To discover the kinds of conflict encountered by hospital nursing staff members, nurses from several hospitals were asked to report the types of conflict they anticipated meeting during a work week. The answers were categorized into eight loci of conflict topics: (1) physician-nurse conflict, (2) uncooperative working norms, (3) superior-subordinate communication style, (4) fairness in staff assignments, (5) difficult patients, (6) performance surveillance by superiors, (7) communication with other departments, and (8) communication of new policies and procedures. The findings suggest that nursing staff conflict might be an organizational communication problem rather than an interpersonal dysfunction. Hospitals wishing to ameliorate some of the causes of staff conflict might consider establishing lateral and horizontal communication lines within the orgnization, forming task forces with specific assignments among the nursing staff, initiating simulations of resource demands, and restructuring around the information processing capabilities of the organization members. (Author/FL)