Female Managers and Their Conflict Handling Style

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The first known work on this issue is of Mary P. Follett (1940) where she conceptualizes the five

styles of handling interpersonal conflict in organizations in 1926. She introduced domination,

compromise and integration as main ways and avoidance and suppression as secondary ways of

handling conflict (Rahim, 1979). Then in 1949, Deutsch had proposed dichotomy that involves

either corporation or competition (Neil Brewer, 2002). In 1964, Black and Mouton had given

first scheme for the classification of five styles of conflict management styles. Forcing,

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smoothing, withdrawing, compromising and problem solving were the modes of styles having

two dimension of high and low concern for production high and low concern for people

(John.R.Darling, 2001). Lawrence and Lorsch (1967) selected traditional proverbs in order to

measure five styles of conflict management but their factor analysis identified only three factors

namely smoothing, forcing and confrontation. In 1974, Thomas and Kilman proposed two

dimensional five styles of handling conflict. Those styles were termed as competing, avoiding,

collaborating, compromising and accommodating (Sheryl, 2005). In 1979, Rahim and Bonoma

reinterpreted the two dimensions of concern for production and disputants as concern for self and

others. It was the most popular revision which resulted in five styles of conflicting styles:

integrating, obliging, dominating, avoiding and compromising (John.R.Darling, 2001) In

1983,Rahim proposed an organizational conflict Inventory-ii (ROCI-II) which was one of the

most widely used measures of conflict handling (Boonsthorn, 2007). Also, Pruitt (1983)

proposed four styles of handling conflict which were yielding, problem solving and contending.

He also presented empirical evidence for laboratory studies for these styles. It also has two

dimensions of concern for self and concern for others. In 1991, Hocker and Wilmot gave three

styles of conflict handling which were named as avoidance, competitive (distributive) and

collaborative (integrative). Kurdek (1994) proposed four styles of conflict management which

were problem solving, conflict engagement, withdrawal, and compliance.

Five conflict handling styles were operationalized by Sorenson and Hawkins through ROCII

instrument. According to which

Integrating style means high concern for self and high concern for others, dominating style

means high concern for self and low concern for others, obliging styles means low concern for

self and high concern for others, avoiding styles means low concern for self and low concern for

others and compromising style means intermediate levels of concern for both self and others)

(Sorenson and Hawkins, 1995).

FEMALE MANAGERS AND THEIR CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STYLES:

Before discussing about the conflict handling styles of female managers in different

organizations, it is useful to find out the general style of handling conflict of all females in

society. A research work done by Furumo. K et al in Hawaii in 2014. The purpose of their

research work was to figure out the communication and conflict managing styles of females as

compare to males. 115 students (both males and females) were taken as sample from two

universities of Hawaii and divided them in to two teams. They were asked to complete a scale of

ROCI. Their findings showed that females preferred avoiding style as they want their team

members to work collaboratively and should compromise if any conflict of ideas arises. The

findings also revealed that when females communicate with others they take it as establishing

relationship while males take communication just as completion of task.

FEMALE MANAGERS AND THEIR CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STYLES IN NURSING

SECTOR:

Handling with conflict is a challenge for nurse managers as it positively contributes to

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The patient care and personal growth. Selecting an appropriate style for managing conflict may

depend on the individual as well as the environment in which people work (Barton 1991).

Dahshan and Keshk in 2014 conducted their research in Egypt in order to figure out the conflict

handling styles of nurse managers and nurse staff and effect of these styles on the turnover

intension. Results taken from questionnaire filled by 30 female managers of two general

hospitals revealed that most preferred style of female managers was avoiding while competing

style was the least used style of handling conflict. Findings also revealed that conflict managing

styles like avoiding, compromising and collaborative have positive correlation with