Examining Conflict in Long-term Care: Some Preliminary Findings

Keywords: ethical climate, organizational culture

Abstract: This paper examines workplace conflict using data from a survey of long-term health care facilities (nursing homes) in Canada. Based on responses from more than 250 Directors of Nursing Care, we found that participants generally agreed that complaints from residents or their families was relatively low but nursing staff workplace conflict was a problem in some facilities.

Preliminary analyses suggest that lower levels of conflict are associated with a number of variables including a stronger clan (human resources) culture, a benevolent ethical climate (focus on the people at the workplace), all three measures of nursing staff intellectual capital (human capital, relational capital and organizational capital), a reasonable workload for nursing staff, and a lower vacancy rate for nursing jobs at the work site. Implications of the results will be discussed in more detail.