The investigation of the relationship between school principals' self efficiency perceptions and conflict management styles

In this study, the relationship between school principals' styles of managing conflict in their institutions and their self-efficacy in this regard was examined. The research questionnaire was applied to the principals of various types of schools at the primary, secondary and high school levels in the city center and districts of Kütahya and Uşak, and 343 school principals participated in the questionnaire. The relationship between the problem solving, compromise, domination, avoidance and compliance dimensions of school principals' conflict management styles and the instructional, administrative and ethical dimensions of their self-efficacy perceptions has been the research subject of this study. While doing this, age, gender, professional seniority, organizational seniority and branch variables were used. The study was designed in the correlational survey model and in this study, the School Principal Self-Efficacy Scale, which was originally made by Tschannen-Moran and Gareis (2004) and adapted into Turkish by Baltacı (2019), and Conflict Management Styles Scale, which was originally developed by De Dreu, Carsten K. W. and Van Vianen, A. E. M. (2001) and adapted into Turkish by Polat and Metin (2012), were used. The construct validity of the scales was tested with exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). As a result of the analysis, statistically significant relationships were found between the instructional, managerial and ethical dimensions of self-efficacy and the integration (problem solving), compromise, domination, compliance and avoidance dimensions of conflict management types. The amount of relationship between slfefficacy and conflict management dimensions varied according to age, gender, Professional seniority and branch variables. Looking at the findings in general, it was observed that as the general self-efficacy beliefs of the participants increased, they tended towards problem solving, reconciliation and dominiation dimensions. It has been observed that school principals with high self efficacy overcome the problem in the environment by using one of the conflict management styles. Therefore, a school principal should not be afraid of conflict because conflict is inevitable. He/she should be able to manage the conflict process well, and in order to do this, he/she should have high self-efficacy and use the right strategy according to the situation and people. As a result of properly managed conflict, productivity will increase and mobility will occur in the environment. Keywords: Conflict management, Self efficacy, School principle