Hospital ManagementHend Aljabawi

Article Review This article focuses on the problems and

conflicts that occur in hospital systems and the different types of leadership skills.

It was noticed that majority of errors in healthcare comes from communication problems.

Continued The article focuses on how to handle

different conflicts with different people depending on the situation.

“The Joint Commission has issued a Leadership Standard that requires conflict management process to be available to administration, medical staff leadership and the governing board,” which is helpful to have a conflict management process instead of avoiding or ignoring the problems.

Continued… Not only does this focus on policy for

leadership but also how to install a conflict management-based approach for patients or employees and managers who are dealing with conflict.

People will behave when something happens that could give rise to professional discipline especially when working in hospitals or health care. An example would be to for those people to put aside their personal fears and behave professionally.

For example, when an event has occurred and the patient has questions then the facility and each employee should have the same moral and ethical commitment to the patient

Poor Communication The article mentions that “the primary

cause of sentinel events, some of the most serious of unintended outcomes, is communication failure,” which is where things usually go wrong or when conflict occurs.

Article Review A comprehensive conflict management

approach will be able to give the administration, employees, board of trustees and medical staff the tools they need to address communication and conflict in a manner that resolves disputes and encourages the sharing of lessons learned which is very helpful and beneficial

Most hospitals that have seen improvement in conflict management in the workplace have picked one area and focuses on that one area for improvement which has been successful.

Defining Conflict “Interaction of independent people

who perceive opposition of goals, aims, and values, and who see the other party as potentially interfering with the realization of these goals (Putnam & Poole, 1987)”

Poor communication is one the main reasons that conflict occurs in hospital management.

This article continues to explain how conflict is handled in a well manner way which will allow for improvement at the workplace and within the organization.

Levels Of Organizational Conflict Within hospital originations, there are

more interpersonal conflict and intergroup conflict, meaning that there are conflict existing between individual members like nurses and employees or nurses and surgeons. There is also intergroup conflict which is between work teams and departments which seems to occur as mentioned in the article

Considering Conflict When dealing with conflict within the workplace,

organizations should use one of the approaches to deal with it. For example, in this article they use the Human Resources Approach which refers to that conflict is viewed as a possible mean for growth and conflict parties are encouraged to collaborate on mutually solutions. Therefore, in the article they explain that conflict is looked at as healthy and viewed as growth and development and even allows for improvement in the workplace

Leadership The article focuses on both leadership

and managing which focuses on accomplishing a goal, mobilize resources, organization figurehead and motivate others.

Being able to acquire both skills is vey beneficial because it allows for less conflict if the leader/manager has both leaderships skills and managing skills.

Models Of Leadership This type of leadership focuses on both

transactional and transformational leadership. However, transactional leadership is used more because the focus is on leader and follower. Also, it focuses on the task which is the important aspect when working in hospital managements. The article explains how important it is to focus on the tasks and complete the tasks.

Transactional Model The model works with a system and

goes step by step which is how it works at hospitals. Also, it minimizes the variation of the organization and expects everyone to meet a standard which in hospitals, each employee/worker and manager is expected to meet a standard to continue their work and get the job done.

Questions??? How can communication be improved in

the workplace? What other techniques or tools can be

used to decrease conflict? How can enforcing a transformational

leadership model be more beneficial and productive?

Solutions!! Look at conflict as a positive aspect and allow it

to help each person grow as well as the organization.

Make sure each employee is able to define conflict and understand/point out the conflict occurring.

Ask each participant to describe the conflict, including desired changes. Direct participants to use “I” statements, not “you” statements. They should focus on specific behaviors and problems rather than people.

More Solutions!! Summarize the conflict based on what

you have heard and obtain agreement from participants.

Brainstorm solutions. Discuss all of the options in a positive manner.

Close the meeting by asking participants to shake hands, apologize and thank each other for working to resolve the conflict.

References! Miller, Katherine. (2016). Organizational

communication Approaches and Processes Seventh Edition.

Stanford University. Hetzler, D., Messina, D., & Smith, K.,

(2011).Conflict management in hospital systems: not just for

leadership. Hospital Accreditation Standards, 29(9),331-339.