Howard Gadlin - Interpersonal Disputes and Structural Problems
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Introduction:
Howard Gadlin, Ombudsman at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) gives some suggestions on distinguishing between interpersonal disputes and structural problems.
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mediation, Conflicts and Disputes, Interpersonal Conflict and Violence
This rough transcript provides a text alternative to audio. We apologize for occasional errors and unintelligible sections (which are marked with ???).
Interpersonal Disputes and Structural Problems
Howard Gadlin
Ombudsman, Center for Cooperative Resolution, National Institutes of Health
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Is it difficult to figure out what level of analysis to look at
when you are dealing with something that appears to be interpersonal and ends up
being structural? What are the clues that tip you off to look deeper or at the
larger picture?
A: The first clue is when you have people who are engaged in what appears to
be a really deep personal conflict in the work place is to
remember to ask them questions about the work places as well. How they do they
work? What it entails? Who reports to whom? Who communicates with whom? Are you
dependent on her work? Is she dependent on your work? Are deadlines met? How are
deadlines set? If you are dependent on her work to get your work done, what
latitude to you have to set expectations to her? Are they set only by a
supervisor? Do you set them up collaboratively? There are all sorts of things.
You have to ask those kinds of things.
You have to know what questions to ask. To know what questions to ask you
have to ask them about the work they are doing. You cannot just be limited by
the stories that they tell you. You are looking for certain clues.
Q: That must be a challenge to break out of the mold of the stories that they
are telling you. I supposeĀ
. You have done it for years.
A: Yea. But you are working with the stories. You are asking them to flesh
out the stories. If you are complaining about nurse B being particular nasty
in her interaction with you and hostile to you, and you think it is because you
are a man and they don't like having male nurses. I am going to have to listen
to all of that. But then I am going to have to ask you other questions, like
when do you get into conflict with nurse A or B, or which ever you want? Ok,
well tell me about what exactly do you do and what exactly does she
do.
Q: Right.
A: And then you go from there. You are still working with their stories but
in organizations people understand their disputes in primarily personally terms,
very often, and not necessarily easily inclined towards understanding the way in
which structural factors may be contributing to disputes. So our role is to help
people think about it in a somewhat different way. I think any dispute
intervener has to help people re-understand their dispute in somewhat different
terms, as long as people stay stuck in their understandings in what they think
their dispute is about exclusively then you are going to make limited progress.
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