The effects of unit morale and interpersonal relations on conflict in the nursing unit

Background. Health care organizations face major changes, and these changes are likely to increase conflict in organizations. Although numerous studie s have focused on conflict management, few have considered causes and effec t of conflict in nursing units. Methods. The investigation tested a structural equation that examined the r elationships among individual and contextual variables and intragroup confl ict, job satisfaction, team performance effectiveness, and anticipated turn over. The nonrandom sample consisted of 141 nurses employed on 13 inpatient units at a state-supported, 597-bed academic medical centre in a southeast ern city. Results. Intragroup conflict was higher on smaller units with a higher rati o of RNs to total staff. Intragroup conflict was not associated with satisf action with pay or anticipated turnover. In the final model, the unit moral e and interpersonal relations dimension of team performance effectiveness w as negatively associated with intragroup conflict and anticipated turnover, and positively associated with satisfaction with pay. High perceptions of unit morale and interpersonal relations buffered the effect of unit size an d skill mix on intragroup conflict. Goodness of fit statistics indicated a good fit of the model to data. Conclusion. The findings have implications for nursing educators and admini strators, and provide direction for future research.