The effect of personality types on conflict management methods: An application in tourism sector

It is known that the personality traits of individuals are effective on conflicts taking place in organizations and the managers have significant missions in resolving conflicts. Within this scope, determining the personality traits of the individuals that are in the administrative position of tourism businesses and the methods that the managers use in managing the conflicts are the fundamental subjects of this research. The fact that the number of studies investigating the effects of personality types on managing the conflicts or the relationship between personality types and the techniques that are used to resolve the conflicts are too limited and the fact that there are not any related comprehensive studies on hotel businesses operating in the tourism sector and travel agents have been decisive in performing the research. For this reason, in this research, it is aimed to determine the personality traits and the conflict management methods of the managers that are carrying on a business in group A travel agency and three, four and five-star hotel managements. To this purpose, based on 7 regions of Turkey, a questionnaire is conducted to 1098 managers in total that are at different administrative levels of group A travel agency and three, four and five-star hotel businesses in various cities. The questionnaire, that is applied with the aim of determining the personality types and conflict management methods of the managers, consists of three sections. In the first section, various questions are asked regarding the personality traits of the managers and the characteristics of the businesses that the managers work in. In the second section, 64 statements are given place in order to determine the personality types of the managers and in the third section, 28 statements are given place in order to determine the methods that the managers apply in managing the conflicts. Whereas the necessary analyses regarding the general validity and reliability of the scales that are used in the research are made, ?percentage?, ?frequency?, ?t-test for independent samples?, ?variance analysis for correlative measurements?, ?One-Way (Anova) analysis?, ?Bonferroni test?, ?Tukey (HSD) test? and ?correlation?, ?regression? analyses are also used. According to the findings of the research, it is determined that there are significant differences between the demographic characteristics of the tourism business managers that the questionnaire is applied to, the characteristics of the businesses that the managers work in and the personality types, the conflict management methods. Furthermore, as a result of the analyses, it is also determined that personality types are effective on the methods of conflict management. Key Words: personality, personality types, conflict, conflict management, tourism businesses.