Management of conflict: do nurses/women handle it differently?

Conflict management has been considered an essential aspect of organizational life. Initially, conflict was to be avoided at all costs, but more recently conflict has been considered important for organizational development. This paper uses a case study of conflict management of nurse educators as a basis for contrast with the conflict managing strategies of other women, staff nurses and nurse managers. Other studies found that women and nurses tend to handle conflict using compromise and avoidance, with competition used the least often. Nurse managers used compromise as their major strategy for handling conflict, while the staff nurses used avoidance. Theories based on studies of women's socialization are posited to explain this phenomenon. Several implications are discussed based on the premise that organizational studies of conflict management that explain men's behaviour do not necessarily explain women's (nurses') behaviour.