Tribal warfare in organizations: turning turf battles into teamwork in hospitals

Professional groups within the health-care setting exhibit many of the same characteristics found in intact cultures or tribes anywhere in the world. They also exhibit the same tendencies to defend their own group from attack or threat from the outside. Each group of health-care professionals has its own view of reality and is likely to take the stance that the other professionals in their facility are not only different--but wrong. This sets the stage for conflict and turf battles among groups. The tribal characteristics often displayed by professional groups can be divided into five categories: language or dialect differences, value differences, training differences, thinking differences, and rules or norms for behavior. Bridging these gaps requires a clear understanding of the differences themselves and a basic respect for the fact that each group is right in most cases--from its own professional point of view. The goal is to link the tribes together through collaborative negotiations to produce the best combination of right answers for the organization as a whole.