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Conflict Resolution at General Hospital

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Conflict Resolution at General Hospital
Christopher R. Long
December 2, 2010
Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Professor Rebecca Letellier
Strayer University

1. Discuss the conflict that is occurring at General Hospital.

General Hospital and CEO Mike Hammer find themselves struggling to compete against a local – newly renovated state-of-the-art medical center. Since the medical center opened, General Hospital lost 35 percent of its occupancy while gaining the same occupancy percentage in Medicare and Medicaid patients. With the increase of Medicare and Medicaid patients, the hospital is struggling to generate the revenues required to compete against the private health care sector.

The challenge of General Hospital is to increase revenues while maintaining, improving, and expanding the current level and types of services provided. Over a period, Hammer explored and presented plans to reduce and contain hospital costs – especially costs driven and controlled by physicians. The Director of Medicine, Dr. Mark Williams felt that these measures would affect the hospitals ability to attract and maintain a pool of talented physicians and he could not support the plan.

Hammer and Williams experienced levels of intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts. Hammer believed passionately, that comprehensive cost control was the answer to increasing revenues while maintaining, improving, and expanding the current level and types of services. Williams believed that cost controls – especially physician targeted cost controls would negatively affect the hospitals ability to attract and retain talented physicians.

2. Discuss the conflict management styles that are evident in the case.

There are a number of interpersonal conflict-handling management styles at play in this case. First, Hammer attempts to collaborate

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