The relationship between conflict management strategies and personality traits of school managers

The aim of this study is to examine the personality traits of school principals and their conflict management strategy levels in terms of various variables and to determine whether there is a relationship between them. The sample of the research consists of school principals working in public schools in the province of Gaza in the 2021-2022 academic year. The sample of the research consists of 275 school principals working in public schools in Gaza, selected by simple random sampling technique. Personal information form and two scales were used to collect data in the research which has a descriptive nature in the survey model. One of the scales is the "Personality Traits Scale" and the other is the "Conflict Management Strategies Scale". Data were collected via e-mail. In the study, the relationship between the personality traits of secondary school principals and the dimensions of conflict resolution strategies to dominating, avoiding, integrating, compromise and obliging were examined. Additionally, the relationship between the personality traits of secondary school principals and socio-demographic characteristics such as gender, age, educational status, professional seniority, marital status and institution status were examined. Validity and reliability tests and factor analysis were used to analyze the data. While the demographics of the participants were determined by frequency and percentage in the study, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to determine whether the data obtained from the scales were normally distributed. Normally distributed data were analyzed using parametric tests (t-test and Anova). In addition, Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to determine the relationship between the data of the two measures. According to the results obtained from the analyses, principals' perceptions of conflict management strategies did not differ according to the gender variable. On the other hand, it was determined that personality traits differ significantly in favor of women in the dimensions of compatibility and responsibility. The conflict management strategies of school principals differed significantly in the sub-dimensions of control and avoidance according to the age variable. Additionally, it has been determined that personality traits differ significantly in the subdimensions of emotional instability, extraversion, and responsibility. According to another finding, principals' perceptions of conflict strategy management differ significantly only in the bargaining sub-dimension according to their educational status; It has also been observed that personality traits are significantly different in the sub-dimensions of extraversion and openness. While it was determined that the principals' perceptions of conflict strategy management differed according to their social status only in the reconciliation sub-dimension it was determined that there is no significant difference in any of the sub-dimensions of personality traits. In addition, principals' awareness scores of conflict management strategies were found to differ significantly in the Compromise, Control, and Stay away subdimensions; Personality traits were found to vary greatly in the dimensions of emotional instability, extraversion, agreeableness, and responsibility. According to another result, the degrees of perception of conflict management strategies for school principals were only in the sub-dimensions of control and avoidance according to the institution state variable; Additionally, it has been determined that personality traits are significantly different in other dimensions except for openness. When the results of correlation analyses are examined, it is found that there are positive and significant relationships between the sub-dimensions of conflict resolution strategies for school principals and the sub-dimensions of the personality traits of school principals. Based on these data, it can be said that the methods used by principals in conflict management are affected by their personal characteristics. In other words, it can be said that personality traits play an important role in conflict management skills. Finally, suggestions were made to researchers and practitioners based on the results. Keywords: Conflict, conflict management strategies, five factor model, manager, personality.