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Volume 21, Number 3 • July 2008		 Arrow Bullet Return to Table of Contents
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Conflict resolution in a different culture

F. David Winter Jr., MD, MSc, and Marie Isabelle Chevrier, PhD

Since no abstract is available, the first 130 words of the article are shown.

Dr. Chevrier and Dr. Winter were invited to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to teach a course on negotiation and conflict resolution at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Riyadh (Figure 1). The institution is a >700-bed tertiary referral center staffed by physicians, nurses, and other health care workers from 55 countries.

The hospital was established in the early 1970s with supervision by the Hospital Corporation of America, but its top management is being gradually taken over by citizens from Saudi Arabia in a process called Saudization. The change in management, the multinational staff of employees, universal changes in the delivery of health care, and the conservative male-dominated culture of the Saudi populace have resulted in stressors and conflicts in the hospital as it strives to become a worldwide leader in health care.