This document discusses various approaches to conflict resolution in healthcare settings. It outlines techniques like dominance, avoidance, compromise, problem-solving and collaboration. It also discusses assessing conflict resolution strategies based on quality of decisions and relationships. Preventing conflicts involves careful planning and personnel selection. The nurse's role involves using leadership, management functions and addressing conflict as soon as possible to find win-win solutions.

1. CONFLICT RESOLUTION
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF
RESPECTED MAM
MRS. SHIALJA SINGH
PRESENTED BY
MS. SUNITA THAKUR
M.N.FINAL
R.A.K.C.O.N.

2. INTRODUCTION
• Health care services are often complex, and all are essentially
concerned with provision of highly personalized services involving
many individuals and groups. Each of these have their own ideas and
priorities, there own goals and methods of work. Some are highly
professionalized, others are manual workers. At all times there is a
need for close co-operation and this interdependence makes conflict
more inevitable. Because conflict always present, there is a great
urgency to seek modes of conflict resolution.

3. APPROACH TO CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
Conflict arises from various sources and is inevitable
in organizational settings. This calls for application
of appropriate technique to manage it effectively.
Several approaches have been suggested,
particularly in behavioral science and in general, in
management literature to resolve conflicts.

4. The main approaches are:
•Dominance
•Avoidance
•Smoothing
•Compromise
•Hierarchical decision making
•Appeal produce
•System restructuring
•Alerting human variables
•Problem-solving/collaboration
• Bargaining-distributive, integrative and mediating
• Negotiation

5. DOMINANCE
• The easiest technique to resolve a conflict is to eliminate the
other party altogether. This technique can be exercised by
individuals, coalition and majorities.
• Individual dominance involves application of fighting or
physical strength in a way that the other party is damaged
without causing injury to self. E.g. like manager may use
dominance technique to eliminating rival parties by
dismissing them. However, this technique is useful only if the
problem is people oriented rather than organization-oriented.
• Coalitions, of two or more individuals can be used to generate
extra support and facilitate decisions. Thus, this resolves
conflict by providing power around a central figure enabling
to force the opponent to give up fight.

6. • Furthermore, majority consensus can be made, so that the non
conforming minority can be ignored, or remains quiet and
withdraws on its own.
• These goals are common to different parties, and can only be
achieved by pooling of resources of several parties.
• Adherence to these goals resolves conflicts on account of their
prevalence over other goals. But sometimes achievement of
these goals may be tough especially in a large organization.

7. AVOIDANCE
• Conflict can also be reduced by avoiding it altogether, by either
withdrawing or disguise the inconsistency.
• In withdrawing, either one party totally enables other to win, or
sometimes it is mutual withdrawal i.e. establishment of other
non overlapping goals.
• But when it is not possible, then disguising by withholding the
information related to them is attempted. Like for e.g.
sometimes subordinates withheld or suppress unpleasant
information to avoid conflict with their superiors. This
technique merely facilitates the avoidance of conflict rather
than its resolution.
•

8. SMOOTHING:
• In this technique, differences between parties are
disguised while similarities are highlighted. It
enables the conflicting parties to realize that they
are not different from each other and this
increases the possibility of working together
towards a common goal. However, smoothing
only provides a solution and conflict may recur,
with the reemergence of differences in the course
of time.

9. ACCOMMODATING
• It is cooperative but unassertive. It is appropriate
when the person is wrong, the opponent more
powerful, or preserving harmony is important.

10. COMPROMISE
• This technique benefits all the parties in a conflict in one
way or the other. Either the goal object is divided among
the competing parties or one party provides something
else to the other in exchange for the desired outcome. This
method may involve offers and counter-offers, and proves
effective in arriving at a mutually satisfying solution, where
the competing parties are of equal strength. It is influences
heavily by the relative strength of the parties. This
technique merely provides a temporary solution and
conflict may recur with the emergence of suppressed
demands.

11. HIERARCHICAL DECISION MAKING
• In this method, an appeal to positional authority or
authoritative command can also be used to resolve conflict.
Widely used technique for managing conflict. The decisions
made by the superior, holding formal positional authority
over conflicting subordinates, who cannot reach a mutually
agreeable solution, are likely to be accepted .However, the
effectiveness of this technique declines where the
authority figure fails to adequately understand the issue
and the subordinates do not respect the superior.
Moreover, like earlier technique, it merely resolves the
apparent conflict without mitigating its source.

12. APPEAL PROCEDURE
If the individual feels that his problems has not been resolved
adequately by the immediate superior, he may appeal to a higher
manager or a special grievance committee or an independent
arbitrator. However, this technique causes fear of retaliation by the
immediate superior, who has been bypassed. One of the recent
developments in an appeal procedure is the use of ombudsman
who investigates the issue but has no authority to make decisions.
This role consists of providing information to remove is
understandings and resolving grievances by individual
attention to the alienate person. This technique seems highly
promising for the resolution of conflicts.

13. COLLABORATION
• When both parties collaborate to solve conflict,
they will both be satisfied. Collaboration take time
and energy. A consensual solution wins full
commitment. One of the area in which
collaboration could resolve conflict is that of
physician-nurse relationships.

14. PROBLEM SOLVING
• This technique resolves conflicts through face- to-face confrontation and
measures to accomplish the common interests of the parties in conflict. The
conflicting parties are required to come together to resolve the problem
instead of accommodating . This technique enables the parties to deal
effectively with doubts and misunderstandings that appear in mutual
discussion processes. Both parties tend to adequately analyze the problem
and develop empathy in the viewpoints. It is highly time – consuming and
demands concerted efforts on both sides, especially in resolving long-
standing conflicts in the organization. It is ineffective in resolving non-
communicative conflicts

15. SYSTEM RESTRUCTURING
There are several techniques for system restructuring.
• Role conflict can be resolved by clarifying demands and
segregating roles in different positions and people. For
example an attempt may be made to segregate the
monitoring roles from advising roles in industrial engineering
by assessing them to different departments.
• Rotation of individuals from each department will enable
each party to understand each other’s attitudes, beliefs and
kind of work.
• Decoupling can be used to resolve conflict arising from
interdependence like for dependence on common resources
allocation of large buffer inventories can be made.

16. • Linking position, such as a coordinator or integrator, to facilitate
communication between conflicting groups through detection and
management of differences. For e.g. field engineers can form a
linking group between customers and sales representatives and
design engineers.
• A matrix organization can be used to resolve a conflict through
confrontation involving conflict recognition and conciliation rather
than smoothing. This can be accomplished in a matrix structure,
engineers and scientists from electronics, hydraulics, operations
research and metallurgy field may be utilized to form a sophisticated
product team. It provides a climate where people can express
independent ideas.

17. ALTERING HUMAN VARIABLES
• Perception, attitudes, values and beliefs can
be changed to mitigate the source of conflict.
Sensitivity training is frequently used to
develop empathy and interpersonal skills
among participants. This technique facilitates
management of conflict effectively.

18. BARGAINING:
• Bargaining can be two types distributive and integrative.
• Distributive bargaining assumes that one group’s gain is the other’s
loss and deception forms a prerequisite to it. Attempts are made by
each party to increase its power and discover the other’s true
minimum position.
• Integrative bargaining on the contrary is marked by an assumption
that both Groups can gain simultaneously and that a high level of
honesty forms a prerequisite to it.
• Mediating is another bargaining technique where the mediating
manager helps the conflicting parties to confront their real problems
and discover their problems. To become effective, he makes the
conflicting parties realize that they are mutually dependent and
must work in an area of common agreement.

19. NEG OTIATION
It involves good communication skills. One can identify
needs and information by using open ended probes to
clarify. One should indicate her intent [ support your idea]
when she offers ideas of information. To criticize
constructively, merits should

20. STRATEGIES FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION
• There are three ways of dealing with conflict:
1. Win-lose strategy
2. Lose-lose strategy
3. Win-win strategy
• Win-lose method includes the use of position power, mental or
physical power, failure to respond, majority rule.
• Lose-lose strategies include compromise, bribes for accomplishing
disagreeable tasks, arbitration by a neutral third party etc.

21. • In win-lose and lose-lose strategies, the parties often personalize
the issues by focusing on each other instead of on the problem.
Solutions are emphasized instead of goals and values.
• By contrast, win-win strategies focus on goals. They emphasize
consensus approach to decision making. The consensus process
demands a focus on the problem [instead on each other], on the
collection of facts, on the acceptance of the useful aspects of
conflict, and on the avoidance of averaging and self-oriented
behavior.

22. • When dealing with conflict in organization, the nurse manager or
administrator can also use the problem solving approach to resolve
the conflict. The simple 7 steps toward resolving conflict are:
• Identifying the problem
• Communicate with the appropriate people about the problem
• Develop a set of possible solutions
• Decide on one of the options
• Carry out the action required
• Monitor to guarantee the action is taken
• Evaluate the effectiveness of your decision-making process
STEPS FOR RESOLVING CONFLICT

23. ASSESSING THE DEGREE OF CONFLICT
RESOUTION
• Quality of decisions
• How creative are resulting plan?
• How practical and realistic are they?
• What surprising results were achieved?
• Quality of relationships
• How much understanding has been created?
• How willing are people to work together?
• How much mutual respect, empathy, concern and
cooperation has been generated.

24. PREVENTION OF CONFLICTS
• “Before fire begins, see the smoke”. The conflicts which are
likely to damage the smooth working of the hospital should
be anticipated in advance and necessary precautionary
measures should be adopted to avoid them. So for the
prevention of conflict nurse manager should make careful
development of an organization’s structure, strategic and
comprehensive planning, management and organizational
development, and careful selection and placement of
personnel to help prevent organizational conflict. Although
conflict can be reduced, it cannot be totally avoided. Conflict
can be constructive or destructive. By capitalizing on the
positive aspects, the negative features can seem more
bearable.

25. ROLE OF NURSE IN CONFLICT RESOLUTION:
• LEADERSHIP ROLES:
• Is self-aware and conscientiously works to resolve intrapersonal conflict.
• Addresses conflict as soon as it is perceived and before it becomes felt or
manifest.
• Seeks a win-win solution to conflict whenever feasible.
• Lessens the perceptual differences that exist between conflicting parties
and broadens the parties’ understanding about the problems.
• Assists subordinates in identifying alternative conflict resolutions.
• Recognizes and accepts the individual differences of staff.
• Uses assertive communication skills to increase persuasiveness and foster
open communication.
• Role models honest and collaborative negotiation efforts.

26. MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS
• Creates a work environment that minimizes the antecedent conditions for conflict.
• Appropriately uses legitimate authority in a competing approach when a quick or
unpopular decision need to be made.
• When appropriate, formally facilitates conflict resolution involving subordinates.
• Accepts mutual responsibility for reaching predetermined goals.
• Obtains needed unit resources through effective negotiation strategies.
• Compromises unit needs only when the need is not critical to unit functioning and
when higher management gives up something of equal value.
• Is adequately prepared to negotiate for unit resources, including the advance
determination of a bottom line and possible trade-offs.
• Addresses the need for closure and follow-up to the negotiation.

27. CONCLUSION
• Conflicts may be resolvable or unresolvable, and they are common
in health care and when dealing with people. To resolve conflict,
parties need to identify their differences, priorities and common
goals, determine which approach to conflict is most appropriate
and act in that way to resolve it.
• Conflict are largely resolved by the group involved in them.
However, this is not true. The manager has to play a significant
role in managing conflicts. If the conflict goes out of hand, it
causes several positive consequences for the attainment of goals
in organizational settings. His role consists of diagnosing a conflict
situation, identifying its source, working out alternative techniques
to manage it, and following up to determine that it has been
resolved adequately and its sources have vanished. He has to keep
in mind that although conflicts cannot be completely eliminated,
efforts need to be made to see that their out come facilities the
attainment of both individual and organizational goals.

28. THANK YOU