CONFLICTS EXPERIENCED BY ADMINISTRATORS OF NURSING EDUCATION PROGRAMS.
Contributors: University of Alberta.
Published: 1993
Number of pages: 153
Subjects: Education, Administration.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Education administrators (including those responsible for nursing programs) have few resources to assist them when dealing with the inevitable conflicts they encounter. A review of the literature reveals few studies into the nature of conflict in education settings. Most investigations have been conducted in profit motivated organizations, politics, or labour relations. However, education researchers have begun to identify significant differences in conflict situations between education and business organizations.

Therefore, the general research question that guided this study was "What is the nature of conflict experienced by nursing educational administrators?".

The study used a "constructivist" approach to gather data from nursing educational administrators regarding the nature of conflicts they had encountered. Grounded theory techniques were employed to guide data collection and analysis. Four community college and five university nursing educational administrators from across Canada volunteered to participate in the study.

Analysis of the informants' stories revealed a number of concepts and categories related to the sources of conflicts encountered in nursing education administration, factors that influenced these conflicts, strategies employed to manage them, the effectiveness of the strategies, and the outcomes of the conflicts.

Sources of conflicts included a concern for students, diffuse power structure, professional status of nursing, information problems, attacks on integrity, distribution of resources, and gender issues. Issues related to ethics and values emerged in relation to most conflicts. Management strategies that the nursing educational administrators employed encompassed exercise control, foster collaborative problem solving, manage affect, manage climate, manage information, and seek support.

The Thomas (1976) model of conflict management, frequently cited in the educational administration literature, was compared with the findings of the study. Although limited support was identified the model was found to lack robustness when applied to management of the conflicts discussed by the nursing educational administrators.

The core notion emerging from this study was that the conflicts encountered by nursing educational administrators were complex social processes involving multiple stakeholders. It was also possible to postulate additional premises and propositions. For example, concern for students is an overriding issue for nursing educational administrators and control is most often used to manage conflict when student or client safety is involved.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-07, Section: A, page: 1759.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA (CANADA), 1993.

School code: 0351.