Team and Team Processes

Case Study on Team & Team Processes

Catherine Vitale

Ashford University

Principles of Healthcare Administration

MHA601

Professor Nicole Hatcher

June 25, 2012

Case Study on Team & Team Processes

Abstract

A Team is many things including a group of people in which the members are focused on a joint goal or a collective process. Teams are often organized to work together interdependently and cooperatively to meet the needs of their customers by accomplishing a purpose and common goals. In this essay a case study depicting two surgical teams from different hospitals are having some issues. This case study will be discussed and the Team processes involved.

Teams and Team Processes

A team, as previously defined is when two or more people interact and share a common purpose. A team is a type of group (Erofeev, Glazer, & Ivanitskaya, 2009). In any healthcare situation, teamwork and collaboration increases the incidence of high quality care, and noticeable job satisfaction for all involved in the group. In most situations, team members agree on the same goal or process. In the event that there is a disagreement or the members of the team do not agree on the same goal, a conflict is unavoidable.

As a manager, it is their responsibility to either diffuse the conflict or use it as a teaching moment or a constructive opportunity. The key to a successful conflict outcome, management should concentrate on how to fix the problem instead of isolating the person that actually made the mistake. The correct approach to making a conflict positive is to first stop trying to "make each other wrong," and then to find solutions that approximate each side's goals (Haraway & Haraway III, 2005).

In our case study, nurse B is concerned with working with her colleagues on the surgical team. The atmosphere and the culture of the staff is eroding significantly. The surgical team is also not working with a positive attitude and their work enthusiasm has declined. The manager needs to intervene and manage this crisis quickly, before patient care is impacted. It is a proven theory that "better outcomes will be achieved when team members perceive they are part of a supportive team atmosphere and an empowering team, with clear and jointly developed goals, an appropriate mix of skills and expertise, and rewards linked to the collective team performance (Proenca, 2007).

In addition to needing to manage this conflict, it is important to learn from this situation as well. Resolving conflict can often be like controlling a large crowd of unruly people; conflict can be unpleasant and stressful (Haraway & Haraway III, 2005). In order to be a successful company, managers must be able to constructively manage internal conflicts and have a solid foundation of leadership management skills. There are six different conflict styles: (1) accommodating, (2) avoiding, (3) collaborating, (4) competing, (5) compromising and (6) problem solving.

The case study is exhibiting a few of the conflict styles listed above and not just one in particular. The one that is most obvious is the avoiding style. It is seen that the potential disruption outweighs the benefits of resolution, gathering information supersedes immediate decision making, others can resolve the conflict more effectively and issues seem a result of other issues ," (Ledlow, 2009). Instead of Nurse B going to the Physicians' Assistant, she should be able to approach the surgeon and express her concerns directly to him or her.

Another style that was apparent is the role conflict style. This style can be seen when a focal person's ideas of