Change and Conflict Management in Nursing

Change and Conflict Management in Nursing Jon Teegardin Change and Conflict Change and conflict occur in all aspects of our society. In nursing, it is important to identify and embrace change, address and resolve conflict, and do so in an effective and efficient manner. This paper will present descriptions of change theories, conflict theories, and how a nurse’s ability to handle both can enhance or hinder effective leadership. Additionally, the leader as a change agent will be discussed. Change Theories While there are numerous theories of change that exist, in the profession of nursing there are three main theories that are consistently seen throughout the healthcare industry. These theories are Lewins theory of change, Rogers change theory, and Spradley’s change theory. Lewins change theory Probably the most recognizable theory of change is that presented by Kurt Lewin. His theory involves three stages to change: unfreezing, moving, and refreezing (Stolley, 2005). Two forces are present in this theory, the driving force, or those pushing for a particular change, and the resistant force, those who are resistant to the change. For change to occur the driving force or agents for change, must be stronger than the resistant force. In the unfreezing stage, the driving force develops a method that allows people to let go of the current, unproductive way of doing something. By finding this method, individual resistance to the change is overcome. In the moving phase, individuals are encouraged to change their way of thinking, feeling, or behavior to the new method. Finally, in the refreezing stage, this change becomes the new habit and ultimately the standard operating procedure. Lewins theory is also referred to as the force field theory that states an organization attempts to maintain a state of equilibrium between change forces and restraining forces (Swanson, & Creed, 2014). Change agents are the forces for change and must overcome the restraining forces to make the change successful. Rogers change theory Everette Rogers’s theory is a modification of Lewin’s change theory and involves five stages. The stages are awareness, interest, evaluation, implementation and adoption (Boston University School of Health, 2013). Roger’s theory is typically applied to long term projects. In the awareness stage, individuals are exposed to the new idea or process but lack all of the information about it. In the interest stage, the individual is interested in the new idea and seeks out additional information. The next stage is the evaluation stage where the individual determines how to apply the idea or process to their situation and decides whether or not they want to try it. The implementation stage occurs when the individual decides to make full use of the idea or process. Finally, in the adoption stage, the individual decides to continue to use the new idea or process. Roger’s theory is an example of social cognitive theory. Change does not occur im mediately among all those presented with the change. There are actually five groups of people that implement the change over time. These groups are innovators who are leaders that embrace the change immediately, early adopters who are also leaders but will follow innovators, the early majority who are the bulk of the followers, the late majority who include skeptics of the change, and finally laggards who are resistant to change (Kaminski, 2011).

Future&Innovation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Future&Innovation - Essay Example Packaged travel market by tour operators and online travel agency packages, 2000-2008 (US$B) 3 Figure 2: U.S. and U.K. total travel market and package travel share 2008 (US$B) 4 Figure 3: Forces affecting on Paradise Travels 7 Figure 4: The four P innovation space 9 Figure 5: Forces acting on Paradise Travels and the strategy to be adopted by the company to counter these forces 10 Figure 6: The process of innovation process for Paradise Travels 11 Figure 7: Framework for critical evaluation 14 Figure 8: Paradise Travels – location of high street shops 19 Figure 9: Adopting Shibata's problem solving model adapted to help solve Paradise Travels’ problems 21 Photo credit Cover page Image URL: http://www.wanderwoman.com/images/hiking_samaria_gorge.jpg Section 1: Industry Overview 1.1 Macroeconomic and environmental factors The impact of the global financial meltdown was also visible on the travel industry, and particularly on air travel and tour business. A large numbers of small players vanished from the tour operators’ radar during these years; more than 75 air travel and tour operators closed their shop within the past three years (Air Travel Insolvency Protection Advisory Committee, 2010, p.13). The industry is currently cruising through one of the most difficult times due to a number of macroeconomic and environmental factors. These are discussed as follows: 1.1.1 Environmental impact Eruption of the Eyjafjallajolkull volcano closed the UK airspace for six days and a considerable portion of EU airspace, causing flight delays and cancellations throughout the world (Air Travel Insolvency Protection Advisory Committee, 2010, p.6). This incident affected adversely on the consumer confidence as it was observed that immediately following the eruption, bookings dropped sharply (Air Travel Insolvency Protection Advisory Committee, 2010). 1.2 Issues faced by the industry Air Travel Insolvency Protection Advisory Committee (2010) listed some of the issues currently faced by the industry. These are discussed below: 1.2.1 Weak demand An offshoot of weak consumer confidence was seen directly on the weak demand it currently exerted on the industry. To regain consumer confidence is perhaps the most important issue the industry faced currently. 1.2.2 Weak sterling Once in their holiday destinations, weakness of Sterling had eroded the holiday makers spending powers; a trend noticed mostly in Eurozone holiday destinations. This affected adversely consumer perception as consumer expectations did not match the consumer experience. 1.2.3 Shifting away of holiday bookings Another alarming trend was shifting of bookings to traditional holiday destinati

Benefits of artificial intelligence to the society Research Paper

Benefits of artificial intelligence to the society - Research Paper Example Artificial intelligence can be defined as the intelligence that machines have. Artificial intelligence is also a scientific discipline in which, scientists try to develop machines with intelligence that is based on human intelligence (Boden, 2006). The intelligence that is provided to artificial beings such as computerized machineries is based on human development. This concept gain reputation on the basis of an ideal world in which, people’s jobs can be eased out with the help of machineries. With artificial intelligence, it is perceived that machines can perform better than humans and within much less time. According to John McCarthy, artificial intelligence is â€Å"the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs†. The history of computers is divided into generations and the concept of artificial intelligence comes under the heading of fifth generation. The fifth generation computers have artificial intelligence an d they are able to imitate common human functions like vision, natural language, comprehension, speech synthesis, usage of more specialized knowledge like human experts and many others. In other words, it can be said that computers with artificial intelligence are like artificial humans or robotics that are able to perform functions that human beings can perform. With artificial intelligence, many benefits can be achieved and these benefits are unlike simple computer systems as computerized machineries with artificial intelligence are much more efficient than simple computers. ... agents in form of artificial intelligent machines, which can do the works of humans such as in industrial setups where heavy works are required, machineries are installed to perform the work of many humans (Russell and Norvig, 2003). An artificially intelligent machine can perform the work of many humans with its intelligence and working expertise. However, human hand is required to make the machine continue working in the same manner. Because of machines involvement in business environment, where human effort is less required, the jobs of human beings are also not needed as the machine is able to perform the tasks of many people (Dreyfus and Dreyfus, 1986). The administration feels that there is no need to pay a large number of people when a single machine can do what many people are doing. It can deprive people of their employment and compensation, which can be counted as a disadvantage associated with the artificial intelligence technology. The artificial intelligent machines can be used in healthcare sector for the provision of medical facilities to people in a manageable time. Again the machines keep the capacity of depriving people of their jobs in medical sector as they can handle the tasks of many doctors at one time. Less hospital staff will be required for handling patients as the efficient machines will be there to make available medical services to patients (Boden, 2006). According to John McCarthy (2007), there are many applications of artificial intelligence that can also be counted as benefits attached with the field of artificial intelligence such as speech recognition, understanding natural language, computer vision, expert systems and heuristic classification. The artificial intelligent systems can recognize speech, can understand natural language and