Styles of Handling Personal Conflict in Egypt, United States, Africa, and the Gulf States

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of culture on styles of handling personal conflicts. The conflict management styles of competing, collaborating, avoiding, and accommodating were measured using the Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory (ROCI) instrument composed of 28 statements. For the purpose of this study four populations were identified. The analysis were conducted using 1089 responses; 779 from Egypt, 144 from the United States,32 from Africa (Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan, Zaire, Zambia), and 134 from the Gulf States (the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates). The five styles of handling interpersonal conflict were measured in each region. Factor analysis and multivariate analysis of variance were used to analyze the data.