Pandemic: Linking the Big Five and Conflict Management Styles within the SMEs Context in Malaysia

Abstract

Pandemic of Covid-19 outbreak has become a global disruption and affecting the global economy. As the phenomena are unprecedented, there is a lack of studies on the impact of pandemic on businesses especially among SMEs in Malaysia. Conflict and conflict management are nowadays are the focus of many organizations especially SMEs. SMEs and entrepreneurs are extremely worried on the conflict they are facing and the impact of pandemic Covid-19 on their liquidity position and business survival.Personality differences may be a major reason of conflict, as well as the perception of conflict and preference for handling that conflict. Managers’ selective styles of conflict management have been affected by their unique characteristics such as personality differences. This conceptual paper aims to explore the role of personality traits in determining conflict management styles within SMEs context in Malaysia due to the pandemic situation. The Big Five factors are extroversion, openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism, and the five conflict management styles are integrating, obliging, dominating, avoiding, and compromising.