Effective Communication in Terms of a Conflict - Research Paper Example

Effective Communication in Terms of a Conflict Introduction In an organisation, it can be noted that conflict is inevitable but it can be solved amicably depending on the leader’s capability and interpersonal skills towards finding ways of resolving conflicts. Thus, 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 in particular need to have good interpersonal skills to be able to resolve conflicts as going to be discussed below. Thus, leadership is defined as the ability to influence a group of people towards the achievement of organisational goals (Robins S.P., Odendaal A.& Roodt G. 2001). This study therefore seeks to critically discuss the role of the leader in managing conflict using real examples and case studies from a clinical area. An example will be drawn from Queen Victoria Hospital which encountered certain conflicts when it embarked on a drive to implement some changes in its operations to improve efficiency. The hospital has been experiencing inefficient processing of patients which resulted in long waiting lists and as part of the turnaround strategy, there was need to improve the performance of the admission-to-discharge chain. The sister in charge of the nursing staff was tasked was tasked to take the lead in finding lasting solutions to this problem which meant that some changes were to be put in place and it is widely known that change is normally met with resistance as a result of different factors. Against this background, this essay seeks to critically analyse the different types of conflicts as well as the approaches that can implemented in order to resolve conflicts in a clinical set up. Types of conflicts In an organisation, the objectives, values and needs of groups and individuals do not always coincide hence the existence of conflicts (Armstrong 1994). There should be clashes of ideas about tasks, 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 organisation and these are group and individual conflict. In this case, group conflict pertains to collective disagreement over something by a group of people in the organisation. On the other hand, individual conflict is more personal and it mainly involves individuals. These types of conflicts can be constructive hence the need for the leaders to take a leading role in resolving them. They can also be counter-productive which is why solutions ought to be found. A good example of group conflict in the case of Queen Victoria Hospital saga is that the turnaround strategy was supposed to empower the nurses to carry out the discharge role since they were working closely with the patients which did not go down well with the other groups. Influential workers such as physicians interpreted this as to mean that their authority has been stripped hence the emergence of the conflict. At individual level, some of the nurses were of the opinion that this turnaround strategy would entail an increase in their workload the reason why they were resisting this idea. This initiative was going to be new to them hence there was need for them to get training so as to be positioned to know the demands of the initiative. There was a general feeling among some nurses that the tasks related to discharge issues were not directly related to their medical profession as this was more of an administrative task which could be performed by the clerical staff. Approaches to manage group conflict Conflict is something that is normal in an organisation and it is the duty of leaders in particular to solve disputes among the members of the organisation. Solving problems or conflicts require good communication skills and in our case, the sister in charge tasked with solving the conflict that ensued after the proposal to give the nurses responsibility to oversee issues related to discharging of patients was a very good communicator. Usually, under normal circumstances, no organisation 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 the other members of the organisation in a bid to achieve the organizational goals set. Thus, the approaches to manage conflict successfully in this case will be discussed under group and individual conflict. 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 differences and emphasise the control ground for all the employees in an organisation. The leader has a role to encourage people in an organisation to: learn to live together, to share information and exchange views and to move freely between groups (Armstrong 1994). In the case of Queen Victoria Hospital, the sister in charge was tasked with conscientising people particularly the nursing staff to take up the initiative so as to improve the efficiency of the hospital. She used peaceful means to appeal to the nursing staff to have unity of purpose in their operations. Improved communication as well as techniques such as briefing groups greatly helped to bring good ideas where the messages were tailored in such a way to appeal to the people involved. In the given case, the sister in charge who is the leader played a pivotal role in managing conflict because it is noted that after two months of implementation of the initiative, there has been a marked improvement in the perception held by the nurses towards the approach of improving the efficiency in the discharge system used by the hospital which has been a source of conflict. Compromise The issue is resolved by negotiation or bargaining and neither party wins or loses (Armstrong 1994). In such a conscientious situation, it is the role of the leader to ensure that a compromise is reached so that the conflict will not further complicate an already delicate situation. In the clinical case study given above, it can be noted that there was no ready consensus among the people in the organisation hence the need to have some compromise so as to accommodate different views of people during the transition period. Practically, the leadership approach taken by a leader towards a certain conflict in an organisation has a bearing on the outcome of the intended goals. In real life situations, it can be noted that aspects such as communication play a very significant role in any given situation where there is a conflict such as the given case. Implementing an initiative meant to resolve conflicts is a process which requires concerted efforts by all the members who are involved otherwise failure to do that may negatively impact on the outcome of the initiative and the sister in charge tried to be as accommodative as possible and involved all the people in getting their ideas. Thus, the main role of the leader in this particular case was to facilitate dialogue among the members of the organisation towards reaching mutual understanding. Problem solving The other approach to manage conflict is problem solving. In this case, an attempt is made to find genuine solution to the problem rather than just accommodating different points of view (Werner et al 2007). It can be seen that this particular conflict situation was used to the advantage of the organisation to create better solutions as far as problems related to discharge issues of patients were concerned. Through problem solving, the sister in charge ensured that they suggest a workable solution that will be advantageous in the long run. In this case, both the leaders and the employees had to engage in discussion of the problem and agreeing on the objectives to be attained in reaching a solution. Approaches to managing individual conflict Interpersonal conflict like intergroup conflict is an organisational reality which is neither good nor bad (Armstrong 1994). Problems usually arise when potential conflict is artificially suppressed. In real life situations like in the nursing clinical area given above, conflicts may arise when there is misunderstanding over issues such as allocation of duties or tasks to be performed. These were just individual sentiments that could be amicably solved whereby the leaders particularly the sister in charge and her team had to take a leading role in promoting dialogue among the nursing staff. Such cases can be resolved through communication such that the differences will be solved. In any case, communication plays a pivotal role in promoting mutual understanding between members of an organisation and the leaders at Queen Victoria Hospital opened all channels of communication so that the employees could engage in meaningful dialogue. As noted in this case, constructive confrontation is one viable approach that was implemented to bring individuals in conflict together, ideally with the third party, the leader, whose role is to build a conducive climate for meaningful dialogue. Constructive confrontation This was aimed at getting the parties involved to understand and explore other party’s perceptions and feelings then find a uniform avenue that could be followed in a process that was meant to develop mutual understanding in order to produce a win-win situation. The leader in this scenario played a big role in ensuring that analysing the feelings of both parties involved was given to specific behaviour that is expected in the operations of the organisation. The leaders had a key role to play in this process and they had to get agreement to the rules of discussion that were aimed at bringing out facts not hearsay which causes hostile behaviour among the people who are involved in a conflict. It was the duty of the leaders to monitor the way negative feelings were expressed. The sister in charge tried to encourage the warring parties involving the nurses and physicians to find common understanding in order to reach an amicable solution to the problem of discharging patients that was going to be beneficial to the whole organisation. Armstrong (1994) suggests that the leaders should adopt a counselling approach as follows: communicate effectively, listen effectively, encourage people to find solutions to problems, help people to understand and define the problem. Some members in the organisation may have constructive ideas that can be helpful to the organisation as whole that will be a result of the conflict witnessed among members of against a particular decision. Effective communication Indeed, the leaders in the given case had a great task of overseeing the performance of the employees and they greatly influenced their interpersonal behaviour through properly harnessing interpersonal communication where face to face communication was encouraged. It can be noted that interpersonal communication is primarily concerned with linking two or more people directly where they can freely express their feelings as well as ideas and this is a viable tool of ensuring effective communication in conflict resolution (Kritzinger, Bowler and Goliath 2003). This kind of communication was very effective in resolving conflict since there were very high chances of understanding each other in a face to face environment where the leaders helped in facilitating dialogue. The sister in charge took a leading role in ensuring that those workers who had conflicts come together in a face to face situation where they could express their feelings and sentiments. The ability to resolve conflicts among individuals in an organisation is mainly influenced by different interpersonal skills which in turn are also determined by interpersonal communication where there will be interaction between the leader and the other junior employees that may have problems in understanding each other (Armstrong 1994). Good listening skills Good listening skills played a pivotal role in conflict resolution by the sister in charge at Queen Victoria Hospital. She was able to carefully listen to both sides of the story which effectively contributed to communication and this played a major role in as far as influencing the behaviour of individuals towards conflict resolution was concerned. All organisations are structured in such a way to facilitate the achievement of organizational goals and this helps to make the flow of information or organizational communication more effective. In order to communicate effectively in this scenario, the leaders put in place channels of communication that were open to make communication more effective. There was feedback from both ends to ensure that there was mutual understanding within an organisation where the leaders carefully used the opportunity to positively influence the workers to put aside their differences. Timely response to disputes among the employees removed the barriers that existed and threatened the initiative to improve the efficiency of the hospital. In most cases, where there is an open channel of communication, there are likely chances of communicating effectively since the parties involved would have a common understanding and agreement of one thing which will greatly help in reducing the chances of conflicts taking place in an organisation as noted in the above mentioned case. Good listening and speaking effectively form part of the communication process involved in the successful operations of health care organisations whereby they will be dealing with human beings always. In the event that there has been a conflict like the one given above, the leaders managed to resolve these conflicts through effectively harnessing these interpersonal skills. Without proper communication, there would be high chances of conflict and misunderstanding hence the leaders had to put effort to ensure that there is a cordial working relationship among the employees in an organisation. This removed unnecessary misunderstandings among the members of the organisation. Where there is a cordial relationship among the members of the organisation, there would be very high chances of successfully achieving the set goals and solving conflicts should they arise in the organisation. Effective communication skills Communication has to be effective in order to convince and persuade the employees to have a common as well as positive understanding towards something (Amos et al 2008). Human behaviour is influenced by different factors but what is more important is that there should be mutual understanding between the parties involved in the communication process so as to be able to solve and manage conflicts. The leader’s role in this case was to effectively communicate so as to be able to convince the people who may had disputes or misunderstandings in the organisation to pull their efforts towards the attainment of the set organisational goals. By virtue of using open and effective channels of communication, the sister in charge and her team effectively solved the conflict through positively influencing the behaviour of those who were involved in conflict by crafting the information to suit the needs of all the parties. Conflicts that are not properly solved can put the organisation into disrepute. Thus, the ability to use non verbal communication coupled with effective communication skills as well as good listening skills played a complimentary role in conflict resolution at Queen Victoria Hospital. The chances of people understanding each other better and clearly in face to face situation were high and this greatly helped in minimising the chances of misunderstanding. Impartiality in solving conflicts The other critical factor in conflict resolution is impartiality. Being the responsible authority so resolve conflicts, the leader in this case should be very neutral and should not take sides as this would endanger his or her chances of successfully solving conflicts (Armstrong 1994). Fairness is a virtue as displayed by the leaders at Queen Victoria Hospital where there were no elements of favouritism which could leave the other party disgruntled. Conflict in an organisation can negatively impact on the operations of the organisation and careful consideration ought to be taken when solving a conflict as a way of attempting to come up with an amicable solution to all the parties involved. The sister in charge was impartial in problem solving which minimised the recurrence of the same problem. In other words, the existence of unresolved conflicts in an organisation negatively impacts on individual performance which in turn affects the whole organisation. The leaders at Queen Victoria Hospital also played a role in implementing the concept of socialisation to solve conflicts. Socialization is the process through which the members of the organisation continually learn the values, norms and beliefs of the organisation 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 organisation’s values will reduce their performance and underperform, stay uncommitted or ultimately leave the company. In this regard, socialization was not left to chance but was carefully managed so as to be able to indoctrinate the employees into the organisational culture where they would be exposed to its values that shape its operations as well as their expected conduct. In this way, the leader was better positioned to solve as well as manage the conflict that had arisen. Strategies for conflict resolution One of the most effective strategies for conflict resolution is training and development. In the case of Queen Victoria Hospital, the nurses were sceptical of taking extra responsibilities because they thought that it would be an extra burden to their workload. Training and development programmes were put in place for the nurses so as to attempt to give them knowledge about the benefits of the initiative. After about three months of running this training programme, there was a marked improvement in their response as well as perceptions to the initiative that was meant to improve the efficiency of the hospital especially in the referral as well as discharge of the employees. Training is very important in ensuring the sustainability of organisational change. One advantage of offering training and development skills to the employees is that it promotes learning within the organisation where they would have hands on experience with its operations (Amos et al 2008). It can be noted that a good lesson that can be drawn from the case study shows that if the initiative to be implemented in an organisation is accommodative to a diverse range of views and ideas, there are likely chances that it will be sustainable given that it will have the support of members of the organisation who are affected by it. Learning also formed part of the initiative to try to overcome the barriers that were encountered. 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 will be high chances of conflicts that can be encountered if there . Thus, according to Robbins et al (2001), teamwork is where individuals participating collectively, work together towards the attainment of certain goals as well as objectives within a given organisation. Thus, the essence of this stance taken by the leadership of Queen Victoria Hospital to promote real learning among the nurses so that they could see the benefits of the change initiative with regards to issues related to the discharge of patients at the hospital which was under performing. This also helped in sharing of ideas where it can be seen that even some of the physicians who were opposed to the initiative later on openly showed their willingness to learn from other embers. 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 which was adopted by the leaders at Queen Victoria Hospital is primarily concerned with meeting the followers’ needs for making suggestions and involvement in the process of decision making. The leaders engaged the employees in the decision making process by listening to their ideas and suggestions and incorporating them in the decision making that affected them. This initiative was meant to stimulate the interests of the members towards the change improve the efficiency of the discharge system at the hospital. The main advantage of involving the employees in the process of making decisions about a particular aspect is that they would have a sense of belonging to the whole organisation hence they would meaningfully participate fully knowing that they would also benefit from the initiative which was the case at the above mentioned hospital. By virtue of engaging the employees in the decision making process, they would feel to be part of the organisation and this would lead them to fully contribute towards the attainment of the set goals. At Queen Victoria Hospital, the workers were encouraged to express their views in a free manner which greatly helped in improving the situation. This style of leadership inculcated a sense of collective responsibility where everyone would put maximum effort towards the attainment of organizational goals. In real life situations, this is a recommendable style compared to those that seek to impose decisions on the other members without their knowledge or contribution as there will be likely chances of conflict. Indeed, it is folly and suicidal to exclude the people who are supposed to implement the initiative since they are the ones who will determine the success or failure of it the reason why the sister in charge adopted a strategy that was all inclusive. Werner (2004) suggests that the leadership and the employees ought to work hand in hand in order to achieve the vision of the organisation. In the event that an organisation 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. Thus, the leader in this scenario often took a leading role in developing and inspiring staff to improve their performance with the aim of achieving organisational goals. She always displayed positive traits that could be emulated by the juniors as well as putting measures to motivate them as a way of minimising the negative impacts of conflict. Conflicting paradigms Barret & Wilkerson (2004) suggest that there might be a problem in trying to meet diverse needs in one single product given that these may conflict each other. In the event of managing conflicts in an organisation, it can be noted that some paradigms oppose each other. Pearl and Leon Paulson (1994) identify the positivist as well as the constructivist approach to learning especially in an organisation. The positivist paradigm posits that 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 organisation. It must not always be assumed that the leader knows everything since the members in the organisation are also capable of constructing meaningful information that can be helpful in resolving the conflict that may arise in an organisation. Every member in an organisation is capable of contributing meaningfully to the organisation regardless of the position held which is the approach that was taken by the sister in charge at Queen Victoria Hospital. Reaction to conflict As noted above, conflict in an organisation is unavoidable given that the emergence of some conflicts will play a very significant role in bringing about significant changes that can positively contribute to the operations of the organisation. In the event that there has been a conflict in an organisation, a holistic approach has to be taken so as to ensure that a resolution is found in order to avert the impending disaster that can result from that conflict if it is left unresolved. Some conflicts often lead to underperformance which ultimately affects the operations of the organisation 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 organisation as a whole. It is imperative for the leaders to get to the bottom of the story and try to establish the causes of the conflict such that they will work with facts not opinionated views which may lead to biased conclusions. Though conflicts are natural in the organisation, if they are left unmanaged, they can negatively impact on the operations of the organisation as a whole since the people will tend to pull their efforts in different directions. Having established the causes of conflict in the organisation, the leaders must then decide on 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 be able to come with informed decisions. Some conflicts may threaten the viability of the organisation as a whole hence the need for the leaders to come up with measures that will address the problem in a holistic and fair manner. It is also important to engage meaningfully the parties that are involved in a conflict so as to be better positioned to come up with effective solutions that do not compromise the integrity of the organisation as a whole. When addressing a conflict, the leaders in an organisation should ensure that they reach a mutual agreement with the parties involved for the sake of the organisation or else a compromise will be helpful. More importantly, the leaders should not rush into ringing panic bells since a conflict in an organisation is inevitable and is seen as a healthy situation hence there will be need to take a holistic approach that can amicably address the problem. As discussed above, the leaders at the hospital mentioned used the same criteria in managing conflict with the aim of improving efficiency of the hospital. Conclusion In an organisation, it can be noted that conflict is inevitable but it can be solved amicably depending on the leader’s capability and interpersonal skills towards finding ways of resolving conflicts. Thus, 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. There are different approaches to conflict management depending on the level and magnitude of the conflict. Communication in particular plays a pivotal role in influencing the activities of the other members of the organisation in a bid to achieve the organizational goals set. The approaches to manage conflict successfully involve: peaceful coexistence, compromise and problem solving. In view of the case study of Queen Victoria Hospital, these were found to be effective since the people involved later came to realise the benefits of the initiative after it was implemented. References Amos T.L. et al (2008). Human Resources Management. 3rd Edition. JUTA Armstrong M (1994). Improving organisational effectiveness. London. Kogan Page. Barrett, H.C., & Wilkerson J. (2004). Conflicting Paradigms in Electronic Portfolio Approaches. Available at: http://electronicportfolios.com/systems/paradigms.html [Accessed on 06 December 2010]. Kleynhans R. et al (2007), Human Resource Management: fresh perspectives, Prentice Hall Kritzinger E., Bowler A. and Goliath D (2003), Effective Communication: Getting the message across in business, Afritech Robins S.P., Odendaal A.& Roodt G. (2001), Organisational Behaviour, Pearson Education Werner A. Et al (2007). Organisational behaviour: A contemporary SA perspective.2nd Edition. Van Schaik Publishers. Read More