Conflict managment and communication skills in public communication: Research on municipal employee

This study focuses on public relations and public communication activities carried out in municipalities as an element of local governments from the perspective of management function, ideological structure and sustainability of communication. Within this scope, communication skills of municipal employees, preventing elements in their communication process and their conflict management skills were measured. It is aimed to contribute to the literature by interpreting the data obtained within the frame of new public service and public communication approaches. The sample group of the study, which is based on the relationship management approach in public relations, consists of municipal employees who are the source of the relationship and communication in public communication conducted in municipalities. In order to collect the data, a questionnaire of 64 questions that consists of two scales and demographic questions was prepared, and the data were collected from 500 public employees from 5 municipalities that had been selected on the basis of decisive sampling. According to the findings of the study, municipal employees have low communication barriers in the public communication process, and these communication barriers have a high impact on the conflict management styles used to manage conflicts. Another important research finding is that the compromising and entegrating styles are the most used conflict management styles by municipal employees for the management of conflicts in public communication.