Investigating the Main Causes of Conflicts and the Management Strategies That Are Used byHealthcare Professionals: The Case of General Hospital of Arta.

Abstract

Employees in healthcare systems are often conflict in the workplace due to the high-pressure environment and the diversity between different departments. The aim of the study was not only to investigate the main causes of creation of conflicts but also investigate conflict management strategies health professionals use in a public hospital. This is a cross-sectional study. An anonymous questionnaire was used on a sample of 25 physicians and 95 nurses. Conflicts exist between colleagues and other professional groups. The most common management strategy is to avoid conflict, and second-place behavior such as compromise and negotiation for mutual benefit come along. The results of the organizational causes of conflicts have shown that important factors are the workload, the commands received by more than one supervisor, their reward, and the fact that their present work does not look like as what they had in mind about ideal work. Finally, the results on the causes related to employee expectations have shown that significant causes in this direction are the differences in the level of education, the unfair rewards among the various professional groups are that they do not have common professional expectations with other professional groups and that professional development is not related to their expectations. The most popular proposals for conflicts solutions are nondiscrimination between the healthcare professionals, a fair approach to reward and punishment, communication and cooperation in the organization/hospital, establish a clear division of responsibilities, and establish professional management and the departments have to be autonomous.