Case Study 14–7 Healthy Conflict Resolution
“Cindy, please reschedule my afternoon clinic; I am going to
be out for the rest of the day,” says Dr. Jones, a senior physician in a
hospital-owned multispecialty group. “But, Dr. Jones,” Cindy says, while
whipping off her telephone headset and turning away from the open patient registration
window, “you are double booked for most of the afternoon because you canceled
your clinic twice this month already. Many of these patients have been waiting
more than three months to see you!” Jones glances furtively at the waiting
room, and already half turned and heading toward the clinic exit, says, “I’m
sure you will be able to smooth things over. Just tell them that I got called
to an emergency.” Cindy has a suspicion that, because the weather is nice,
Jones is taking off with a couple of colleagues to go sailing or play a round
of golf. After all, he always sports a darn tan, comes to clinic late, and
often leaves early. Cindy does not relish having to call and reschedule these
patients, some of whom have already been rescheduled at least once in the past
couple of months. Cindy decides enough is enough. She calls her manager and
requests a meeting as soon as possible. Her manager can sense that Cindy is
upset and offers to have someone cover for Cindy so that they can talk
privately. Cindy tells the manager about the situation with Jones that happens
“all the time,” and how she is “sick of it,” and will not “work another day
under these conditions.” After calming Cindy down, the manager promises to
bring the matter up with the chief of the department. To make a long story
shorter, suffice it to say that this conflict continues to mushroom to involve
several more individuals (the chief medical officer, the executive director of
the clinic, the director of human resources, and the union representative)
before Jones is ever made aware that Cindy has filed a formal complaint about
him. When he is finally confronted, in a meeting with the chief medical officer
and the director of human resources, he is caught completely off guard. After
all, the incident happened several weeks ago, and Cindy did not mention
anything to him about it. They have continued to work together, in his opinion,
as if nothing were wrong. He is also surprised to find out that Cindy has been
keeping a tally of the number of times that he has canceled his clinic, left
early, or started clinic late. Jones goes from astonishment to red-faced anger
in a few minutes. It is clear to all that the
relationship between Cindy and the doctor is irreparable.
Jones is labeled as a disruptive physician. Cindy is not welcome in any
department because the other physicians are fearful of being targeted. Cindy
eventually resigns, and Jones feels betrayed and unappreciated by his staff and
his employer. If you were the manager in this case, how would you have handled
the situation?
First read Case Study 14-7, Healthy Conflict Resolution
Write a paper that addresses the following questions:
· What is the conflict?
· What is the basis/cause of this conflict?
· If you were the manager in this case, how would resolve
the situation?
· Include introduction and conclusion
Your well-written paper should meet the following
requirements:
· Be 4-6 pages in length, not including the required cover
and reference pages
· Formatted according to APA writing guidelines
· Provide support for your statements with in-text citations
from a minimum of three scholarly articles from peer-reviewed journal articles.
