The influence of transformational and transactional leadership behaviors on conflict management

In order to have sustainability in the organizations, all organizations have to struggle against big competitions and rapid changes in the market. Undoubtedly, the motivation of the employees will determine the performance of the organizations in this intense competitive environment. The motivation of the employees have been influenced by the conflicts arising from the differences between the units or individuals. For this reason, conflict management of leaders are very important for the performance of employees. If the conflicts are not well managed, organizations will have bigger problems in the future. Oppositely, well managed conflicts will bring benefit to the organizations for reaching the best strategy by allowing different ideas. In this study, employees working in one of the well known Insurance Company in Turkey have evaluated the leadership styles of their managers and conflict management styles they used by participating a survey. The study intends to point out the relationships between the leadership styles and conflict management strategies of managers. The results of the study shows that transactional and transformational leadership styles are related to the conflict management strategy. The study is useful to understand the conflict management behaviors of the leaders according to their leadership style. Suggestions have been presented in the study for having more effective conflict management in the organizations. Keywords: Leadership, Transformational Leadership, Transactional Leadership, Conflict Management