Conflict with less distress: Promoting team effectiveness

As nurses increasingly turn to teamwork as a viable option for accomplishing a myriad of duties and responsibilities, they are discovering that teamwork can also be a source of conflict and stress. This article suggests that conflict is both inevitable and necessary within a team. A model of conflict is presented that aims not at reducing conflict, but at making it less distressing and thus more effective. The authors trace the influence of pre-conflict conditions and perspective-taking on conflict and ultimately team effectiveness. Finally, to apply the conflict model to practice, two examples are presented demonstrating both an ineffective and an effective use of conflict.