Investigation of the relationship between conflict management styles and communication skills of sports management students

The aim of this research is to evaluate the direction and level of the relationship between the conflict management styles and communication skill levels of the students of sports management department. Another aim of the study is to examine the conflict management styles and communication skill levels of the students of the sports management department according to gender, age, class and sporting status. In line with the research purpose, the study was designed in the quantitative research relational survey and causal comparison model. The population of the research consists of students studying at the Faculty of Sports Sciences and the Sports Management Department of the School of Physical Education and Sports in Istanbul. The sample consisted of volunteer students selected by simple random method (n=306). Conflict management style scale, communication skill scale and personal information form reflecting the personal characteristics of the participants were used as data collection tools. The data obtained were transferred to the IBMM SPSS 25 package program and the research hypotheses were tested. In the statistical process, independent sample T, Oneway ANOVA and Pearson Correlation analyzes were used. As a result, it was determined that there was a difference in the behavior of conflict management, avoidance, reconciliation and cooperation adaptation to the gender variable. It was determined that age and class did not have a decisive effect on conflict management styles. It has been determined that individuals who do sports show avoidance behavior from conflicts. It is understood that the gender variable has an effect on the level of communication skills, and women have better communication skills. It has been determined that the age variable does not have a decisive role in the level of communication skill. It was determined that there was a difference in the total score of communication skills and willingness to communicate according to the class variable.