Assessment of a Conflict Situation
NURS 6220 Section 2, Human Resource Management April 16, 2011

Assessment of a Conflict Situation
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify a conflict situation provide an analysis of each of the following related to a conflict situation: parties involved, events/issues, power, regulation and conflict and style of conflict management. This analysis should include defining variables and answers to assessment questions as appropriate.
Conflict
“Conflict is generally viewed negatively as a power struggle, with the intent to neutralize, injure or eliminate rivals” (Sportsman, 2005, p. 34). As nurse leaders it is important to have the knowledge, skills and abilities in several areas
In order to determine the cause of conflict you must look at what caused the conflict to arise. In this particular case the conflict was triggered by the fact that the doctor felt the nurse should have waited until the next day to call the lab results whereas the nurse felt obligated to report them as soon as she received the information. It is important for the conflict participants to understand what each one desires as an outcome to the conflict. In order to achieve this, “Participants must consider the issue identification as this will help lead to an understanding of the goals that each participant hopes to achieve” (Sportsman, 2005, p. 38). In this case the goal of the nurse is to report the lab results to the on-call doctor as soon as they are received, especially the abnormal values so that the patient receives appropriate treatment whereas the goal of the doctor is to receive the lab information but at a more appropriate time.
Power
When performing a conflict assessment one has to consider what impact power has on the participants. “Most conflict participants believe the other person has greater power in the situation” (Sportsman, 2005, p. 38). In this conflict the doctor likely feels he has legitimate power which is a power that is associated with title or position (Grossman & Valiga, 2005). In this case the doctor may feel because he is a higher authority in the medical field that what he says goes.