Conflict management styles used by nurses in Jordan

Abstract

Aim. The aim of this study is to investigate the conflict management styles used by nurse managers in Jordan.Background. There are five main styles which nurse managers use to deal with conflict. At present research into their utilisation is dominated by reports from Western countries. This research is the second to investigate their use by nurses in an Arab country and it illustrates both similarities and differences with this earlier work, allowing an initial profile to be constructed which may be applicable to the larger Arab world of health care.Design. Cross sectional quantitative survey of nurse managers in Jordan. Method. The Rahim Organisation Conflict Inventory (ROCI II) questionnaire was completed by 350 (83% response).Results: The nurse managers were most likely to use an integrating style of conflict management, followed in rank order by comprising, obliging, dominating and avoiding.Conclusion: A tentative model of the styles which nurse managers in Arab countries use to manage conflict is proposed, which suggests that these managers are likely to provide stable workplaces.

An integrative review on conflict management styles among nursing professionals: implications for nursing management

“…For example in India and Thailand, the least frequently used conflict‐management styles among Indian and Thai nurses and nurse managers were observed in the “competing” subscale, indicating a lower preference of this style when confronted with conflict (Chris, ; Kunaviktikul et al., ). Similar findings were also reported in studies conducted in the Middle Eastern countries such as in Jordan (Al Hamdan et al., ) and Egypt (Ebrahim et al., ). Similarly, staff nurses in Iran (Ahanchian et al., ), Saudi Arabia (Baddar et al., ), Egypt (Akel & Elazeem, ), and Greece (Kaitelidou et al., ) reported a lower preference for this conflict‐management style.…”

“…Despite the varying scales used to identify conflict styles in nurses, a common finding in the research articles was that nursing professionals used constructive approaches to handle conflicts. Out of 25 studies reviewed, 11 reported integration or collaboration as the most frequently used conflict‐management style among nursing professionals (Ahanchian, Zeydi, & Armat, ; Al Hamdan, ; Al Hamdan, Norrie, & Anthony, ; Al Hamdan, Nussera, & Masa'deh, ; Al Hamdan, Shukri, & Anthony, ; Ebrahim, Dahshan Aly, & Keshk, ; Johansen & Cadmus, ; Kantek & Kavla, ; Mohamed & Yousef, ; Tabak & Orit, ; Ylitörmänen, ). Of these, five studies examined styles of managing conflict among nurse managers (Al Hamdan, ; Al Hamdan et al., , , ; Kantek & Kavla, ), three studies examined ways of dealing with conflict situations among nurses (Johansen & Cadmus, ; Ahanchian et al., ; Ylitormanen, ), and three studies explored conflict‐management styles in both nurses and nurse managers (Ebrahim et al., ; Mohamed & Yousef, ; Tabak & Orit, ).…”

“…A number of the papers (7 out of 25 studies) explored the role of the nurses’ gender in explaining their styles of managing conflict (Al Hamdan, ; Al Hamdan et al., , , 2016; Ahanchian et al., ; Ebrahim et al., ; Kaitelidou et al., ). In three studies, male nurses were seen to compromise as a style in handling conflicts (Al Hamdam, 2009; Al Hamdan et al., ; Ahanchian et al., ).…”

The impact of emotional intelligence on conflict management styles used by jordanian nurse managers

“…In the present study, we found that the most commonly used conflict management styles among Jordanian nurse managers were the integrating and compromising styles, whereas the least commonly used style was the dominating style. This result matches the result of (Al‐Hamdan et al, ; Al‐Hamdan, Norrie, & Anthony, ; Chan et al, ), which may be attributed to the original collaborative values of Jordanian nurse managers. In fact, these inherited values may contribute to them use the integrating and compromising styles most of the time.…”

“…The collectivist culture also supports strong work relationships that assists managers trust others and respect the idea of mutual benefit, which, in turn, makes them think about the goals and needs of the other party once conflict occurs. As Jordanian nurse managers have low cultural differences (Al‐Hamdan et al, ), they are more likely to share benefits, and this increases the chance to use the integrating style in conflict management, which matches the idea of Gunkel, Schlaegel, and Taras (). This outcome contradicts the results reported in the Western literature that reports the avoiding style is most frequently used for conflict management (Pandey et al, ).…”