Nursing Leadership (20 hours)

8

Conflict

Conflict

Conflict is Constructive or Destructive

Conflict can be both constructive or destructive based on the conditions surrounding the conflict as well as the approach used to handle the conflict. Conflicts are normal in day to day life. Conflicts arise from the differences that people have in their opinions, believes, traditions, backgrounds as well as their values. Based on how the conflict is approached and the kind of conflict, the conflict can have positive or negative results, making it either constructive or destructive. Destructive conflict results in a damaged relationship between the parties involved in the conflict, and it is not focused on the organisation's mission. In most instances, destructive conflict is based on personal issues and differences (Lipsky et al., 2018).

There are different characteristics of a destructive conflict. One of the characteristics is each of the parties attempting to win. In a destructive conflict, none of the parties is ready to accommodate the other party's ideas and thoughts, and each of the parties wants to win in whichever condition (Lipsky et al., 2018). People engaging in a destructive conflict tend to be unfriendly, and they do not negotiate to achieve a common goal or to solve a given problem. The conflict is majorly based on personal gains and satisfaction.

High levels of anger and frustration also characterize destructive conflict. Each of the parties does not want to reason with the other individual freely, and as a result, the levels of tolerance are low for both parties (Aytaç & Basol, 2018). Destructive conflict results in deteriorated relationships between the parties and highly affect the productivity of the organization as the parties cannot reason together to achieve a given set of goals or to work towards a common goal or mission. As a result, destructive conflict affects a company negatively.

On the other hand, the constructive conflict has a positive impact on an organization. In a constructive conflict, the main objective is to find a solution to a given challenge. As a result, each of the parties in a constructive conflict case is ready to compromise their position for the sake of peace and for the achievement of the set goals (Aytaç & Basol, 2018). Better decisions are made when people engage in a constructive conflict. The views of each of the individuals are taken into consideration, and the best decision is taken by an agreement between all the conflicting parties, with the organisation's mission being the leading guide. A lot of creativity is employed in a constructive conflict to solve a problem. The opinion of each of the parties is considered and respected. The parties well elaborate dissenting opinions as a way of ensuring that all views are taken into consideration. The relationship between the parties improves at the end of the conflict resolution process. This is unlike in destructive conflict, where the relationship deteriorates or may even end up being completely broken. There are little negative emotions between the parties involved in a constructive conflict since the communication is open and honest (Lipsky et al., 2018). Constructive conflict will thus improve the productivity of an organization by incorporating new ideas and new skills.

Q 2. Good leadership is key in influencing the outcomes of a conflict. It requires a good leader to make a conflict constructive and to ensure that the relationship between the conflicting parties is either maintained or improved. Good leaders facilitate conflict resolution. A good leader builds a team that can work together regardless of the opinions they have, and when ideas conflict, they are able to resolve the conflicts easily and within a short period of time (Aytaç & Basol, 2018). A good leader gives the employees a chance to express their views even when they have dissenting opinions. This is key in positive conflict resolution as when decisions are made, each of the parties will feel factored and thus, it will be easy to resolve conflicts. There are natural conflicts that occur in any team. These conflicts should be handled in a way that none of the teams feels like having lost. Good leaders know how to offer innovative solutions to solve natural conflicts within their teams (Lebrague et al., 2020). These solutions ensure that the decisions made as well as the results of the conflict are positive and the team, as well as the entire organization, benefits from it.

One of the key factors in conflict resolution is communication. Conflict resolution requires constant and positive communication where each of the parties employs the best communication skills. It is the responsibility of the team leader to ensure that communication is effectively done when resolving a conflict in order to achieve positive results. A good leader encourages meaningful communication and respect when communicating with each other and when resolving a conflict between the team members (McKibben, 2017). The team leader ensures that each of the members is tolerant enough to allow the other party to express their views and ideas and also shows each of the parties that their ideas are valid and respected. Some conflicts can be easily resolved with proper communication as they only require clarification and cooperation. These are aspects a good leader cultivates in his or her team. A good leader also cultivates fairness in handling conflicts. Negative conflict outcomes can be easily realized when the conflict resolution process is not fair to each of the parties. If one of the parties feels that they are being treated unfairly, they can easily remain adamant, and it may be hard to arrive at a solution. As a result, when fairness is cultivated, then a positive conflict outcome can be realized.

Q 3. There are differences between problem resolution and negotiation. Negotiation involves parties going into a discussion in order to solve a dispute which exists between them and reach an agreement. When negotiating, each of the parties tries to present their own views and thoughts about an issue that is to be resolved, and they hope that they will come up with a solution to the given issue together (Ay et al., 2019). Negotiations only take place when there is a common goal to be achieved. In this case, each of the parties aims at achieving a given mission but using different methods. The negotiations are meant to come up with one common method to achieve the given mission. Each of the parties has a positive mind in the negotiation, and they are ready to compromise in order to achieve the given mission. The results of a negotiation may either be positive or negative. If there is no agreement between the two parties on the way to take, then the results are negative. If the two parties agree on a given path which they will undertake, then the results are positive.

On the other hand, problem resolution involves arriving at a peaceful solution to a conflict between team members. Problem resolution involves several steps which ensure that the issue is fully solved at the end of the resolution process. The problem has to be defined and its symptoms clearly laid out at the start of problem resolution. The problem is isolated in order to be understood. The cause of the conflict has to be identified since it is the one to be resolved at the end of the problem resolution process (Zeleznikow, 2021). Once the root cause of the conflict is identified, a solution is then found for the problem. The end results of problem resolution have to be a decision to end the conflict positively. A solution has to be arrived at. Problem resolution and negotiations sometimes interlock each other, and they may be used together to solve the same issue or to solve an issue that arises in the middle of solving another. It is thus important for leaders to have knowledge of both negotiation and problem resolution when handling issues between their team members.

Q 4. Problem resolution and negotiation may work together. However, there are instances that only require one of them, either problem resolution or negotiations. Negotiation is more productive in cases where the parties are ready to resolve the issue by themselves in an amicable way. Here, the parties are ready to get into an agreement by each of the parties sacrificing part of their demands for the other party. Negotiations are more productive when each of the parties sacrifices half the demands, making it a half-half solution (Schaller & Gatesman-Ammer, 2021). When using negotiation, there is no need to have a third party to oversee the process of conflict resolution.

Problem resolution is useful when negotiations do not give positive results or a high possibility of the conflict elongating when negotiations are used. Since the results of problem resolution are a solution to a problem, failure to agree on negotiations calls for problem resolution. This helps to avoid instances of delayed conflict resolution in an organization. Problem resolution may thus be considered as a follow up of negotiations where negotiations are not successful.

References

Ay, S. Ç., Keskin, H. K., & Akilli, M. (2019). Examining the Effects of Negotiation and Peer Mediation on Students' Conflict Resolution and Problem-Solving Skills. International Journal of Instruction, 12(3), 717-730. Retrieved From: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1220189

Aytaç, S., & Basol, O. (2018, August). Mediating role of loneliness and organizational conflict between work overload and turnover intention. In Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (pp. 291-301). Springer, Cham. Retrieved From: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-96059-3_32

Lebrague, R. M., Benamar, S., & Rahmani, Y. Z. (2020). Organizational conflict and its management: A theoretical analysis. Social Sciences Journal, 14(2Add), 218-228. Retrieved From: http://journals.lagh-univ.dz/index.php/ssj/article/view/885

Lipsky, D. B., Avgar, A. C., & Lamare, J. R. (2020). Organizational conflict resolution and strategic choice: Evidence from a survey of Fortune 1000 firms. ILR Review, 73(2), 431-455. Retrieved From: https://doi.org/10.1177/0019793919870169

McKibben, L. (2017). Conflict management: importance and implications. British Journal of Nursing, 26(2), 100-103. Retrieved From: https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2017.26.2.100

Schaller, M., & Gatesman-Ammer, A. (2021). Introducing Conflict Resolution and Negotiation Training into a Biomedical Sciences Graduate Curriculum. bioRxiv. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.05.438459

Zeleznikow, J. (2021). Negotiation, Online Dispute Resolution, and Artificial Intelligence. Handbook of Group Decision and Negotiation, 1125. Retrieved From: https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007%2F978-3-030-49629-6#page=1111