Date: 17^th December, 2019

Time: 11:30 – 13:30 a.m.

Venue: Room 602, Administration Building, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University.

【Speaker Introduction】：Ren Li is a postdoc fellow at Goizueta Business School, Emory University. She holds a Ph.D. in Social, Decision Making, and Organizational Science at University of Maryland, College Park and an MA in clinical psychology from Columbia University. She has not only engaged in extensive basic research on issues related to cross-cultural organizational behavior and conflict but have participated in applied work at a hospital setting in the mid-Atlantic region that has yielded immediate and tangible benefits for organizational change and intervention. 

【Seminar Abstract】：Conflict is an inherent element of any organizations and has distinct implications for workplace outcomes. This talk presents a theory of both hospital personnel’s norms around dealing with conflicts and their diversity composition (as manifested in faultline strength) as critical factors that affect patient outcomes. Using a cross-sectional design of linked data from 2,944 hospital employees surveyed and discharge information of 4,138 patients across 38 units illustrated that faultlines across gender, race and professional role were positively related to medical errors and patient death, as mediated by increased incivility. However, we found that negative effect of strong faultlines is contingent on the working group’s shared norms for managing conflict. Units with constructive conflict cultures (i.e., norms that encourage mutual respect, active listening, and openness to differing opinions), engaged in significantly fewer acts of incivility and had better patient outcomes regardless of their faultlines. These findings highlight the value of simultaneously accounting for diversity composition and targeted conflict management norms in the effort to improve quality health care delivery.