Conflict Management Styles of Principals in Selected Campuses of a Private Educational System

Abstract

A principal's conflict management strategies are indispensable in the attainment of the school's goals and objectives. Accordingly, this study was conducted to determine the conflict management styles used by principals in selected campuses of a private educational system which were assessed by 129 teacher-respondents using the adapted ROCI-II Form B. Majority of the teacher-respondents are 20-30 years old, college graduate, have rendered less than 5 years in the institution, and without administrative load. Individual causes of conflicts were the most common conflicts experienced in the system. Regardless of age, educational attainment, or workload, the teacher-respondents' assessment on the principal's conflict management styles showed that the principals often used the different styles with Collaborating as the most used conflict management style. Results of the study showed that there is no significant difference in the assessment of the teacher-respondents on the principals' use of the Competing and Compromising style when grouped according to age. Also, irrespective of workload, the teacher-respondents have the same assessment on the principals' use of the different conflict management styles. However, the responses of the teacher-respondents on the principal's use of conflict management styles vary when grouped according to educational attainment and length of service. Though different conflict management styles were generally assessed as often used by principals, there is still a high frequency of occurrence of individual and managerial causes of conflicts experienced by both teachers and principals. To address this, a program for the enhancement of relevant skills in conflict management to manage conflicts at different levels or situations was submitted as an output of this study.