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Workplace conversations: building and maintaining collaborative capital
Glenda McDonald1, Margaret H Vickers, Shantala Mohan
1Family and Community Health Research Group, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Contemporary Nurse
|January 25, 2011
Summary
Supportive workplace conversations among nurses and midwives enhance collaborative capital and job satisfaction. Unsupportive communication, however, can threaten team cohesion and negatively impact workplace culture.
Area of Science:
- Healthcare Management
- Organizational Psychology
- Nursing Studies
Background:
- Heavy workloads in healthcare settings internationally create communication challenges, tension, and negative emotions.
- Workplace conversations significantly influence the emotional climate and collaborative dynamics within healthcare teams.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the role of supportive and unsupportive workplace conversations among nurses and midwives.
- To understand how colleague interactions impact collaborative capital and workplace culture.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative interviews were conducted with ten nurses and midwives.
- Audio-taped interviews were analyzed to identify perceptions of workplace conversations.
Main Results:
- Supportive conversations were crucial for building and maintaining collaborative capital.
- Unsupportive conversations were found to threaten collaborative capital and negatively affect workplace culture.
- Nurse managers and management play a key role in fostering supportive communication.
Conclusions:
- Workplace conversations have a significant impact on healthcare workplace culture.
- Recognizing the potential of conversations can enhance support, conflict resolution, job satisfaction, and resilience.
- Interventions focused on improving communication can raise the collaborative capital of healthcare workplaces.
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