1.

Discuss the conflict that is occurring at General Hospital.

According to Hellriegel and Slocum (2011), conflict is defined as a process in which one party (person or group) perceives that its interest are being opposed or negatively affected by another party. The conflict that is occurring at General Hospital is the physicians are
interested in obtaining personal benefits from representatives of pharmaceutical companies that distributes to the hospital. In most organization this is considered a conflict of interest. Conflict as defined in the text is a process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party (Hellriegel/Slocum, 2011). The physicians in this case study focus is not on their patients as it should be but on obtaining personal benefits. The

Hospital pays each doctor and clinician that is employed a high salary and the pharmaceutical companies are aware that the doctors are interested in favors if they use products at the hospital. This dilemma has caused employees of the pharmaceutical companies to easily get their products in the General Hospital which from time to time is a complicated task for many pharmaceutical companies. Since the doctors have began this practice it has become a serious dilemma for the hospital. The ways to manage the cost incurred in availing the desirable pharmaceutical resources in the Hospital are also facing some difficulties. Some pharmaceutical companies increased the prices of their products in order to give some share to the doctors that support their company. Some professionals at the General Hospital have positive thoughts of the result. The parties that have conflict are the CEO Mike Hammer and the doctors represented by the Director of Medicine Dr. Mark Williams. Mr. Hammer faced opposition from the hospitals board of trustees. The hospital was not competitive and was losing money. Mr. Hammer was not capable to influence the doctors or the board to adhere to any cost containing measures or

resolutions. To compound this dilemma, he assigned authority to Marge Harding the Chief Operating Officer of the hospital to deal with and resolve the situation. Ms. Harding had personal goals to accomplish and would use this opportunity to attain them. The level of this conflict would be classified as Intergroup Conflict. Intergroup conflict refers to opposition, disagreements, and disputes between groups or teams (Hellriegel and Slocum) in this case between the doctors, the board of trustees and management. The doctors had taken a firm stand and they did not listen to any ideas or thoughts from the CEO concerning cost containment.