Toward a System of Conflict Management? Cultural Change and Resistance in a Healthcare Organization
Managing and Resolving Workplace Conflict
ISBN: 978-1-78635-060-2, eISBN: 978-1-78635-059-6
Publication date: 19 July 2016
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter reports on attempts to develop a more integrated and strategic approach to managing conflict within a large state-owned provider of healthcare in the United Kingdom that goes beyond more conventional offerings such as workplace mediation.
Methodology/approach
It adopted a detailed four-stage mixed-methods organizational case study approach, with the findings reported here drawing primarily on semi-structured interviews with a range of stakeholders, including line managers.
Findings
The data suggest that a systematic and integrated approach to identifying conflict and a range of coordinated interventions involving key organizational stakeholders can begin to embed a culture of resolution. There is resistance to such innovation, however, rooted in perceptions that it potentially weakens the authority of front-line managers.
Originality/value
The research reported here provides the first UK evidence for the adoption of an Integrated Conflict Management System and for the potential of such strategic choices and approaches to effect culture change in the manner sought by policy-makers.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful for the financial support of the UK government’s Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) in conducting the research on which this chapter is based, but they acknowledge that the contents represent their views, not those of Acas or its employees. The authors would like to thank the editor and referees for their helpful comments on earlier drafts.
Citation
Latreille, P.L. and Saundry, R. (2016), "Toward a System of Conflict Management? Cultural Change and Resistance in a Healthcare Organization", Managing and Resolving Workplace Conflict (Advances in Industrial & Labor Relations, Vol. 22), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 189-209. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0742-618620160000022008
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016 Emerald Group Publishing Limited