Dealing with conflict. The Margaret Chapman case

Although faculty in graduate schools of business and nursing teach their students many useful technical and managerial skills, one area often not considered in depth is how to deal with dysfunctional departmental conflict and confrontation resulting from organizational politics and ingrained defensiveness. The authors discuss an actual organizational situation at Island Harbor Hospital (a pseudonym). They discuss how the situation was handled, and what lessons the organization eventually learned. They explore how increasing organizational learning and reducing dysfunctional communication patterns can enable an organization not only to approach its problems in a more effective way, but also avoid issues before they become problematic.