Conflict management styles among institutional ...

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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2014) 000–000

International Conference on Business Management (ICBM) 2014

Conflict management styles among institutional managers: a case study of Teacher Education Institutes of Malaysia Mohmad Yazam Sharifa; Abdul Halim Majidb; Shahrizal Badlishahc* abc

School of Business Management, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia

Abstract The paper aims to share some findings on the dominant conflict management styles among Malaysian institutional managers. The sample was from Teacher Education Institutes (TEIs) located throughout Malaysia. TEIs are supervised by the Ministry of Education. Since 2005, both TEIs and public universities are producing graduate teachers. But placement of teachers in schools now is becoming problematic for both institutions. The managers in TEIs thus were expected to face a lot of conflict in dealing with their stakeholders. Qualitative interviews were conducted among 32 managers in TEIs. It was found that the dominant conflict management style among the interviewees was the accommodating style. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer-review under the responsibility of ICBM 2014. Keywords: conflict; conflict management style; Malaysia; Teacher Education Institutes

_________ * Corresponding author. Tel.:+6-012-483-2249; fax: +6-04-928-7117. E-mail address: [email protected]

1877-0428 © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of ICBM 2014.

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Author name / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2014) 000–000

1. Introduction Conflict occurs everywhere, in personal as well as organizational situations (Lewicki, Saunders & Barry, 2010). In organizations, managers and supervisors will have to find effective ways of managing the conflicts in their respective workplaces. Sometimes conflict management is also referred to as negotiations (Lewicki et al., 2010). These skills are critical for these managers to get things done. The conflict management skills are required by managers in business, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as well as governmental organizations. The paper aims to determine the dominant conflict management styles used by the managers in the upgraded Teacher Education Institutes (TEIs), entities which are operating under Malaysia’s Ministry of Education. In Malaysia, it was observed that few studies had focused on organizational issues with few exceptions (see; Che Rose, Suppiah & Othman, 2006; Haladin, Ibrahim & Rajab, 2012). 1.1. Background of Malaysia’s Teacher Education Institute (TEI) On 13th July, 2005, the Malaysian Cabinet approved that 27 Teacher Colleges (TCs) be upgraded into Teacher Education Institutes (TEIs) which can confer the Bachelor in Education degrees (www.moe.gov.my/ipgm). The TEI is almost like a mini university. With effect from 10th June 2009, the Teacher Education Institutes head office began its operations in Cyberjaya. The other 27 campuses are located throughout Malaysia. The head office houses the offices of the Rector, the Deputy Director and other administrative functional heads. They monitor the running of the 27 campuses. Each campus has its own administrative staff headed by a Campus Director and assisted by a Deputy Director and other heads of departments.

1.2. Conflict – definition Scholars have given various definitions of conflict. It can be defined as disagreement between individuals (Tjosvold, 2008). It can vary from a mild disagreement to a win-or-lose, emotion-packed, confrontation. It may also be defined as a struggle or a contest between people with opposing needs, ideas, beliefs, values or goals (Sportsman, 2007). 1.3. Conflict Theory Conflict theory suggests that human behavior in social contexts results from conflicts between competing groups. Conflict theory originated with the work of Karl Marx in the mid-1800s. Marx understood human society in terms of conflict between social classes, notably the conflict in capitalist societies between those who owned the means of economic production (factory or farm owners, for example) and those who did not (the workers). Subsequent thinkers have described different versions of conflict theory; a common theme is that different social groups have unequal power, though all groups struggle for the same limited resources (Lewicki et al., 2010). Conflict theory has been used to explain diverse human behavior, such as educational practices that either sustain or challenge the status quo, cultural customs regarding the elderly, and criminal behavior. 1.4. Conflict Management Conflicts in organizations, both at individual and team levels, are inevitable (Che Rose et al., 2006; Haladin et al., 2012). Yet the results of these conflicts are not predetermined. Conflicts can escalate and lead to nonproductive results. Thus, learning to manage conflict is integral to a high performance team. Similar to conflict, scholars have defined conflict management in various ways. But generally, it involves acquiring skills related to conflict resolution, self-awareness about conflict modes, conflict communication skills and establishing a structure for management of conflict in various environment (Cavanagh, 1991; Chen, Liu & Tjosvold, 2005; Kaur & Luxmi, 2013; Ma, Lee & Yu, 2008; Tjosvold, 2008).


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1.5. Conflict Management Styles Since conflicts in business (and also in the government context) are a natural part of the workplace, it is important that there are people who understand conflicts and know how to resolve them. This important in today's market more than ever. With so much competition and with the nature of economy such as it is, each business needs whatever edge or advantage they can attain and with a content and productive staff, they are much more likely and ready to be able to find and subsequently achieve that edge that every business organization is looking for. Apart from the issue of conflict management definition, the models of conflict management styles are also important. Scholars have generally agreed that the Pruitt and Rubin’s (1986) model is reflective of the generic practice of conflict management styles in organizations (refer Figure 1). It is also known as the Dual Concerns Model.

Figure 1 The Dual Concerns Model (Pruitt & Ruin, 1986)

The model has five conflict management styles: 1) competing; 2) collaborating; 3) compromising; 4) avoiding and 5) accommodating (Pruitt & Rubin, 1986) The above diagram balances between two dimensions – assertiveness and cooperativeness in a person. The competing style means the manager is high on assertiveness and low on cooperativeness. The collaborating style means the manager is high on assertiveness and also high on cooperativeness. The compromising style means a manager is moderate on both assertiveness and cooperativeness. The accommodating style means a manager is high on cooperativeness and low on assertiveness. Lastly the avoiding style means that a manager is having both low scores on cooperativeness and also low scores on assertiveness.

2. Methodology The study had chosen the qualitative method with in-depth interviews to undertake the investigation and it was deemed as appropriate to achieve its objectives (Creswell, 2009). The interview protocol was adapted from the survey instrument created by Thomas and Kilmann (1974). The unit of analysis is individual. The target is the

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managers of Malaysia’s Teacher Education Institutes. There were approximately 100 managers in the said institution (population) and the sample was 30 managers. 3. Results and Discussion Table 1 shows that in terms of gender, 78 percent of respondents were males (25) whereas 22 percent were females (7). In terms of qualifications, 53 percent of the respondents had masters’ degrees (17), 25 percent had bachelors’ degrees (8) while 22 percent had PhD degrees (7). In terms of generation category, 84 percent of the respondents were Baby Boomers (27) while 16 percent were Gen X (5). Those born from early 1950s to 1960 were considered Baby Boomers while those born from 1961 to 1980 were Gen X (Stein, 2013). The respondents were observed to be senior in terms of age group. In terms of office locations, 81 percent of the respondents were from their head office in Cyberjaya (26) while 19 percent were from their branch campuses around Malaysia (6). Lastly in terms of position, 72 percent of the respondents were Deputy Directors of the branch campuses (23), 13 percent were the Chief Assistant Directors in head office (4), 9 percent were Head of Departments in the branch campuses, 3 percent was a Deputy Director at head office (1) and 3 percent was an Assistant Director at head office (1). Table 1 Interviewee Profiles No. 1

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3

4

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Item Gender Male = 25 Female= 7 Total = 32 Qualification PhD = 7 Masters = 17 Bachelors= 8 Total = 32 Generation Boomer= 27 Gen X = 5 Total = 32 Office Location HQ = 26 Campus= 6 Total = 32 Position* DD HQ = 1 DD Cps = 23 HOD Cps = 3 CAD HQ = 4 AD HQ = 1 Total = 32

Percentage 78.0 22.0 100.0

22.0 53.0 25.0 100.0 84.0 16.0 100.0 81.0 19.0 100.0 3.0 72.0 9.0 13.0 3.0 100.0


Legend: * DD = Deputy Director; Cps = Campus; HOD = Head of Department; CAD = Chief Assistant Assistant Director

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Director; AD =

Next we look at the summary of the interview data (Table 2). Table 2 shows the categorization of the conflict management styles of the respondents. Table 2 Categorization of the Respondents’ Conflict Management Styles No. 1 2 3 4 5

Conflict Management Style Accomodating Style Avoiding Style Collaborating Style Competing Style Compromising Total

Number of Respondents 9 6 6 6 5 32

From the interview data, it seems that the difference between the respondents’ replies on their conflict management style was not much especially in relation to the avoiding style, collaborating style, competing style and the compromising style. But in this study’s interview group, 28 percent (9) of the interviewees were categorized as having accommodating style. Past research in Malaysia (Che Rose et al., 2006) seems to support that generally accommodating style is widely practiced in several contexts in organizations in Malaysia.

4. Conclusion and Future Research From this study, it seen that the Dua; Concerns Model as espoused by Pruitt and Rubin (1986) and aslo widely used by Lewicki et al. (2010) was a useful device to track the dominant conflict management styles of managers in Malaysian orgnanizations. The limitation of this study was that it depended on the qualitative interview data. While this method had its strengths, a follow up survey could enhance the findings of this study in future.

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Sportsman, S. (2007). Conflict management styles in the health professions. Journal of Professional Nursing, 23(3), 157 – 166. Stein, J. (2013). The New Greatest Generation. Time, May 20, 30 – 35. Thomas, K.W. & Kilmann, R.H. (1974). The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument. New York: XICOM Inc. Tjosvold, D. (2008). Conflicts in the study of conflict in organizations. In C.K.W. De Drew & M>J. Gelfands (eds.), The psychology of conflict and conflict management in organization (pp. 445 – 453). New York: Taylor & Francis. www.moe.gov.my/ipgm