Conflict resolution in an academic medical center: The ombuds office

Academic medical centers are complex organizational environments characterized by the independence of faculty and the presence of multiple and overlapping goals. Several factors including competition for resources, financial strains, leadership turnover, and a negative research funding climate, all contribute to an environment with significant potential for conflict by virtue of jealousies, misunderstandings, misinterpretations, dysfunctional relationships, and other communication problems. Because conflict can have negative consequences including faculty dissatisfaction, stress, and burnout, it is essential to have strategies for resolving or managing it. In this chapter, we define and discuss conflict and its dynamics, review common formal and informal strategies for managing conflicts in academic medical center settings, and present an approach developed at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. This alternative approach for conflict management utilizes an organizational ombudsperson, who does not replace existing structures for conflict resolution, but rather supplements them. We review the services that the Ombuds Office provides and describe the characteristics of the individuals who came to the M. D. Anderson's Ombuds Office in its first year and the types of issues that were addressed.