Conflict-handling Styles Research Articles

Factors associated with the quality of conflict management among anesthesia technicians

IntroductionA conflict arises when one or more individuals, groups or organizations disagree, creating internal or external tensions that can cause damage. This is particularly serious in operating theatres, where decisions involving life or death are common. Indeed, in this particular context, the multiplicity of stakeholders, the divergence of opinions and decisions related to patient care, the frequency of critical situations, stress and the limitation of resources are established causes of disagreement and tension.ObjectivesTo identify factors associated with the alteration of conflict management quality among anesthesia and resuscitation technicians (ART).MethodsThis is an observational, multicenter, cross-sectional and analytical study, enrolling all ART exercising at the two teaching hospitals of Sousse (Tunisia) over a two month period(March 1, 2022 to April 30, 2022). Conflict management was assessed using the Conflict Handling Style Scale.ResultsOur study involved 50 participants, only eight of whom reported having had previous training in communication and conflict management. Conflicts in the hospital were rated frequent to very frequent by 58% of participants. Task conflicts were the most reported (74%). The main causes of conflict were lack of leadership (60%), unequal distribution of tasks (42%) and workload (28%). The main repercussions of the conflicts were the delay in patients care (60%), therapeutic errors (42%), and the cancellation or postponement of some acts (34%). The main factors associated with impaired conflict management abilities were age<40 years (p=0,03), tobacco consumption (p=0,001), and number of dependent children<2 p<10-3).ConclusionsIn light of our results, it would be useful and urgent to develop the soft skills of our human resources, particularly in terms of communication and conflict management.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Conflict Handling Styles used by Design Team Leaders During Post Contract Stage of Building Construction Projects in Sri Lanka

In comparison to other industries, construction sector encompasses a distinct, complex, and a competitive environment. It enriches the community with improvements when individuals with diverse perspectives, abilities, and degrees of construction expertise collaborate with each other. In this highly competitive multiparty context, conflicts have been labeled as one of the key constraints that prevent the `success of construction projects. Conflict is a fact that everyone must deal with on a regular basis. Construction projects are therefore not an exception. It entails different types of conflicts. To handle these different types of conflicts, construction professionals use different conflict handling styles. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate design team leaders’ preference of conflict handling styles and its impact on team spirit of the members of the design team during the post contract stage of building construction projects in Sri Lanka. To collect data, an e-based, closed-ended questionnaire was used incorporating the conflict handling styles introduced in Rahim's Dual Concern theory. The questionnaire was answered by 56 professionals who have the experience of working in the design team during the post contract stage. The study was limited to the building construction projects in Sri Lanka. To analyze the gathered data, descriptive statistics such as mean, percentage, count correlation co-efficient etc. were used. The study has revealed that during the post contract stage, the design team leaders use all five conflict handling styles of Rahim’s Dual concern theory: integrating style, obliging style, dominating style, avoiding style, and compromising style in different frequencies to handle conflicts among design team professionals. The design team professionals often use compromising style and rarely use integrating style, obliging style, dominating style, and avoiding style to handle conflicts among the design team professionals during the post contract stage respectively. Furthermore, the study indicates that these styles bring different levels of impact to the team spirit of design team professionals during the post contract stage of building construction projects in Sri Lanka. The team spirit of design team members is shown to be strongly affected by the compromising style. In contrast, the other four conflict handling styles, integrating style, obligating style, dominating style, and avoiding style, were identified to moderately impact team spirit. Moreover, findings revealed that all these five conflicts handling styles show a strong relationship with the team spirit of design team members during the post-contract stage of building construction projects in Sri Lanka. The research findings may assist construction industry design team leaders and other stakeholders to manage conflicts in a more efficient way and provide an insight to the way to handle conflicts to improve the team spirit of the design team during the post-contract stage of building construction projects in Sri Lanka. KEYWORDS: Conflicts, Conflict Handling Styles, Building Projects, Design team, Construction industry, Post contract stage.

Exploring the interplay between quantity surveyors’ conflict-handling styles and personality traits

Construction projects are prone to conflict; thus, effective conflict management is more important than ever to avoid disputes and ensure project success. This study explores the link between conflict-handling styles and personality traits used by clients’ quantity surveyors in South Africa. The study used an online web survey based on how clients’ quantity surveyors dealt with conflict according to their personality traits. The population of this study included registered professional quantity surveyors and candidate quantity surveyors. The most common way of dealing with conflict and the most dominant personality trait among quantity surveying professionals were determined using descriptive statistics. A Spearman rank correlation analysis was subsequently conducted to establish whether there was a link between management of conflict and personality traits. The collaborating style was primarily used as a conflict management style by quantity surveyors, while the most common personality trait amongst client's quantity surveyors was Conscientiousness. Generally, most of the conflict-handling styles do not significantly interplay with personality traits. However, a collaborating conflict-handling style was found to have a negative correlation with the neuroticism personality trait. Also, the accommodating conflict handling style positively correlates with the agreeableness personality trait, and the avoiding conflict handling style correlates with the neuroticism personality trait. Quantity surveying firms will benefit from this information regarding their employees' conflict-handling styles and personalities by training professionals on managing conflict successfully by combining their personalities with the appropriate style. The focus on registered and candidate quantity surveyors was a limitation of the study, as other construction professionals could add value to the study. Further studies may include conflict-handling styles from a contractors’ quantity surveyor’s perspective. Keywords: Conflict-handling styles, Construction Industry, Personality, Quantity Surveyors

PromotingSustainable Construction Practices in Developing Countries: Comparative Insights and Future Directions

Sustainable construction practices contribute significantly to the advancement trajectory in developing and developed nations. Emphasising environmental conservation, efficient resource utilisation, and the facilitation of healthier, more productive living and working environments, sustainable construction practices are fundamental to achieving a more prosperous and ecologically balanced future. However, the effective transition to and adoption of these practices in developing nations raises significant challenges. ‘Which way forward to addressing these issues as discussed in the last issue including the editorial (Windapo and Umeokafor 2023). These challenges, explored in depth in the diverse research articles featured in this issue, illuminate the ongoing difficulties developing nations face in embracing sustainable construction practices, along with potential solutions and future directions for research. They contribute to answering the question in the last issue, 'Which way forward?' (Ibid).
 This twelfth issue of the Journal of Construction Business and Management offers a thought-provoking and insightful collection of five seminal research articles by 11 authors from Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The key themes of the articles include promoting awareness of Autoclaved Aerated Concrete Blocks (AACB) for construction, enhancing government construction project success through effective leadership styles, fostering the adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in Quantity Surveying, examining the link between Quantity Surveyors' conflict-handling styles and personality traits, and tracking technological and organisational change in the UK construction sector. As discussed below, each theme contributes to a nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the urgent need for, obstacles to, and promising strategies for sustainable construction in developing countries.

Problem-solving style as blessing in extraversion personality and corporate entrepreneurship: evidence from automotive industry of Pakistan using Trait Activation Theory

PurposeEmployees’ personalities towards occupational outcomes have significantly gained academic attention. Personality traits (PTs) of employees as the determinant of corporate entrepreneurship (CE) outcomes research domain is emerging. This paper aims to assess extraversion PT activation for CE outcome under the problem-solving conflict handling style (CHS) situational cue.Design/methodology/approachThe survey was conducted in automotive manufacturing firms in Pakistan for cross-sectional data collection. Structural equation modelling was used to assess the hypothesised theoretical model from 376 employees.FindingsResults revealed a positive and significant impact of extraversion on CE. Also, employees with high extraversion traits were found to prefer the problem-solving style in managing workplace conflicts. The extraversion trait was also found to be activated under the situational cue of the problem-solving style.Practical implicationsThe present study draws implications on person-job fit conceptions at the workplace while hiring, promoting and appointing employees. Personality assessment at the workplace is still in infancy in developing countries. The benefits of employees’ personalities can positively impact organisational performance measures like CE.Originality/valueThe present study has proposed the theoretical model based on Trait Activation Theory (TAT) and contributed theoretically through empirically testing the theoretical model by investigating the employees’ CHS role in activating their PTs towards the CE outcomes. Theoretically, using TAT conceptualisations in entrepreneurship and CE is novel as previous knowledge on PTs activation towards CE outcomes is non-existent. CHS as situational cues will attract social science researchers towards studying its role in various predictor outcome links across multiple work settings.

Intergroup communication, conflict handling style and the quality relationship of multinational firms with oil producing communities

The research sought to understand how cross-border oil companies dealt with violence in the Niger Delta utilizing intergroup community strategy. The main goal was to present the best practices used by international oil companies in resolving conflicts with local residents (Odularu, 2008). The survey research design was used to collect data from 115 respondents. It includes senior and junior public relations workers. Because the sample was small, the total population was utilised, although 102 questionnaires were obtained from the 13 foreign oil companies actively seeking oil in the host regions. The data were analysed using mean, standard deviation, ANOVA, and regression using SPSS version 22. The study indicated that foreign oil companies often use compromise to resolve disagreements with host communities in the Niger Delta. The essential connection that international oil companies have with oil-producing communities in the region is unfavourable, as is the use of compromise tactics to resolve disputes. The study showed no statistically significant differences between compromise methods and host locations in addressing conflict. This report also proposed that international oil companies should stop dominating and start integrating and cooperating with the region’s oil-producing communities.

Birth order revelations about managers

PurposeThis paper aims to reveal the effects of birth order in decision-making style, conflict handling style and propensity for participative decision-making. The intention is to open the perspective of birth order research in organizational studies, as an important individual difference of managers.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted with 230 managers from different industries in Kosovo. Self-report measures were used for decision-making style, conflict handling style and participatory decision-making constructs.FindingsResults indicate that only children are more avoidant and spontaneous decision-makers. Firstborns are rational in decision-making and prefer problem-solving in conflict handling. Middleborns are intuitive decision-makers and use compromising in conflict handling. Lastborns make decisions rationally and use both compromising and problem-solving in conflicting situations. In addition, lastborns appeared to have a more positive attitude toward participative decision-making, followed by middleborns, firstborns and only children.Research limitations/implicationsBirth order affects managers’ behaviors in decision-making and conflict situations. Relationship dynamics in sibships are reflected in organizational settings, affecting how people behave in decision-making and conflict handling.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to attest how birth order influences the ways managers make decisions, handle conflicts and involve others in decision-making. As birth order cannot be changed, such knowledge is critical.

Does Intragroup Conflict Intensity Matter? The Moderating Effects of Conflict Management on Emotional Exhaustion and Work Engagement.

To elucidate the distinct effects of relationship conflict (RC) and task conflict (TC), we investigated the intensity (low vs. high) of the two types of conflict on emotional exhaustion and work engagement. Furthermore, we examined how cooperative vs. competitive conflict-handling styles moderate the relationship between the two types of conflict and emotional exhaustion and work engagement. We also examined the role of emotion regulation (cognitive reappraisal and distraction) as a covariate to control its effects on the study variables. Utilizing two separate 2 × 2 between-subject experimental designs, we recruited 120 employees from several companies in Austria. The results suggest that higher levels of both RC and TC are positively related to emotional exhaustion and negatively to work engagement. A cooperative conflict management style moderated the effects of both RC and TC on work engagement. The results suggest decoupling RC and TC and examining the interplay between the intensity of intragroup conflict types and conflict management styles provides insights into the connection between the levels of conflict, conflict management, emotional exhaustion, and work engagement. Additionally, it supports the usage of distraction as a viable regulation strategy for managing the effects of high levels of RC on emotional exhaustion.

Conflict handling styles as predictors of entrepreneurial intentions

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the relationship between conflict handling styles (CHS) of business managers in their entrepreneurial intentions (EI). The business manager’s propensity to become entrepreneurs is a relatively unexplored area of research. The relationship between conflict handling style and entrepreneurial intention is under-researched, particularly in a developing country like Kosovo.Design/methodology/approachA self-report questionnaire containing measures of conflict handing style, entrepreneurial intention and demographics was delivered to business managers in Kosovo.FindingsForcing style has a positive and statistically significant relationship with entrepreneurial intention. Yielding, compromising, problem solving and avoiding have weak and insignificant effects on EI.Research limitations/implicationsThe relationship between conflict handling styles of managers and their entrepreneurial intention is investigated. No situational, organizational or environmental factor was considered influencing this relationship.Practical implicationsConflict management is important in predicting the entrepreneurial intention of managers. Organizations should design human resource interventions aimed at effective team composition and employee retention to ensure performance.Originality/valueThis is the first study to investigate the relationship between conflict handling style and entrepreneurial intention using a manager sample. Furthermore, it is the first study of conflict handling styles and entrepreneurial intention of managers in Kosovo.

Conflict management styles of nurses at all india institute of medical sciences, New Delhi, India

Background: Conflict is an inevitable and integral part of any work environment including nursing. Unresolved conflicts among nurses may lead to increased errors in patient care, affect their morale, and even increase turnover. Objective: The objective of the study is to determine the conflict-handling styles practiced by newly joined nursing staff working in a tertiary care hospital. Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on newly joined 297 nurses. Standardized Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument was used to collect the data. Nurses were asked to give answers that characterized their dominant response in a conflict situation. Results: A total of 34.7% nurses used accommodating style for conflict management whereas 30.3% used collaborating style. It was followed by compromising, competing, and avoiding styles of conflict management. Conclusion: There is a need to enhance nurses' conflict management skills which in long run may lead to improvement in the quality of work as well as job satisfaction among nurses.

Follower‐rated leadership styles, leader behaviours, and leaders' thinking styles: A test of the cognitive experiential leadership model

ObjectiveThe Cognitive Experiential Leadership Model (CELM) predicts that leaders' thinking styles will be related to transformational leadership and effective leadership behaviours, especially influencing tactics and conflict handling styles. However, most of the existing evidence for this model comes from studies that have used self‐report methods where self‐presentational biases may influence the studies' results. Moreover, there is incomplete evidence for the proposed connections in this model between thinking styles, leadership styles, and leadership behaviour.MethodUsing anonymous other‐report surveys, in Study 1, followers (N = 192) rated how their leaders think and lead, and in Study 2 followers (N = 129) rated how their leaders think, influence, and handle conflict.ResultsAs the CELM predicts, leaders' tendency to think rationally and experientially (especially imaginatively) was related to their transformational leadership (Study 1), and their use of effective influencing tactics and conflict management styles (Study 2).ConclusionTogether these studies provide new evidence for the CELM that is not explained by social desirability biases, and suggest a role for follower ratings of leaders' thinking styles in leadership development.

INDIA-KUWAIT: INTER-CULTURAL SENSITIVITY, CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND CONFLICT-HANDLING STYLES IN CROSS-CULTURAL INTERACTIONS

The present explores inter-cultural sensitivity, cultural intelligence and conflict-handling style preferences of employees engaged in inter-cultural interactions. It further tests the influence of inter-cultural sensitivity, cultural intelligence on conflict-handling style preferences. Using self-report instruments, data was collected from respondents from India (N=103) and Kuwait (N=71) involved in work-related interactions with each other. Findings reveal that Indian and Kuwait respondents significantly differ on the three dimensions studied. The results also reveal that influence of cultural intelligence and inter-cultural sensitivity dimensions on conflict-handling style preferences vary for Indian and Kuwait employees. The present work contributes to the largely limited work in the area and offers valuable information facilitating better understanding and application of effective conflict handling styles in India–Kuwait cross-cultural work interactions. Keywords: Conflict, inter-cultural sensitivity, cultural intelligence, conflict handling styles, India, Kuwait, cross-cultural interaction, effective conflict handling, cross-cultural conflict

IMPACT OF PROJECT PARTICIPANTS’ COMPETITION ON PROJECT PERFORMANCE

The use of competition as a conflict-handling style aimed at win-lose end results has been highlighted by some researchers to be common during project execution. However, the impact of such competition on project performance remains largely under-researched. This article seeks to address this gap in the existing literature. A system dynamics simulation model of competition between two key project participants (client and engineering consultant) was formulated through a mixed methods research methodology incorporating the system dynamics approach. Data gathered for two sets of unique projects were used separately to conduct model calibrations, simulation experiments, and impact analyses. The results suggested that the competition negatively influenced project performance.

Interpersonal Communication Competence and Conflict Handling Styles of Nurses in Intensive Care Units

Nurses in intensive care units (ICUs) must be capable of employing appropriate conflict handling styles in order to communicate with medical teams, patients, and patient family members effectively. There is a current lack of research on the interpersonal communication competence and conflict handling styles of ICU nursing staffs in Taiwan. This study aimed to: (1) explore the interpersonal communication competence and conflict handling styles of ICU nurses and related factors and (2) examine the relationship between the interpersonal communication competence and conflict handling styles of ICU nurses. A cross-sectional correlational research approach was adopted and convenience sampling was used to recruit 351 ICU nurses from three hospitals in southern Taiwan. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, interpersonal communication competence scale, and conflict handling styles scale. (1) ICU nurses demonstrated a moderate or higher level of overall interpersonal communication competence, with "integrating" identified as the most commonly used conflict handling style. (2) Higher educational attainment and job position were both associated with better interpersonal communication competence. (3) The adoption of "compromising" and "avoiding" styles was significantly affected by age; the adoption of "obliging", "compromising", "avoiding", and "integrating" styles was significantly affected by education level; the adoption of "obliging", "compromising", and "integrating" styles was significantly affected by job position; and the adoption of "dominating", "compromising", and "integrating" styles was significantly affected by seniority. (4) Interpersonal communication competence correlated significantly and positively with the adoption of "dominating", "obliging", "compromising", and "integrating" styles. Future study of the views of ICU nurses toward their own styles in handling interpersonal conflicts is needed. Furthermore, holding training courses annually to orient ICU nurses with the advantages and disadvantages of interpersonal conflict handling styles is recommended.

Validation of the Dutch Test of Conflict Handling in Chinese College Students

There are limitations in existing conflict management instruments used in China. Therefore, we translated the Dutch Test of Conflict Handling (DUTCH), and then examined the reliability and validity of this Chinese Revised version (DUTCH-CR). Participants were 2,035 college students at 4 universities in China. We conducted exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis on data from questionnaires completed by the participants. Our findings show that the DUTCH-CR is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring the handling of conflicts between Chinese college students. Further, we found that 4 conflict-handling styles are more suitable for Chinese college students. This was achieved by merging the problem-solving and compromising factors into a collaborating one, and retaining the yielding, avoiding, and forcing factors of the original DUTCH instrument.

EFFECTS OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION STRATEGIES ON STUDENTS’ EMPATHY: EVIDENCE FROM ACCOUNTING STUDENTS AT A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IN BANGKOK, THAILAND

The purpose of this current study was to examine effects of conflict resolution strategies on empathy. A total of 105 students in the four-year program in accounting was distributed a self-administrated questionnaire for data collection. A modified version of Toronto Empathy Questionnaire and an adjusted version of Conflict Management Styles Questionnaire were employed to measure empathy and conflict handling styles of accounting students. Using stepwise regression analyses, results indicated accommodating style and collaborating style were factors that had a positive influence on empathy of accounting students, which these two conflict handling styles explained 22.1% of variance to empathy among accounting students. This could be concluded that only high degree of cooperativeness in conflict management styles had positively significant effects on empathy among accounting students. All in all, the more accounting students employed accommodating and collaborating styles, they became more empathetic on another person.

Tactics of handling interpersonal conflict through emotional intelligence

This paper aims to investigate the relationship of team leader's emotional intelligence (EI) with indirect intervention of five conflict-handling styles on interpersonal conflict. Totally, 213 out of 300 team leaders completed a paper-based questionnaire with 71% return rate. SPSS 23 and PROCESS MACRO to test mediation, 5,000 times bootstrapping with cross-sectional research design was used. Results show that EI is negatively and significantly associated with interpersonal conflict. High EI team leaders are better able to address interpersonal conflict. Furthermore, integrating style mediated relationship between EI and interpersonal conflict. This study provides a broad insight for leader's EI abilities and conflict management techniques. It contributes to the literature by identifying significance of EI for team leader and its effects on interpersonal conflict through five handling styles in a non-western context. This study enhances understanding of conflict situations and appropriate style selection to cater interpersonal conflict in telecom industry of Pakistan.

NeutrosophicWeighted Support Vector Machines for the Determination of School Administrators Who Attended an Action Learning Course Based on Their Conflict-Handling Styles

In the recent years, school administrators often come across various problems while teaching, counseling, and promoting and providing other services which engender disagreements and interpersonal conflicts between students, the administrative staff, and others. Action learning is an effective way to train school administrators in order to improve their conflict-handling styles. In this paper, a novel approach is used to determine the effectiveness of training in school administrators who attended an action learning course based on their conflict-handling styles.

Managing conflicts in the nonprofit sector through organizational culture change

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the impact of organizational culture on the conflict handling style in non-profit organizations. Conflicts in non-profit organizations and especially in associations are more numerous, mainly because of the search for compromise in the decision-making phases and the high level of loyalty in mission that strongly stimulates the voice of one’s opinion. The authors observe that a modification of the organizational culture, through symbolic changes, can resolve the conflicts sequence.Design/methodology/approachCulture is measured through the organizational culture profile tool and the culture deciphering technique. The authors detail two cases of non-profit organizations, in which conflicts sequence resolution was handled through organizational culture change while conflicts resolution at the individual level could not bring an end to the conflicts sequence.FindingsThese cases highlight how organizational culture shapes behaviors and conflicts handling styles. These cases also give insights on how an organizational culture can be changed to setup new default conflict handling styles in an organization. The cultural change management only worked when it was planned on critical cultural change readiness factors with a strong enforcement of the change by the governing bodies.Research limitations/implicationsThis study complements research studies on how organizational culture shapes attitudes and behaviors and shows how and under which conditions a cultural change could resolve a conflict sequence. This study also presents a conflict resolution method when the roots of conflicts are embedded in the existing organizational culture. In such conflicts situation, interpersonal conflict resolution technique did not solve the conflicts sequence and only cultural change finally brought an end to the sequence.Practical implicationsA combined search on two levels, the individual level and the organizational culture level, will thus show convergent conflict sources and get a great deal of knowledge before solving individual-level conflicts.Social implicationsThe non-profit sector is sometimes subject to high-conflict situation and this research contributes to more efficient conflict resolution protocols with an applicable method of conflict analysis, change management and conflict resolution.Originality/valueThe work showed how the organizational culture is a key element in the explanation of conflict sources and conflict handling in case of high and repeated conflict situation. It is thus possible to resolve conflict sequence by changing a carefully chosen cultural trait. Nevertheless, the culture change management program is complex and risky. In a high-conflict situation, the authors identified several key conflict resolution factors: the careful identification of the organizational culture traits explaining conflict handling style; the alignment of the management team on the cultural change plan to raise up the intensity of the new set of behaviors; and the selection of the most efficient symbolic change decision.

Neutrosophic Weighted Support Vector Machines for the Determination of School Administrators Who Attended an Action Learning Course Based on Their Conflict-Handling Styles

In the recent years, school administrators often come across various problems while teaching, counseling, and promoting and providing other services which engender disagreements and interpersonal conflicts between students, the administrative staff, and others. Action learning is an effective way to train school administrators in order to improve their conflict-handling styles. In this paper, a novel approach is used to determine the effectiveness of training in school administrators who attended an action learning course based on their conflict-handling styles. To this end, a Rahim Organization Conflict Inventory II (ROCI-II) instrument is used that consists of both the demographic information and the conflict-handling styles of the school administrators. The proposed method uses the Neutrosophic Set (NS) and Support Vector Machines (SVMs) to construct an efficient classification scheme neutrosophic support vector machine (NS-SVM). The neutrosophic c-means (NCM) clustering algorithm is used to determine the neutrosophic memberships and then a weighting parameter is calculated from the neutrosophic memberships. The calculated weight value is then used in SVM as handled in the Fuzzy SVM (FSVM) approach. Various experimental works are carried in a computer environment out to validate the proposed idea. All experimental works are simulated in a MATLAB environment with a five-fold cross-validation technique. The classification performance is measured by accuracy criteria. The prediction experiments are conducted based on two scenarios. In the first one, all statements are used to predict if a school administrator is trained or not after attending an action learning program. In the second scenario, five independent dimensions are used individually to predict if a school administrator is trained or not after attending an action learning program. According to the obtained results, the proposed NS-SVM outperforms for all experimental works.