TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS THE FREQUENCY OF THE SHCOOL PRINCIPALS' USING CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STYLES AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THESE STYLES

Abstract

Problem: The purpose of this study was to determine general high school teachers' perceptions towards the frequency of school principals' conflict management styles and their effectiveness. Method: The sample of the study consisted of 362 teachers working for general high schools during 2007-2008 academic year in Izmir. The 28 item scale titled “Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory IIâ€? developed by Rahim (1983) was administered in order to collect data. The data collected was analyzed by employing statistical techniques such as mean, standard deviation, the t-test, the one way analysis of variance and LSD test. Results: After analyzing the data the following results have been reached: According to the perceptions of teachers, while school principals mostly use “collaborationâ€? style , they prefer “compromiseâ€?, avoidanceâ€?, “dominationâ€? styles occasionally dealing with conflicts among teachers respectively. The teachers perceived that the principals use “accomodationâ€? style with minimum frequency. Teachers also perceived that the most effective conflict management style exhibited by their principals was “collaborationâ€? style, on the other hand “compromiseâ€?, “avoidanceâ€? and “accomodationâ€? was perceived relatively less effective but the “dominationâ€? style was perceived least effective by teachers. According to the 20-29 age group of teachers' perceptions, most effective style is “avoidanceâ€? while 30-39 and 40 and over age groups emphasize “collaborationâ€? style as most effective conflict management style. The least effective style according to the 20-29 age group's perception is “accommodationâ€? style, while 30-39 and 40 and over age groups perceive “dominationâ€? style is the least effective one. The perceptions on the effectiveness of “collaborationâ€? and “accommodationâ€? styles differ according to the age groups. The group of 30-39 age sees the “collaborationâ€? style more effective than the group of 20-29. The 30-39 age group also thinks that the “accommodationâ€? style is more effective than the groups of 20-29 and 40 and over think. The perceptions of the teachers on the effectiveness of the conflict management styles differ according to their education level. The teachers who have pre-license and license education, perceive the “collaborationâ€? style as the most effective one while the teachers who have post-graduate degree perceive “avoidanceâ€? is the most effective one. According to the teachers' perceptions of pre-license and license groups, the least effective conflict management style is the “dominationâ€? style while the teachers who have post-graduate degree, think the least effective one is the “accommodationâ€? style. The teachers' perceptions on the effectiveness of the “accommodationâ€? and “compromiseâ€? styles differ according to their educational level. The teachers who have license degree, see the “accommodationâ€? and “compromiseâ€? styles more effective than the teachers who have post-graduate degree. Recommendations: According to the findings, the recommendations the following were developed: School managers have to know in which organizational conditions which conflict management style they have to use. According to this research findings, they use the “collaborationâ€? style frequently but they use the other styles “sometimesâ€? and “rarelyâ€?. The most effective conflict management style differs according to the organizational situations and conditions. School managers must be trained by in-service education programs on which style is convenient in which organizational conditions. The young teachers (20-29 years old) see the “avoidanceâ€? style as the most effective conflict management style. This finding shows that young teachers prefer to ignore the problems. The reason of this ignorance can be the fear of being harmed by the system. The educational system must have more legal professional security for the young teachers. The “collaborationâ€? and “accommodationâ€? styles are seen more effective in 30-39 age group of teachers than 20-29 and 40 and over age groups of teachers. “Collaborationâ€? and “accommodationâ€? are the styles of democratic and reconcile the different thoughts. The 20-29 age of group can be against of “accommodationâ€? because they can think everything by being against. The 40 and over age group of teachers also think that “accommodationâ€? style is not effective as much as the 30-39 age group think. These teachers of 40 and over age group can think they are in the end of the profession. So, the group of 30-39 age of teachers seem more reconciler than the other age groups. It can be thought that the teacher between 30-39 age, are more suitable for attaining managerial positions. The education level has an effect on conflict management styles. The teachers who have pre-license and license degree, see the “collaborationâ€? style as the most effective conflict management style, while the teachers who have post-graduate degree see the “avoidanceâ€? style as the most effective one. This finding shows that post-graduated teachers do not want to be interested in school matters a lot. This can means there are some problems between school managers and the teachers who have post-graduated teachers. Some research has to be done to explore the problems between school managers and the teachers who have post-graduate degree. Key Words: Conflict, Conflict Management, Perception, General High School, Teacher.