conflict resolution and Collective Bargaining in Healthcare

Discuss the four stages of the conflict process. Do all persons involved in conflicts experience all four stages of conflict? Why or why not? How does the conflict process affect the quality of the conflict resolution?

In a much more integrated and connected society conflict is inevitable. Businesses, due in part to globalization are now heavily focused on international operations. This often requires a global team with varying cultural and societal norms. Due to the amalgamation of different cultures, beliefs and systems, conflicts are often inevitable. Typically, the conflict process consists of four primary stages which are frustration, conceptualization, action and outcome. Most people in involved in conflicts experience all four of these stages albeit in varying degrees and magnitude.

The first stage of frustration, groups of individuals are may experience a goal of objective being blocked within the organization. This often result in frustration which typically manifests itself with anger. Frustration often results from conflicting perceptions of different parties. These misperceptions are often highest during periods of extreme stress. Hospitals often have a large degree of frustration due to the large amount of stress and potential misconceptions involved with the job. Patients, nurses, doctors and other staff members may experience this first stage due to various circumstances that occur within the job environment (Behfar, 2007)

The next state of conflict is conceptualization. Here different interpretations of the same facts can cause conflict. In addition, the different belief as to the important elements within the factual information provided can also cause conflict. Due to these individual interpretations and how they were derived, conceptualization can cause still further conflict with various group members. Technology has exacerbated this conflict stage as individuals are inundated with inaccurate information that is designed to grab headlines and reader attention. In addition, most people no longer look to interpret the facts presented to them for any biases or errors in judgement. Instead many individuals simply take the information as given and do not look to investigate further. This stage of conflict reached its apex in the recent presidential election. Here, followers of Donald Trump believed the election was “stolen” from Trump due to massive election fraud. However, after countless hours of investigation, no evidence was found of widespread voter fraud. Instead, of reviewing the evidence provided, many of Trumps supporters instead marched and protested at the capital, leading to massive amounts of damage and even death. Here the conflict stage of conceptualization was used in a negative manner by Trump supports who simply did not look at the overwhelming evidence presented against their claims. Instead, they chose to ignore the evidence and take action against others. To a much lower extent this can happen in the corporate or group environment as well. Here, business politics, desire for promotions, or simply a desire to be liked by others can lead to biases in the interpretation of facts. This conceptualization can often lead to incorrect decisions (Ayoko, 2014).

The third step in the process in action. This stage of the conflict process is predicated on behavioral actions designed to see the views and perceptions of other individuals. Here, the idea is to arrive at a solution that reaches at a common goal that is aligned with the interest of all parties involved. Here, this stage is often characterized by negotiating between various parties through dialogue and other forms of communication. Here, common ground is derived that allows each individual to better conceptualize the views of others. Through mutual understanding, action can be used to better to arrive at solutions that can help the group progress and grow. Through the action step, behaviors occur that can be used to help resolve the conflict and realign all members of the group towards a common objective. If done properly, each member of the group can benefit from the growth and understanding of each other.

The fourth step is “outcomes.” Here both tangible and intangible outcomes can occur. Tangible outcomes occur with a strategy and tactics that can be used to improve operations and group performance. These improvements can lead to further tangible outcomes such as higher business profitability, higher innovation, better culture, and better group dynamics. These outcomes can ultimately help benefit the organization, the group, and the individuals within it. Intangible outcomes are those that are unseen but can be leveraged to improve the organization. A common intangible outcome is corporate culture. Through properly conflict resolution, a company’s culture can be improved which is an intangible benefit (Adenyi, 2020).

Explain what collective bargaining is. Discuss the pros and cons to the employees that work in collective bargaining environment? Elaborate on one quality of collective bargaining that could be challenging to a nurse leader

Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of represented employees designed to arrive agreement associated with worker salaries, benefits, hours, and other aspects of the work environment. The pros for the employee are to the ability to have leverage the collective power of the labor force to extract higher wages and benefits than could otherwise be achieved. It also allows the labor force to constantly push for the employee’s best interest. The cons are that employees may extract too much from the business which results in lower profitability and layoffs. In addition, employee must pay a fee to their representatives which may not be looking out for their best interest but instead looking to maintain their own power and influence. For a nurse leaders one quality of collective bargaining that could be challenging is the overall negotiation process (De Dreu, 2008). To elaborate, as a nurse practitioner, many often do so with a mindset towards duty for others. This duty manifests itself in the passion that nurse professional has when doing their respective jobs. With collective bargaining nurse professionals must balance the need to extract higher wages and higher benefits relative to the cost of providing quality service to society overall. For example, in the United States, healthcare costs are roughly 16% of GDP. Experts predict that GDP will soon rise to 20% of GDP or roughly $3 trillion. Rising healthcare costs often lower the ability of individuals to obtain the quality of care that many nurse professionals look to provide. By negotiating for higher wages, many nurse professionals are effectively increasing the costs imposed on those who use their services. This occurs as nurses look to extract higher wages and benefits from the healthcare providers. The healthcare providers in turn, look to pass these prices on to consumes in the form of higher fees and insurance premiums. These higher fees and insurances premiums results in the exclusion of certain customers who cannot afford the higher prices associated with the services required. In this instance, through the collective bargaining process, a nurse can undermine an industry that is already struggling with higher prices and higher costs for the average American worker. By demanding higher wages combined with the willingness to withhold labor if those demands are not met, nurses could effectively cause still further price increases on society. This is another con to collective bargaining as it limits price discovery as it relates to wages and labor. As all labor is combined and negotiating as a group, it does not allow variability in deciding starting wages or benefits. This complicates the overall labor market as workers without the required and experience to justify the higher wages are forced upon the market. For example, a teenager working at McDonalds cannot command a $25 an hour wage in Florida. This is because from the employer’s perspective the child does not have the demonstrated skills and ability to command the $25 hour wage. As a result, the teenager will not be hired. However, through collective bargaining, the employer would be forced to higher the teenager at the lower wage, which distorts the labor markets, lowers productivity, and lowers the efficiency of the market. These higher costs will ultimately be passed onto society in the form of higher prices for goods and services.