Case Study: Conflict-Handing Styles in Organizational Behavior in Health Care
Choose two scenarios from the Conflict-Handing Styles section and write a 700- to 1,050-word response to the questions provided at the end of each scenario.
Using the scenarios:
1) Identify a problem-solving model that could be used in the situation and leadership qualities that may be involved.
2) Describe a process that the leader may need to use to promote change within this organization after a situation like this has occurred.
Scenario :
1. A radiologist on the staff of a large community hospital was stopped after a staff meeting by a colleague in internal medicine. On Monday of the previous week, the internist referred an elderly man with chronic, productive cough for chest X-ray, with a clinical diagnosis of bronchitis. Thursday morning the internist received the radiologist's written X-ray report with a diagnosis of "probable bronchogenic carcinoma." The internist expressed his dismay that the radiologist had not called him much earlier with a verbal report. Visibly upset, the internist raised his voice, but did not use abusive language.
How should the radiologist handle this conflict with the internist?
2. The Family and Community Medicine Division of a large-staff model HMO serves a population that is ethnically diverse. The senior management team of the HMO, spurred by repeated complaints from representatives of one racial group, has encouraged the division, all of whose physicians are white, to diversify. Several black and Hispanic physicians with strong credentials apply for the open positions, but none is hired. Weeks later, a young female family physician learns from several colleagues that the division director has identified her as racist and the obstructionist to recruiting. The comments attributed to her are not only false but are also typical of discriminatory statements that she has heard the division chief utter. The rumors about her "behavior" have circulated widely in the division.
How should the young female family physician handle this conflict with the division chief?