Individual, organizational and contextual antecedents of perceived conflict among administrators in mental health service delivery systems

Abstract

Prior exploratory investigation indicates a weak association between conflict and the effectiveness of mental health service delivery systems (MHSS) and suggests the need for a clearer articulation of the nature and causes of conflict in that context. As part of a wider investigation of MHSS effectiveness, this paper separates the effects of individual, organizational, and contextual variables on perceptions of conflict among directors of mental health service organizations. We employ ordinary least squares regression analysis on data collected from a survey of directors of mental health care service organizations in eight counties in the northwest United States to examine the relationship between the previously mentioned measures. Several independent variables seemed to account for some observed variation in perceived conflict: (1) individual attributes (ascriptive [sex, race, age] and achieved [level of education, tenure in job, board memberships]); (2) organizational and interorganizational characteristics (age and size of organization, centrality [in influence networks and patient referral networks], frequency of services provided, relevance of services provided, degree of inclusion, and amount of activity devoted to interorganizational cooperation, contact and client referral); and, (3) contextual factors (urban/rural location) Perceived conflict is observed as