A qualitative narrative approach is used in this study of hidden conflict among
nurses and support staff in a hospital setting. Twenty nurses and support staff from a
single hospital nursing unit participated in in-depth interviews and shared narratives
about hidden conflict. These narratives were used as data in the analysis and were
augmented by observations and participant observational data. Narrative, content and
theme analyses were applied to the data. Bruner’s narrative theory was applied to a
portion of the narratives as a methodology for narrative analysis. Content and theme
analyses facilitated the differentiation and grouping of the communicative acts from the
hidden conflict acts as found in the narrative and observational data.
Results showed that nurses and support staff aligned themselves within the
organizational hierarchy, and that much of the experienced hidden conflicts stemmed
from issues of organizational positioning. Results also showed that narrative analysis
was an effective way to understand the meaning behind the conflict experiences of
nurses and support staff. Finally, results demonstrated key communicative forms and
hidden conflict strategies used in carrying out hidden conflict acts. Collectively, these
findings verify the vitality of hidden conflict’s presence in organizations that exists embedded in the organizational culture. This study further reaffirms the importance of
front stage communications to decrease the negative affects of hidden organizational
conflict.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1196 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Anstrand, Carrie Renee |
| Contributors | Sharf, Barbara F. |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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