The relationship between conflict message styles and dimensions of communication competence

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between conflict styles and communication competence. The Conflict Management Message Style (CMMS) instrument (Ross & DeWine, 1988), which assesses three conflict orientations (self‐oriented, other‐oriented, and issue‐oriented), served as the operationalization of conflict style. Communication competence was measured by the Communicative Adaptability Scale (Duran, 1983; 1992). The CAS assesses six dimensions of communication competence: social composure, social confirmation, social experience, appropriate disclosure, articulation, and wit. Canonical correlation analysis and Pearson correlations revealed significant positive associations between concern‐for‐other and concern‐for‐issue conflict styles and the CAS dimensions of social confirmation, social experience and appropriate disclosure. A self‐oriented conflict style was negatively related to social composure, articulation, and social experience. Implications of these results and suggestions for future research are provided.