Read the following case and answer the questions following it.

A few years ago my position at work changed, and I suddenly became responsible for the nursing and ancillary staff on the unit. I had worked with some of these nurses as equals, but now I was playing a supervisory role; suddenly my friends were now my subordinates. Deciding how to deal with the various conflicts was quite challenging at first. One of my greatest challenges was trying to make the monthly staffing schedule.

The problem was that everyone wanted specific time off, which would sometimes mean that most of the staff would request to be off on a particular day. I think that some of my former colleagues thought that they should be treated differently and get whatever they wanted because they were my friends. Since we were already short staffed, it was impossible to give everyone what they wanted and as such it was up to me to decide how it was going to be done in a way that would ensure we had enough staff to provide quality patient care, and at the same time not alienate the staff.

I decided to set up a pattern of rotation in which everyone was treated equally and fairly, but that has resulted in a lot of complaints.

a. What kind of conflicts did the narrator encounter?

b. What stage of development is this group?

c. How have roles created conflict in this group?

d. What strategies from this chapter did he or she use to address the conflicts that arose?

e. What strategies from this chapter might have produced better outcomes?