Conflict between families and staff in long term care (LTC) is a daily reality that has adverse outcomes for residents, staff and families. However, to date it has not been empirically evaluated. Multiple barriers exist in examining conflict, including its sensitive nature, which may have precluded such study, as well as lack of theoretical integration. In order to examine family-staff conflict and its management in LTC, this study has merged two independent bodies of literature, that of family caregiving in LTC and organizational behaviour literature on conflict. This study presents the argument that two prominent theories from the conflict literature, namely the theory of cooperation and competition (Deutsch, 1973) and the dual concern theory (Pruitt & Rubin, 1986) can be applied in LTC. This mixed-methods study examined family-staff conflict and conflict management in a sample of 107 family caregivers, with data showing preliminary support for the model. Results indicate that family caregivers engage in a variety of conflict resolution strategies to manage family-staff conflicts and indicate a significant role for trust, power and communication between family and staff on the frequency of conflict as well as use of cooperative and competitive conflict management. The implications of the conflict resolution strategies endorsed by family caregivers on key caregiver outcomes (i.e., family satisfaction with care and caregiver burden), theoretical fit, and evidence-based strategies for effective intervention in family-staff conflicts will be discussed.
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