Effect of employees social intelligence levels on their conflict management styles

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of social intelligence levels of employees working in a private firm operating in banking and insurance sector on conflict management styles. For the purpose of the study, the research was conducted on 201 people working in a private company operating in Istanbul and Izmir. Survey method and survey technique were used to determine social intelligence levels and conflict management styles. The Social Intelligence Scale, which consists of 21 items, was designed by Silvera et al (2001) to measure social intelligence levels. Organizational conflict was measured by using the C-form consisting of 28 items of the organizational conflict scale designed by Rahim(1983). When the results of the study were examined, a significant and low level positive relationship was found between social intelligence and conflict management styles. In the analysis conducted with demographic variables, there was no significant difference between demographic variables and social intelligence level. However, there was a significant difference between some demographic variables and conflict management styles. During the literature review, no study on this subject was found in both international and national literature. For this reason, it is thought that examining the relationships between variables in the study will contribute to both management and organization literature and to the related sector. Keywords: Intelligence, Social Intelligence, Organization, Conflict, Organizational Conflict