Leadership and Organizational Behavior (Bus 520) Assignment:

LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR (BUS 520) ASSIGNMENT: CONFLICT RESOLUTION AT GENERAL HOSPITAL 1. DISCUSS THE CONFLICT THAT IS OCCURRING AT GENERAL HOSPITAL 2. DISCUSS THE CONFLICT Management STYLES THAT ARE EVIDENT IN THE CASE 3.

General Hospital is facing increased competition from better-equipped hospital facilities that have superior technology. Patient enrollment overall is down; the enrollment numbers are up for Medicaid and Medicare patients whose costs are not reimbursed at as high a rate as private patients. General Hospital must draw more high-paying patients to meet its expenses, or else it faces the risk of being closed down.

Mike Hammer has an extremely avoidant conflict management style as a CEO. Instead of dealing with the problems of General Hospital himself, he hires an intermediary, Marge Harding, to take unpopular measures such as cutting the hospital budget and staff numbers. Hammer knows that a cost reduction effort will result in undeniable pain for many departments. Harding, in contrast to Hammer, has a very autocratic style. She decides, without consulting doctors at the hospital, where it will be necessary to make cuts and what technology to improve. She consults an outsider who has no background in medicine to decide how to prioritize her budget reduction efforts. Harding also lacks follow-through. She does not research the EKG machine that she buys to replace the doctor who used to read the reports. Harding assumes that because of her position she can delegate the implementation to others. She leaves for vacation when a critical decision is made, and does not check to make sure that the person she left in charge has adequate authority to trouble-shoot.

Q3. Hammer could have created a team made up of doctors, nurses, and the financial administrative staff at the hospital that had intimate inside knowledge of its operations. Together, they could have created priorities and decided new ways of raising revenue and the best ways to cut costs. Doctors and nurses could have provided medical input about the impact of cost cutting on patient health, while other members of the team could have presented potential cost-cutting strategies. A variety of proposals could be generated by the team, and then Hammer could have decided on which were most feasible, and created a final plan.

Q4. Hammer should make the reforms at General Hospital a team effort. He should call a meeting and explain why the new EKG machine had been introduced. He should be honest about the financial situation at General Hospital and explain that if costs are not cut, then everyone at the hospital will lose their jobs. He should also apologize for the misunderstandings that took place when Harding was in charge.