Conflict Management in Hatfield Health Center, Case Study Paper Sample

Problem Overview / Description

Hatfield Health Centre has reached a point where they need an external facilitator without any personal interest to support the organization in conflict management which includes task conflict, process, and relational challenges. The organization is very busy which indicates that the community population does rely on the health center for their healthcare needs. Hatfield Health Centre has expanded the healthcare organization by adding a new office in the area as well as adding five new physicians to attend to the growing number of people who need healthcare services. The geographical location plays a significant role in the conflict because there are two locations. The employees and the health center entrepreneur's conflict can be resolved and will require some immediate attention to ensure that the health center operations are stabilized without suffering staff shortage due to employee's turnover especially amongst the younger and newer physicians. The clinic is in an urgent need for the new managing director to oversee the clinic operations.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Hatfield Health Center has one managing director from the other clinic willing to run the clinic with an understanding that the facilitator is hired to assess and address the issues at the center. Currently, the conflict looks very similar to human brain response to fear, fight or flight. The newer physicians and staff are thinking of flight should the conflict not resolved which indicates the importance of creating a solution to the problem. The goal as a facilitator is to support Hatfield Health Center to identify the problems and focus on creating an immediate resolution before going further into a point of no return which could hamper the organization operations. The impact of the health center conflict will be felt amongst the community if the internal conflicts are not resolved. As a facilitator, it is essential to provide support and guidance through the process to reach a collaborative resolution between all the parties. The physicians who own the health center will need to work together to reach for an agreed decision that the majority agrees on.

Intervention Process

In the process of information gathering from the client which is a critical phase, the facilitator needs to be mindful of self which will enable the facilitator to understand the situation well. The facilitator is required to think through of any potential conflict and how to resolve as the process moves forward (Gamaghelyan, 2017).

Phase 1: Conflict Resolution Planning

During the initial phase, the facilitator should decide whether or not to commit to resolving the conflict. As a facilitator for Hatfield Health Centre, I would first determine whether or not I am a member of the community where the health care center operates and whether I have any involvement in the health center. This is because the organization requires an external facilitator who does not have any relationship to neutrally guide the participants through the conflict resolution and reach a collaborative agreement without bias. A quick assessment of group competency may be beneficial prior entering the contract agreement (Gamaghelyan, 2017). The evaluation will assist me with the basic understanding of how the group function and the current organization processes. The assessment will also establish the stakeholder's expectations and commitment on time frame for resolution is also essential, as the clinic is at a critical point due to the increase in staff turnover, losing patients, and damaging the organization reputation if the conflicts are not resolved. The initial phase inquiry would be made by interviewing one or two new and old doctors as they key in the organizational decision making and can access whether or not they are ready to resolve the conflict. Lastly, the facilitator should determine whether or not the doctors are open to changes, improvements on the clinic organizational structure and the findings will have an impact on how the conflict resolution process will be designated.

Phase 2: Organization Assessment

When the second stage begins, the contract will be developed with an understanding that all old and new physicians are required to be involved in the resolution process. They will be asked to confirm that there is no legal process involved with the health center. The policy and procedure documents will be requested, and analysis of the organizational structure will be done before the one on one interview with the physicians and some nurses. The conflict resolution facilitator should identify one or two persons to communicate with the group regarding the process. This is a key part of the conflict resolution process to ensure everyone is on the same page. Constant communication throughout the process will play a significant role in ensuring that all the stakeholders are involved in the process and understand the due process towards conflict resolution (Jeong, 1999). The meeting would be set up in a comfortable environment and interview options such as a telephone interview, or an in-person interview will be given to the participants. The scheduling will need to be sensitive to center operations considering how busy they are providing service to their clients.

Phase 3: Conflict Identification

The conflict resolution process will help the facilitator to understand his/her interest and to position his/her main concern in the Hatfield Health Center conflict. The purpose of this requisition is to help all shareholders come together and present their interest on the table and search for a collaborative solution (Nussbaum & Johnson, 2009). This gives the team the opportunity to hear others position and identify common interests. Once that happens, resolutions for the conflict can be focused on others. For instance, the conflict between nurses and administrators. The dynamics of the group conflict at Hatfield Health Centre are built over the time layers. The conflict identified from the organization conflict observation and information gathering includes inadequate information sharing, power struggle, insufficient support within the organization systems, stakeholder's expectations were not met the lack of decision making competence and commitment to the critical organization meetings that are used to bring stakeholders together. For instance, the doctors made decisions without any formal meetings and actual consensus between all the stakeholders which led to information breakdowns and disagreements. The information and expectations for each person were not clear before the organizational change and expansion. The group of doctors, nurses, and practitioner nurses are not motivated in getting together and also they are excluded in meetings where they can present their concerns at the organization meetings. As a result, this causes a significant barrier in information sharing because the organization does not share the information except during the meeting due to the lack of an existing information management system to allow constant information sharing.

There is an identified relational conflict at Hatfield Health Centre. The communication skills and strategies within the organization are not effective, and a few people in casual conversations control the decision-making process. Further, the organization lack potential respectful conversations between the nurse practitioners and nurses as the nurse practitioners are not happy with the nurses' performance due to unreasonable expectations. The nurses are overwhelmed with the requests and do not feel recognized as the relationship between the nurse practitioners, and the nurses are not conducive to work together. Nurses felt that the practitioners preferred doctors over them. The trust between the two nurse groups is one of the major conflict issues that need to be resolved. There is lack of trust between old and new physician owners as there were indications that the decisions were being made without any collaboration which resulted in the poor and uncoordinated decision-making process. The relationship between the new and the old physicians is also unhealthy as two out of three older doctors are required to be present for any decision making, while there is no requirement for newer physician owners to attend in the decision-making process. The assumption the facilitator can make is that the respect and authority level are not clear in Hatfield Health Center.

The conflict resolution process is faced by the opposition as the older physicians are resisting the facilitator intervention. However, the newer physicians are willing to work and explore the options available to end the conflict at the health center. The process of decision making was affected by different expectations such as choosing a spouse to become a managing director while the majority of the other stakeholder disagreed. That also shows significant focus on position rather than organization best interest itself, by looking into the short-term gains rather than the long-term implications of their decisions. Working with others and including others in the conversation and the structure of the meetings is also a significant organization problem. The management may not follow the policy made, and some policies are not clear for them to follow through. It leads to a loose organizational structure, and that lacks any accountability and credibility in creating healthy communication and collaborative decision-making process. The older physicians believe they have power and authority forgetting that the new physicians also have equal organization ownership rights.

From the assessment, it also appears that Hatfield Health Center had grown and expanded quickly within three years when the funding was received. The health center expanded from 6 staff to a team of 22 members and the following year and the organization expanded the office by adding a new center. Without due planning, the organization's design often takes on a hierarchal structure. This structure is common because business executives and managers are often reluctant to relinquish control.

Phase 4: Conflict Resolution

Fact Finding

After the one on one interviews with all staff from the clinic, information gathering, contract agreement, payment agreement and agreement on the process. The group meeting will be established with physicians first. The meeting will be held in a neutral and comfortable environment. The agenda will be developed at the meeting by promoting a structured engagement. Each participant will bring their input in creating a participant agreement for the meeting to ensure they respect each other and feel safe throughout the process. Each person will be given a few minutes to explain their end goal of the facilitation and what are organizational challenges, strength, and improvement.

A flip chart will be used to specify and categorize items identified in the conflict by the process, task, relation, and possibly common interests. The process is used to allow everyone to get their turn and be treated equally in the room as they are equal genuine owners of the clinic. The performance expectations for the clinic is very high as they have a large service delivery along with two centers. Hence, the conflict rate is high. When each has their chance to express themselves safely, and with respect, there is a better chance for a resolution. This process is used to resolve the issues at the management level before moving forward to include other stakeholders in the meeting. The evaluation of the group competency will play a significant role in the process since it helps the facilitator to calculate the need of the facilitator to engage others which ensure that they are involved in the discussion, reaching the point where they can identify the position...