Study On The Relationship Of Head-nurses' Emotional Intelligence, Conflict- Handling Styles And Their Management Conflict

Objectives:In recent years,conflict problems in medical environment have become increasingly prominent. It is necessary to carry out relative researches to effectively handle the workplace conflict. This study aimed to investigate the reasons causing conflict between head-nurses and nurses in Shanghai, the types, levels of the conflict, and the conflict management styles of head-nurses; at the mean time explore the affecting factors of the relationship conflict. Research results can be used to enhance abilities of nursing managers to manage conflict successfully, and improve nursing work environment beneficially.Methods:After theoretical analysis, choose Jehn's"two-dimensional classification of conflict"view and Rahim"conflict management styles"as the guiding theory of the study. The research can be devided into three parts:(1)The exploratory research: by semi-structured interviews to understand the causes of conflict between the head-nurses and nurses in Shanghai; then adapt the reasonable factors that may affect the conflict to form the hypotheses and build the structure equation model of the study, which modified by expert group method before its established.(2)To quantify the variables, appropriate scales were selected based on literature interview, including Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS), Rahim Organization Conflict Inventory-II (ROCI-II) and Interpersonal Conflict Scale (ICS). Exert expert consultation and a small sample pre-test to revise the tools.(3) Applied the tools mentioned above to 486 head-nurses in 36 hospitals in Shanghai by stratified sampling and cluster sampling method. Analyze the statistics by SPSS16.0 and LISREL 8.70 softwares.Based on the research results, recommendations to the hospital managers were proposed.Methods:After theoretical analysis, choose Jehn's"two-dimensional classification of conflict"view and Rahim"conflict management styles"as the guiding theory of the study. The research can be devided into three parts: (1)The exploratory research: by semi-structured interviews to understand the causes of conflict between the head-nurses and nurses in Shanghai; then adapt the reasonable factors that may affect the conflict to form the hypotheses and build the structure equation model of the study, which modified by expert group method before its established.(2)To quantify the variables, appropriate scales were selected based on literature interview, including Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS), Rahim Organization Conflict Inventory-II (ROCI-II) and Interpersonal Conflict Scale (ICS). Exert expert consultation and a small sample pre-test to revise the tools.(3) Applied the tools mentioned above to 486 head-nurses in 36 hospitals in Shanghai by stratified sampling and cluster sampling method. Analyze the statistics by SPSS16.0 and LISREL 8.70 softwares. Based on the research results, recommendations to the hospital managers were proposed.Results:(1) The conflicts between head-nurses and nurses are common and mainly task conflict, they are focused on scheduling and premium allocation. The contributing factors include arduous tasks, broken work routine, and the gap between age or education, et al. There are two misconceptions about the conflict: conflicts with nurses mean their lack of management capacity; management conflict will impede clinical nursing work. Task conflict can transform to relationship conflict if not handle well.(2) The Cronbach'sαvalues of the there scles(WLEIS, ROCI-II and ICS) are separately 0.822,0.862,0.877, and each dimension's Cronbach'sαvalue is above 0.7. The certificated factor analysis shows thatχ2 /df <5, RMSEA<0.08, NNFI>0.9, and CFI>0.9, and the values of each pathway are above 0.6.(3)①The head-nurses'score of management conflict is 5.23±2.05, of with task conflict scores 2.98±1.25, relationship conflict 2.32±1.09; the emotional intelligence score is 15.69±1.77; the most frequently used conflict-handling style is integrating (3.72±0.56), followed by comprise (3.29±0.73), obliging (2.78±0.64), avoiding (2.50±0.79) and dominating (2.43±0.66).②Regulation of emotion can negatively affect the relationship conflict directly (r=-0.26), as well as through positive impact on integrating (r=0.23); integrating (r=-0.25), dominating (r=0.17), compromising (r=0.16); integrating (r=-0.168), dominating (r=0.090), compromising (r=0.132) can affect the transformation between task conflict and relationship conflict.Conclusions:(1) The conflict between head-nurses and nurses are mainly task conflicts, there is a significant correlation between the two kinds of conflict. The head-nurses'conflict management ability need to be further improved.(2) The Content Reliability and Structure Validity of three scales, which are WLEIS, ROCI-II and ICS, is acceptable for applying in the practice.(3)Head- nurses'ability to regulate their emotional and integrating style to handle conflict can reduce their relationship conflict with nurses, while dominating compromising can increase it. Meanwhile, integrating can prevent task conflict transform into relationship conflict. However, dominating and compromising can promote the transformation. Relationship conflict can be reduced by raising the head-nurses'emotional intelligence, and adopting integrating style.