The Conflict Management Style by Nurse Managers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was aimed at a nurse manager making clearly of what management style is taken to the partner whom she has recognized the conflict with.

It investigated by using a semi-structured interview guide for 20 nurse managers who work in two public hospitals in the Kansai area. The contents acquired by the interview were analyzed based on the continuous comparative-analysis method of grounded theory approach. The study yielded the following findings.

1. The ten sub categories of <refusal>, <compulsion>, <compromise>, <persuasion>, <appeasement>, <concession>, <collaboration>, <pretending>, <reservation>, <use> existed in ≪conflict management style≫ which a nurse manager uses to the partner whom she has recognized the conflict with.

2. As four sub categories of <reservation>, <use>, <persuasion>, <pretending> which were newly extracted by this study, it was suggested that the all styles are reflected from the cultural feature of Japan in that non-claiming and ambiguity is to be maintained.

3. As a future subject, it was thought to be required to retest in the institution from which a scale and organization structure differ and for a long period of time, the two following investigations : to perform data collection which incorporated participation observation, to put the source of data collection is not only on a nurse manager but on the partner whom she has recognized conflict with.