cian. Role pressures also come from
poorly trained and prepared staff and
from an environment that is not open
to discussion and dissent.
Goals
House has only one goal: a diagnosis. Sometimes he doesn’t care
about the patient!
“Okay boss, what is more important to you: accuracy or meeting a
deadline?” “Both!” While the overall
goals for your organization may be
clear to everyone, individual, divisional, or departmental goals can
be widely divergent. There is always
tension between cost and quality,
between accuracy and timeliness,
between relationships and efficiency
that leads to specific goals that can
bring staff into conflict.
Perception differences
House only sees things from his
perspective, and that is the only
perception that matters.
What do you see? All of us see
things from the reference of our
experience, our emotions and our values. Our mood impacts our reaction
to a situation and that is particularly
true when we are angry or excited or
our ego is involved. Assume that people will have a different reaction to a
situation based on their perception.
The ‘70s mantra “The Perception is
the Reality” is true, at least until the
perception is changed.
House brings diagnostic skills that are unconventional, unique, and unsurpassed,
but at a very high cost—his personality is abysmal, his values are criminal and
interpersonal skills are barely human.
Figure 1
Assertive
Competing
Collaborating
Unassertive Avoiding
Compromising
Accommodating
UncooperativeCooperative
Status conflic
House says – “Status be damned!” –
Your status that is.
Our status is really important
and people who are not aware of
the different status symbols can get
into trouble quickly. The differences
between a generalist and a specialist
may not be important to outsiders,
but in some organization settings, it
can be a crucial distinction.
Adapted from Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument
Status comes from several sourc-
es and is closely tied to the values of
the organization, so any threats to
our status are seen as attacks on the
values we have accepted. This is par-
ticularly true when a large percentage
of the staff is at the same level on the
organizational chart, or receives sub-
stantially the same salary.
