Conflict-handling by department heads in higher educational administration

Abstract

The first objective of this research was to develop a self-assessment instrument to measure the conflict-handling behavior of academic department heads in higher educational administration. The second objective was to use the instrument developed to study the relationship of characteristics of administrators to conflict-handling style and willingness to intervene. Conflict-handling style was measured in terms of a scale ranging from authoritarian style to egalitarian style; willingness to intervene was measured in terms of a scale ranging from deferring action to intervening immediately. Conflict situations were considered with both subordinates, including faculty or students, and superordinates, such as deans. Interviews were held with department heads to identify conflict incidents appropriate for the instrument. Then, following a nationwide pilot study, the finalized instrument was sent to three department heads in each of 150 four-year public colleges or universities in the 50 states. The return of 290 valid questionnaires constituted the data base for this study. The instrument consisted of two parts. The first 12 questions obtained demographic data on the respondents and the institutions they represented. In the second portion of the questionnaire, 12 conflict situations were presented, to which department heads gave a scaled self-assessment of their level of stress, conflict-handling style, and willingness to intervene. The data were analyzed to produce descriptive statistics, frequency distributions, and correlation coefficients; data were also represented graphically in scatter diagrams and in grid format. Major conclusions included the following: 1. Based on the finding that variables which are not a function of the instrument itself explain relatively little of the variance in conflict-handling behavior, it is concluded that the instrument is a viable device for measuring and predicting conflict-handling behavior. 2. Based on the finding that male department heads report a more authoritarian style, it is concluded that sex influences conflict-handling behavior. 3. Based on the finding that department heads with lower self-assessed stress report a more authoritarian style, it is concluded that stress is related to conflict-handling behavior...