This study investigated the relationship between an individual's communicator style and conflict management style (CMS). Six hypotheses and one research question were addressed. Specifically, hypothesis one predicted a positive correlation between Norton's contentious communicator style and scores for ROCI-ll's competitive management style. Hypothesis two predicted a positive correlation between Norton's dominant communicator style and scores for ROCI-II's competitive management style. Hypothesis three predicted a positive correlation between Norton's friendly communicator style and scores for ROCI-II's collaborative management style. Hypothesis four predicted a positive correlation between Norton's friendly communicator style and scores for ROCIII's compromise management style. Hypothesis five predicted a positive correlation between Norton's open communicator style and scores for ROCI-ll's collaborative management style. Hypothesis six predicted a positive correlation between Norton's open communicator style and scores for ROCI-II's compromise management style. The research question evaluated whether there were relationships between communicator style and conflict management style other than those tested in the six hypotheses. The total sample size was 272 undergraduate students enrolled in communication courses at a small private university and a moderate-sized state university. Two instruments, the Rahim Organizational Conflict Indicator- II (ROCI-ll) and Norton's Communicator Style Measure (CSM), were used to measure the variables. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to analyze the six hypotheses and the research question. Results indicated a positive correlation between Norton's contentious communicator style and the CMS competitive, a positive correlation between Norton's dominant communicator style and the CMS competitive, a positive correlation between Norton's friendly communicator style and the CMS collaborative, a positive correlation between Norton's friendly communicator style and the CMS compromise, and a positive correlation between Norton's open communicator style and the CMS collaborative. No correlation was found between Norton's open communicator style and the CMS compromise. The results for the research question provided positive correlations between Norton's relaxed, attentive, precise, and animated communicator styles and the CMS collaborative. The impression leaving, precise, animated, and dramatic communicator styles had a positive correlation with the CMS competing. The open communicator style had a positive correlation with the CMS accommodating and the attentive communicator style had a positive correlation with the CMS compromise. It is suggested that future research explore the relationship between communicator styles and personality traits.

No description available.

Tensions and conflicts are a regular, but complex, part of organizational life. Triangulating multiple related theories is useful in gaining deeper insights into the complexities of tension or conflict management processes in organizations. This dissertation consists of three related essays that collectively contribute to answering a common research question: How and why tensions or conflicts are experienced and managed in different organizational contexts? The focus is on how three theoretical perspectives (contingency, paradox and dialectic) can be deployed to understand tension or conflict management in different contexts. This topic is relevant for three reasons. First, recent evidence demonstrates that both tensions and conflicts have constructive potential for individual and/or organizational change. Second, conflict studies have been shifting from short-term focused resolution to long-term-oriented transformation. This trend suggests that conflict studies might benefit from tension research, which is often long-term oriented due to the persistence of organizational tensions. Third, the advancement of tension research at the organization level calls for more tension research at the individual level. This presents a good opportunity to complement conflict studies, which mainly focus on individual and team level analyses. The dissertation uses a multi-perspective framework to analyze tension or conflict management in three organizational contexts that are rich in tensions and conflicts: family businesses, innovation in government, and the entrepreneurial university. The contingency perspective features either-or thinking that stresses the importance of making either-or choices according to contingencies. The paradox perspective features both-and thinking which favours strategies that address competing demands simultaneously. The dialectic perspective involves more-than thinking that aims to transcend tensions or conflicts through third parties, reframing, or other workarounds. The study of three different contexts (family business, government, and the university) allows for a better understanding of how different contexts shape the manifestation of tensions and conflicts and influence the choice of tension and conflict management strategies. The first essay (presented in chapter 2 and co-authored with Professor Mark Freel) is based on a literature review of family-related conflicts and how these conflicts are managed in family businesses. The review illustrates how the popularity of certain conflict management strategies is associated with some unique aspects of family businesses, such as the prevalence of relationship conflicts and the relatively high emotional bonding in families. The second essay (presented in chapter 3 and co-authored with Professor Samia Chreim) uses a longitudinal case study to examine how tension management evolves regarding two tensions observed in a government innovation diffusion process: control versus resistance and competing interests among stakeholders. The study demonstrates how tension management strategies evolve from simple to complex through a mechanism of joint learning between innovators and the government. The study also finds that tensions can be leveraged strategically to move the innovation project forward. The third essay (presented in chapter 4 and co-authored with Professor Samia Chreim and Professor Mark Freel) explores how academic and non-academic staff in two Canadian universities manage the reward and resource tensions associated with entrepreneurship-related activities. The study finds that individuals' strategies in managing the reward tension influence the type of entrepreneurship-related activities they engage in, and individuals' strategies in managing the resource tension influence the scale and scope of entrepreneurship-related activities at the university level. The study also illustrates that power relations are dynamic and that the implementation of both-and strategies can help balance power relations in a tension context. Collectively, the three essays in this dissertation shed light on how organizations, teams or individuals manage tensions or conflicts in three organizational contexts featuring hybrid logics (family and business; innovation and bureaucracy; entrepreneurship and scholarship). The multi-perspective framework has proved useful as a tool for analyzing both tension and conflict management. It also helps to frame important new research questions around topics such as how constructive potential is realized, why certain management strategies are more or less popular, and how strategies evolve with different types of tension or conflict.

Asymmetric prisoner release initiatives (APRI), such as Israel's trade of 1027 security prisoners for one soldier, differ in kind from diplomatic POW exchanges and remain both undertheorized and unexamined. Most explanations tend toward the psychological or sociological. My data-driven plausibility probe finds that regime (democratic) and conflict (counterinsurgency) type are likely background conditions for APRI. Cross-case comparison of four democracies (Israel, UK, US, Spain) uncovers specific commonalities. Prisoner Discourse (international law/norms; "terrorist" belligerents; "worthy" prisoner) dictates state negotiation posture; societal support for asymmetric exchange, and underlies counterinsurgency praxis. These practices, the "Democratic Counterinsurgency Complex", paradoxically lead to prolonged conflict; favor recourse to "counterinsurgency through capture", and consequently create a "prisoner marketplace" which makes kidnapping state personnel a viable insurgent tactic. But APRI is contingent; not all democracies executed an asymmetric exchange during counterinsurgency. An Historical Institutionalist, within-case study of Israel from 1978-2011, shows that Menachem Begin faced a critical juncture of energy insecurity, Egypt peace negotiations, and electoral pressures. Begin's APRI (76 prisoners/one soldier) was socially and politically contested in 1979. By 1988, Israeli APRI had hardened into path-dependent praxis, and "social fact" by 2011. Specific cross-case factors strongly linked to APRI are a "no negotiation with terrorists" stance; external safe haven for insurgents; and family access to leaders. Denying cross-border access to insurgents, and limiting family access to leaders is important. But without a diplomatic posture/negotiation structure which allows direct talks with belligerents, democratic regimes are unlikely to be successful in counterinsurgency, and also more likely to execute APRI. / Doctor of Philosophy / Asymmetric Prisoner Release Initiatives (APRI), such as Israel's trade of 1027 Palestinian prisoners for one soldier still mystify some observers. I have found that there are specific conditions which explain APRI: first, democracies engaged in counterinsurgency campaigns are most likely to execute APRI. Second, specific factors such as the Prisoner Discourse (international law/norms; "terrorist" belligerents; and state prisoners considered especially "worthy"); and democratic counterinsurgency practices lead states into a tactic where mass detention of prisoners becomes routine. This prisoner imbalance makes insurgent kidnapping of state personnel a viable tactic. The factors most strongly associated with APRI include third-country safe haven for insurgents; a "no negotiation with terrorists" policy; and family access to state leaders. An absence of these, results in a less likely recourse to asymmetric prisoner exchange. It appears that if a government controls for these factors it is more likely to conduct successful counterinsurgency and be less likely to require such uneven prisoner trades.

This study investigated the conflict management styles of chief student affairs officers in 4-year public institutions of higher education in the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The data for the study were collected using Hall's Conflict Management Survey. The sample for the study consisted of 25 chief student affairs officers. The purpose of the study was to identify the conflict management style preferences of chief student affairs officers. The other variables studied to ascertain if they had an impact on the style preferences were age, gender, number of years of experience as a chief student affairs officer, ethnicity, and the size (enrollment) of their employing institution. The study found statistically significant associations (p<.05) between ethnicity and conflict management style, specifically the synergistic and win-lose styles, and between the synergistic style and age. The association between ethnicity and conflict management style could be attributed to the fact that the Caucasian group of chief student affairs officers comprised 66.7 % of the synergistic styles and 100 % of the win-lose styles. The association between the synergistic style and age could be due to the fact that the majority of the chief student affairs officers had a synergistic style, and of that group, 66.7 % were in the 50-59 age range. No statistically significant associations were found for correlations between conflict management style and gender; conflict management styles and number of years of experience as a chief student affairs officer; or conflict management styles and size (enrollment) of their employing institutions. The lack of significance shows that there are no associations between the conflict management styles of chief student affairs officers stratified according to gender, number of years of experience, and size (enrollment) of their employing institutions.

This study examines and analyzes conflict management and effective communication from several complementary perspectives. The purpose of the study is to identify common types of conflicts that learners confront in the process of EFL learning / to examine and analyze EFL learners&#039 / own strategies to deal with conflicts based on the conflict handling modes in the process of EFL learning / to find out their needs in terms of effective communication skills necessary to manage conflicts / and to analyze their attitudes toward conflict management learning and their needs for conflict management strategies. In order to achieve this aim, a survey research is preferred and the quantitaitve data gathered through the questionnaires were supported with the qualitative data obtained from the interivews with participants EFL learners. In the questiionnaire, there were two parts. The first one was a demographic inventory designed to gather the demographic characteristics of the participants. In the second part, four sub-sections were desgined: (1) a rank answer questionnaire to identify common types of conflicts that learners confront in the process of EFL learning / (2) a slightly adapted, Likert scale questionnaire which was translated to Turkish by G&uuml / m&uuml / seli (1994) from the Rahim Organizational conflict Inventory II (ROCI II) to identify EFL learners&#039 / conflict management strategies / (3) another Likert scale questionnaire to find out their needs in terms of effective communication skills necessary to manage conflicts / and (4) an alternative answer questionnaire to analyze learners&#039 / attitudes toward conflict management learning and their needs for conflict management strategies. The result of these questionnaires were analyzed by SPSS 15.0. This data gathering instrument was implemented on 339 students at the preparatory school TOBB University of Economics and Technology. Data gathered from 171 students from the same school were used for the piloting of the stduy. The data gahthered from 339 students at ETU Preparatory School represented the results of the main study. In analyzing the data, descriptive statistics as frequency, percent, average, and standard deviation and inferential statistics as ANOVA was used. As the second scale of the current study, semi-structered interviewsw were conducted with 12 students studying at the same university. The results of the interviews were analyzed through content analysis. The results of the study revealed that there is a relationship between EFL learners&#039 / conflict managament strategies, need for effective communication skills, and their gender, scholarship status, last school graduated, and duration of study at a particular university. Additionally, the study displayed that students confornt various types of conflict and they need to learn conflict management skills and effective communication skills to deal with conflicts successfully.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 346-363).

Thesis (D. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 2000. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-90).

Thesis (D. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 2002. / Includes abstract and vita. "November 2002." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-154).

Sambandet mellan emotionell intelligens och konflikthantering är ett relativt outforskat område, framför allt inom universitetsmiljö. I denna studie utreds huruvida nivån av emotionell intelligens har någon betydelse för preferens för olika konflikthanteringsstilar. Mätinstrumenten “The Assessing Emotion Scale” och “ The Dutch Test for Conflict Handling” användes på 100 studenter för att bedöma graden av emotionell intelligens och valet av konflikthanteringsstil. Varken emotionell intelligens eller konflikthanteringsstil var med säkerhet statistiskt signifikant beroende av kön totalt sett, däremot fanns ett starkt samband mellan “Samverkan” och “Kompromiss” till nivå av emotionell intelligens, framför allt hos kvinnor men inte hos män. Resultaten av denna studie visade att sättet att lösa konflikter inte är könsberoende utan tycks vara mer relaterade till individuella egenskaper hos varje person. Dessutom tycks personer med högre grad av emotionell intelligens föredra “Samverkan” och “Kompromiss” i konflikter. / The relationship between emotional intelligence and conflict management is an area, which is relatively poorly researched especially in a university environment. In the present study, the effect of level of emotional intelligence on preference for varying styles of conflict management is investigated. The research instruments “The Assessing Emotion Scale” and “The Dutch Test for Conflict Handling” were given to 100 students in order to assess level of emotional intelligence and preference for conflict management style. Results indicated that neither level of emotional intelligence nor conflict management styles were statistically significantly influenced by gender. A strong association between “Problemsolving” and “Compromising” to level of emotional intelligence was seen in women. In men, this association was not seen. The results of this study indicate that styles to resolve conflict were not directly gender related, but rather related to the qualities shown by each individual. Additionally, individuals with a higher level of emotional intelligence preferred “Problemsolving” and “Compromising” in conflict management.