Conflict Management Proficiency Scale for Managers

Abstract

Conflict is inevitable and a dysfunctional conflict can lead to appreciable loss of man-hours. If dealt skillfully a destructive conflict can be converted into functional conflict. Recognising the conflict and attacking the issues demands an assessment of both the conflict and the conflict handler. The present paper will show development of conflict management proficiency scale based on Likert scaling technique that can be used by employers to help managers gain insight into their personal styles of conflict management. The scale is focused on the concept of conflict, the effect of conflict and the practices adopted to manage conflicts. The scale was developed on the responses of 300 managers of public and private sector organisations. The items were screened through item - total correlation and item - difference analysis. The final list had 24 items, each asked to be responded in terms of their own degree of agreement and disagreement on five - point scale. It was tested for its reliability and validity by both split half method and test - retest method by calculating Karl Pearson's coefficient. The reliability score of the scale by split half method came to be 0.82 and by test - retest method it was 0.79. The index of reliability by split half method was 0.903 and by test - retest it was 0.89. When the CMP score for managers was calculated, the scale could differentiate the respondents of higher and lower level of CMP.