members that have taken the charge. The sister in charge, head nurse and the administrator have their individualistic consents and opinions that find their origin in their respective roles in the organization structure. The head nurse has the most direct interaction with the nurses that are practically facing the problem of lack of training and education. In order to reduce the employee turnover, the head nurse has to pay due consideration to the collective opinion of the nurses that practically work in the hospital. Therefore, the head nurse has little choice but to favor the mutual consent of all working nurses in order to retain the workforce and develop team work. The sister in charge, on the other hand, is sandwiched between the head nurse and administrator. Therefore, the sister in charge has to pay due respect to the concerns of both head nurse and the administrator and is also supposed to introduce and get acknowledged her individualistic opinion. The administrator is loaded with the responsibility of managing the resources of the hospital and allocating the funds to right activities that would benefit the staff as a whole. The administrator can not blindly approve the request raised by the head nurse or the sister in charge. He assumes the responsibility to explain to the owners any action that he takes and justify the allocation of funds to individual activities. Owing to the difference of roles and responsibilities of the three staff members that have taken the charge to resolve the matter of increased employee turnover and lack of competence in the nurses, they have their individualistic solutions to the problem at hand and thus, they can easily enter into dysfunctional conflicts that can further ruin the relations between different departments. However, there is no better solution to the possible conflict between the three of them than voting. The three should mutually vote for individual decisions, and the decision gaining maximum votes can be taken. The main conflict that this paper analyzes and finds solution for is that between the doctors on call and the sister in charge. There is great likelihood of conflict between the two due to the fact that doctors frequently assign patients to any unit without discussing the availability of staff with the sister in charge. The sister in charge and doctors can conflict upon the authority to take decision. The doctors may emphasize upon the assignment of patients to any unit, and the sister in charge may refuse to accede to his opinion. In the case under consideration, individual conflict can raise among the head nurse, sister in charge and the administrator while group conflict may occur between the doctors and the sister in charge. This paper discusses ways of conflict resolution that are generally applicable upon all staff members and all types of conflicts. In order to find out adequate ways of conflict management, it is customary to briefly study the different types of conflicts and the various ways in which conflicts can be resolved in an organizational setup. Types of conflicts In an organization, the objectives, values and needs of groups and individuals do not always coincide (Armstrong, 1994). There may occur clashes of ideas about tasks and projects and these should not be suppressed since it is the only way to ensure that the issues are explored and conflicts are resolved. Conflict becomes counter-productive when it is based on personality clashes. From this argument, it can be noted that there are mainly two types of conflicts that are found in the organization and these are group and individual conflict. Group conflict pertains to collective disagreement over something by a group of people in the organization. On the other hand, individual conflict is more personal and it mainly involves individuals. In order to solve these conflicts, the leaders need to assume the responsibility. The case of Riyadh Military Hospital saga presents a good example of group conflict. There is conflict about the authority of decision making between physicians and sister in charge in the unit. The doctors on call may accept order in order to transfer patients to the unit without discussing the staff availability with sister in charge which puts more load on the staff who are working in the shift. Any initiative that may be taken in this setting will be new to them. Hence they need to get training so as to be positioned to know the demands of the initiative. There is a general feeling among all nurses that the tasks related to the acceptance or discharge of patients should be managed by the head nurse. The nurses think that the head nurse can best evaluate the ability and capacity of individual nurses of the unit and communicate with the nursing admin to either increase number of staff or decrease the load on the unit. Approaches to manage group conflict: Leaders often have to manage things in addition to leading. The interface between leadership and management often becomes quite invisible, since the two are highly related to each other. The most basic difference between leadership and management is that the former stresses upon vision while the latter emphasizes upon its implementation (Reiling, 2007). Owing to their great power and authority, leaders can effectively manage conflicts. Conflict is something that is normal in an organization and it is the duty of leaders in particular to solve disputes among the members of the organization. Solving problems or conflicts requires good communication skills. Lack of communication gives rise to hostility (Testa, 2011). Under normal circumstances, no organization can successfully survive without communication which involves dissemination or exchange of information between the employees and the management (Werner, 2003). Communication in particular plays a pivotal role in influencing the activities of nurses to achieve the goals of the hospital. The approaches to manage conflict successfully will be discussed separately under group and individual conflict sections. There are three principal ways of resolving inter-group conflict: peaceful coexistence, compromise and problem solving. Peaceful coexistence: The aim here is to smooth out the differences between employees in the organization. The leader has a role to encourage people in an organization to: learn to live together, share information and exchange views and to move freely between groups (Armstrong, 1994). Nurses in the Riyadh Military Hospital come from different cultures. Therefore, the leader needs to take measures that would establish professional working to improve the efficiency of the hospital. Conflict resolution requires improvement of the communication. That can be achieved by implementing such techniques as merging of groups. In light of the case under consideration, the physicians can be made to refer the patients to the sister in charge who can then assign individual nurses to individual patients with due consultation with the head nurse. In this case, the decision making power fundamentally rests with the head nurse. This can be the most useful way of managing conflict in the Riyadh Hospital given the nurses place confidence in the head nurse. The sister in charge can suggest the head nurse to assign specific nurse to a particular patient, though the ultimate decision will be made by the head nurse. This is a very rational way of managing the conflict here, though the doctors need to accede to give the authority to the sister in charge. Compromise: “A compromise is a negotiation between two or more parties, either individuals or groups which helps to reach a mutually agreed upon decision” (Christensen, 2010). The issue can be resolved through negotiation or bargaining in which case, neither party wins nor loses. In such a conscientious situation, it is the role of leader to ensure that a compromise is reached so that the conflict will not further complicate an already delicate situation. In the case study under consideration, it can be noted that there is no ready consensus among the people in the hospital who have come from different cultures. Hence, there is need to have compromise. In case of a compromise, there is no right or wrong answer. All that is achieved is the settlement of dispute. A policy needs to be finalized that would represent the pinnacle of success and effectiveness to resolve the differences, though it requires skill and management of high-level communication (Jeong, 2010). Lesmeister (2004) asserted that all of the conflicting parties can not be contented at the same time. He mentioned that such measures as reduction in the demand can increase the possibility of success in a compromise. A leader should have skill to deal with the conflicting parties in order to pursue a winning policy. He should make use of impartial terms instead of being emotional. Language used should be flexible and the questions asked should be open ended. A leader should use terms that are understood by and acceptable to all parties and avoid use of controversial terms in the speech (Kohlrieser, 2006). This particular section is applicable to the possible conflict between the head nurse, sister in charge and the admin. The three of them should respect one another’s opinions and should make use of friendly language. Problem solving: Another approach to the management of conflict is problem solving. In this technique, an attempt is made to find genuine solution to the problem rather than just accommodating difference of views. This conflict resolution technique enables the organization to create better solutions. Both the leaders and employees discuss the problem and agree on the objectives to be attained to solve the conflict. An agreement is then reached which ensures smooth resolution of conflicts within an organization especially in a clinical situation. In real life situations, cooperation remains better than competition, though the difference of opinion is an important part of the process of cooperation. In the hospital under consideration which is equipped with multicultural staff, difference of views may lead to insight and creativity as long as it does not impede progress in group work. One factor that a leader must take into consideration is the confidence factor. Parties who have a high confidence factor do not hide or distort any useful information from others to resolve the dispute, and overtly express their views. They are not afraid to overtly express the facts or their personal ideas in front of the conflicting parties (Checketts, 2007). More experience and skill development does increase the self confidence of a nurse. Unfortunately, in the case under consideration, opinions of inexperienced nurses can not be regarded much because of their lack of experience and insufficient technical knowledge. In such circumstances, if they express their views, their faulty consents can put them into trouble and their job at risk. To solve problems, a leader must reduce the disparity between various parties. Variation in the levels of power and authority causes separation between the parties. The main problem in the case under consideration is the improvement of competence of the nurses. This can be achieved by providing them with training courses on the job. The training curses would formally educate the nurses on different types of cases, and the necessary care that needs to be provided in them. The nurses can be made to collectively take lectures that they are given. The admin can have reservation in devising training courses because they would incur additional cost. However, it needs to be realized that the training of nurses through on-job training sessions would save all the cost that is conventionally incurred from the customer reduction because of lack of nurses’ competence. Approaches to manage individual conflict: Interpersonal conflict like intergroup conflict is an organizational reality which can be both beneficial and harmful (Armstrong, 1994). Problems usually arise when potential conflict is artificially suppressed. In real life situations like in the nursing clinical area, conflicts may arise when there is misunderstanding over issues such as allocation of duties or tasks that are to be performed. These can be just individual sentiments that can be amicably solved if the leaders take a leading role in promoting dialogue. Such cases can be resolved through communication. In any case, communication plays a pivotal role in promoting mutual understanding between members of an organization. Constructive confrontation is one viable approach that can be implemented to bring individuals in conflict together, ideally with the third party, the leader, whose role is to build a climate for meaningful dialogue. Constructive confrontation: This aims to get the parties involved to understand and explore other party’s perceptions and feelings. These parties can then find a uniform avenue that can be followed in a process that is meant to develop mutual understanding in order to produce a win-win situation. The leaders play a big role in ensuring that while analyzing the feelings of both parties involved, the behavior required for conflict resolution is acknowledged and tried to be reached upon. The leaders have a key role to play in making the discussion meaningful and free of ambiguities. The leaders should be able to monitor the way negative feelings are expressed and encourage the conflicting parties to reach an amicable solution. Armstrong (1994) suggests that leaders should adopt a counseling approach by communicating and listening effectively, encouraging people to find solutions to problems, and helping people to understand and define the problem. Some members in the organization may have constructive ideas that can be helpful to the organization as a whole. Effective communication: Leaders oversee the performance of employees. They can greatly influence their interpersonal behavior by properly harnessing the interpersonal communication in an organization. It can be noted that interpersonal communication is primarily concerned with linking two or more people directly where they can freely express their feelings and ideas (Kritzinger, Bowler and Goliath 2003). This kind of communication is very effective in conflict resolution since there are great chances of the development of understanding between the conflicting parties. In a nursing environment, the sister in charge can take a leading role in ensuring that those workers who have conflicts come together in a face to face situation where they can express their feelings and sentiments. The ability to resolve conflicts among individuals in an organization is mainly influenced by their interpersonal skills which in turn are determined by communication. Frequent interaction between the leader and the junior employees helps in the development of understanding. Implementing an initiative meant to resolve conflicts is a process which requires concerted efforts by all the members who are involved in the process. Failure to do that may have a negative impact on the outcome of the initiative. Thus, the main role of a leader in this particular case is to facilitate dialogue among the members of the organization towards reaching mutual understanding (weeks, 1992). Good listening skills: Good listening skills play a pivotal role in conflict resolution. Somebody who is able to carefully listen to both sides of the story can effectively contribute to communication which can play a major role in conflict resolution. All organizations are structured in such a way so as to facilitate the achievement of organizational goals. This facilitates the flow of information and makes the organizational communication more effective There should be feedback from both ends to ensure that there is mutual understanding within an organization and the leaders can carefully use the opportunity to positively influence the workers to put aside their differences. Timely response to disputes among the employees removes the barriers that block the free flow of information. In most cases, where there is an open channel of communication, parties involved share a common understanding. Good listening also forms part of the communication process that is involved in the successful operation of health care organizations. Impartiality in solving conflicts: The other critical factor in conflict resolution is impartiality. Fairness is a virtue. Being the responsible authority, the leader should be neutral and should not favor any side as this would endanger his/her likelihood of resolving conflict. The existence of unresolved conflicts in an organization negatively impacts on individual performance which in turn affects the whole organization. Effective leaders can also play a role in implementing the concept of socialization to solve conflicts. Socialization is the process through which the members of organization continually learn the values, norms and beliefs of the organization in order to become an integral part of it (Werner 2003). It can be noted that people who often experience ongoing and significant conflict between their personal values and the organization’s values will reduce their performance and underperform, stay uncommitted or ultimately leave the company. In this regard, socialization should not be left to chance but should be carefully managed so as to be able to indoctrinate the employees into the organizational culture. In the case of Riyadh Hospital, physicians in particular need to be counseled and made aware of the limitations of the hospital. The physicians require more and more nurses to take care of the patients, whereas the admin can maintain limited workforce in order to accommodate the profits. More nurses would require more salary that would be cut from the profit. Therefore, physicians need to respect the limitations. Strategies for conflict resolution: One of the most effective strategies for conflict resolution is training and development. In the case of Riyadh Military Hospital, the nurses were skeptical about taking extra responsibilities because they thought that it would be an extra burden. Training and development programmes were put in place for the nurses so as to give them knowledge about the benefits of the initiative. Before offering the training programs, the admin had conducted a brief survey in which all nurses were asked to name the areas they need education in. The training programs were then arranged on the areas commonly named. The time of training is often considered to be the main problem of on job training (Cyprus, 2011). The training programs were based on lectures that were provided before the start of duty every day so that the nurses would take lectures with fresh mind. The lectures were offered free of charge, but attendance was made compulsory. After about three months of running this training programme, there was a marked improvement in their response and perceptions. Training is very important in ensuring the sustainability of organizational change. One advantage of offering training to the employees is that it promotes learning within the organization where they would have hands on experience with its operations (Amos et al, 2008). One good lesson that can be drawn from the case study is that if the initiative to be implemented in an organization is accommodative to a diverse range of views and ideas, there are chances that it will be sustainable given it will have the support of members of the organization who are affected by it. It can be noted that learning is no longer restricted to individual experience but has become teamwork which requires new ways of thinking. Change is a process and it usually requires the involvement of various stakeholders particularly the workers which can lead to formation of working teams. Otherwise, there remain great chances of conflicts. According to Robbins et al (2001), teamwork is where individuals participating collectively, work together towards the attainment of certain goals as well as objectives in the context of an organization. The essence of this stance taken by the leadership of Riyadh Military Hospital to promote real learning among the nurses was beneficial because they could see the benefits of the change. Involvement of members in decision making: Apart from communication, the involvement of all members in a group in decision making has a strong bearing on this particular type of leadership approach. It can be noted that the participative path is primarily concerned with meeting the followers’ needs for making suggestions and involvement in the process of decision making. The leaders should engage the employees in the decision making process by listening to their ideas and suggestions and incorporating them in any decision that can affect the health care workers in a hospital. This initiative is meant to stimulate the interests of members towards the initiative to be undertaken and this would be beneficial to the organization as a whole. The main advantage of involving the employees in making decisions about a particular aspect is that they would have a sense of belongingness to the whole organization. Hence, they would meaningfully participate knowing that they would also benefit from the initiative. This style of leadership would inculcate a sense of collective responsibility where everyone would put maximum effort towards the attainment of organizational goals. Werner (2004) suggests that leadership and the employees ought to work hand in hand in order to achieve the vision of the organization. “By tapping the unique qualities of group members, it is possible that the group can generate a greater number of alternatives that are of higher quality than the individual” (Barnett, 2011). In the event that an organization has decided to change its operations, there should be mutual understanding between the leaders and the followers to be able to implement the proposed changes. A leader often takes a leading role in developing and inspiring staff to improve their performance with the aim of achieving organizational goals. A leader should always display positive traits that can be emulated by the juniors who are followers in the organization or group. A leader should motivate the workers so as to minimize the chances of conflict in the organization which can negatively impact its effectiveness. Conflicting paradigms: Barret & Wilkerson (2004) suggest that there might be a problem in trying to meet diverse needs in one matter. In the event of managing conflicts in an organization, it can be noted that some paradigms oppose each other. Pearl and Leon Paulson (1994) identify the positivist and constructivist approach to learning in an organization. The positivist paradigm posits that meaning is constant across users, contexts, and purposes and it assumes that the leader will impart contextual meaning on what has been learned by the learner. On the other hand, the constructivist portfolio suggests a learning environment in which a learner constructs the meaning and it assumes that meaning varies across individuals, over time, and with purpose. Though conflicting, these approaches are very important in the understanding of conflicts in an organization. It must not always be assumed that the leader knows everything since the members in the organization are also capable of constructing meaningful information that can be helpful in resolving the conflict that may arise in an organization. Every member in an organization is capable of contributing meaningfully to the organization regardless of the position held. In the case of Riyadh Hospital, the head nurse should seek opinion of all the nurses prior to giving her decision. This way, she would adopt the constructivist approach towards conflict resolution. Reaction to conflict: As noted above, conflict in an organization is unavoidable given the emergence of some conflicts plays a very significant role in bringing about positive changes in the organization. Some conflicts often lead to underperformance which ultimately affects the operations of the organization as a whole. It is imperative for the leaders to ascertain the causes of the conflict as well as its magnitude to the operations of the organization as a whole. It is imperative for the leaders to get to the bottom of the story and try to establish the causes of conflict. Though conflicts are natural in the organization, if they are left unmanaged, they can negatively impact on the operations of the organization. Having established the causes of conflict in the organization, the leaders must then decide the approach they can adopt to find a solution to the conflict. It is very important to gather as many facts as possible so as to come up with informed decisions. Some conflicts may threaten the viability of the organization. More importantly, the leaders should not rush into ringing panic bells since a conflict in an organization is inevitable and is seen as a healthy situation. There is a need to take a holistic approach that can amicably address the problem. Conclusion: In an organization, it can be noted that conflict is inevitable but it can be solved amicably depending upon the leader’s capability and interpersonal skills towards finding ways of resolving conflicts. It is also important to explain the meaning of conflict as a way of gaining a clear understanding of the interpersonal skills that are considered to be important in solving conflicts. A conflict is an active disagreement between people with different opinions, values or interests (Kleynhans, 2007). There are different approaches to conflict management depending upon the level and magnitude of the conflict. The approaches to manage conflict successfully involve: peaceful coexistence, compromise and problem solving. In view of the case study of Riyadh Military Hospital, these were found to be effective since the people involved later came to realize the benefits of the initiative after it was implemented. New nurses were educated and their competence was increased by providing them with free of cost training sessions. References: Amos, TL et al 2008, Human Resources Management, 3rd Edition, JUTA. Armstrong, M 1994, Improving organizational effectiveness, London: Kogan Page. Barnett, T 2011, Group Decision Making, viewed, 8 March, 2011, . Barrett, HC, & Wilkerson, J 2004, Conflicting Paradigms in Electronic Portfolio Approaches, viewed, 6 March, 2011, . Checketts 2007, Positive Conflict: Transform Opposition into Innovation, Career Press. 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