The Relationship between School Administrators’ In-House Communication and Conflict Management Strategies According to Physical Education Teachers’ Perceptions

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between school administrators’ in-house communication and conflict management strategies based on physical education teachers’ perceptions. The study sample consisted of 130 physical education teachers employed at state schools in Bartin provincial center who volunteered to take part in the study in a 2014-2015 academic year. Interpersonal Communication Skills Scale and Conflict Management Strategies Scale were implemented by teachers. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used in the study to analyze whether the data displayed a normal distribution. Since the data did were not distributed normally according to teachers' ages and seniorities (p=.000<α = 0,05), non-parametric tests were used in the analysis. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman-Rho were used in data analysis. The margin of error was taken as 0.05. The study shows that physical education teachers prefer avoidance strategy (χ=2,44±,494), controlled strategy (χ=2,42±,623) and solution-oriented strategy (χ=2,35±,473) respectively. As a result, the high-level relationship was identified between school administrators' interpersonal communication skills and conflict management strategies based on physical education teachers' perceptions while no statistically significant difference was determined in interpersonal communication skills and conflict management strategies subscale scores based on teachers' seniority and age.