Group Leader’s Conflict-Handling Style in the Palestinian Universities Students – Southern West Bank

Abstract

AbstractWhenever we find people differences the possibility of miscommunications, misunderstanding between them will appear; which could lead to different form of conflicts, therefore, Conflicts are unavoidable and inevitable in students’ daily life. So when they happen, leader’s role is not to prevent them but rather to resolve, reduces and manage them in an effective manner. This study aims to investigate the influence of the group leader’s conflicts-handling style in reducing conflicts among students. A model was developed and tested by self-administered questionnaire to the Palestinians universities students-Southern West Bank. The study is limited to the perception of the respondents of the study. The study and data gathered were as of 2020.The study aims to: 1) examine whether the group leader’s conflict-handling style reduces conflicts among students 2) explore whether the group leader’s negotiation skills reduces conflicts among students 3) determine whether the group’s collective decision making reduces conflicts among students, and 4) pinpoint the moderating role of emotional intelligence in reducing conflicts among students.A total of 600 questionnaires were distributed, with 510 being returned complete and valid. Results of the analysis suggest that the collaborative conflict-handling style is suitable to reduce conflicts among students. Moreover, collective decision making and having group leaders with good negotiating skills and high level of emotional intelligence were proved to be factors of reducing conflicts among students. Meanwhile, little differences in response based on various demographic indicators were observed. In order to reduce conflicts among students, efforts have to be put by universities to train students on several management and communication skills that would play a role in reducing the gap of trust among them. On the other hand, future research has to focus on the Islamic perspective of conflict management, and on how to prevent conflicts from happening rather than how to handle them as they occur.KeywordsConflict managementNegotiationCollective decision makingConflict-handling styleTask conflictRelationship conflictEmotional intelligence