Lincoln Hospital: Third-Party Intervention

Lincoln Hospital: Third-Party Intervention

Conflict is inherent in all relationships and can arise from a variety of sources (Walton, 1987). Conflict can also develop from interpersonal issues, such as personality differences, misunderstandings among group members, a lack of interpersonal skills, and the emotional baggage people bring to relationships. Third party interventions focus on arguments that arise between two or more people in the same company and are designed to address and resolve conflicts that disrupt effective task accomplishment and work flow.

If I had been called by Lincoln's president to help resolve the problems, First of all, I would have begun by meeting the president and asking what the conflict was and which level of resolution they expected so that I would identify what my mission was. The opening meeting and information gathered would be utilized to find out the level of problem and also weigh whether the resolution that the hospital was hoping for was sufficient or not. After all initial meeting, an agreement between the hospital and I will be drafted upon a contract in which their roles and the role of my consultant and payment terms would be in details.

The analysis process would be the next step. Getting together with the troubling parties plus the president was in order to notify them the reason of my appearance and what the hospital and I anticipated to complete. I would then have a comprehensive private conference with the parties in conflict to know how each viewed the situation and what was at stake for them. After that it would be evaluating process and figuring out the problem and an answer. I would perform same way as the OD's because of its effectiveness.

Before the intervention, communication between Don and Mary was negligible and provoking with no mediator and it was the great problem. With the aid of consultant they had opportunities to express their thought without disturbance or confrontations thus improving possibility of each hearing the other out and working out their differences which were less than their previous thought. Both of them hunted for power, their interests and emphasis on their individual activities compared to group sustenance activities with their positions as group leaders. They were acting like enemies. However with involvement of consultant they started to listen and comprehend other people's interests and commence activities that would improve the group as opposed to themselves.

In the decision-making process was not a great problem given that both Don and Mary often made great and efficient decisions. However their decisions were not well synchronized. With intervention they could perceive how each was affected by each other's decision and thus look for shared decision making. The group members played a moderate position in this situation since they supported Don as their leader even