Leadership Style as a Predictor of Conflict Management Style in the Workplace

Abstract

Problem Statement: Conflict avoidance might be intentionally used as a leadership strategy to improve leadership effectiveness and outcomes. However, the direct relationship between the use of conflict avoidance as a leadership strategy and its perception as effective leadership remains ambiguous. This proposed empirical study is designed to investigate and establish the connection between the practice of avoiding conflicts and the perception of good leadership. The purpose of this proposal is to motivate researchers to delve into this area of leadership study and enhance understanding of this complex and subjective subject matter. While there is substantial literature on leadership styles and conflict management separately, the direct correlation between specific leadership styles of university administrators and their preferred methods of conflict resolution remains under-explored. This gap hinders the development of targeted strategies to enhance leadership effectiveness and conflict management in higher education institutions.

Methodology: A quantitative approach was used to conduct this study, where data were collected directly to the office of Education Authority with n = 330. One way Anova is employed for data analysis in this study. The results showed that conflict positively affects leadership style and organizational commitment. However, leadership, organizational culture, and other ethic have positive effect on faculty member of department.

Findings: The study's findings indicate that there are significant differences in Conflict Styles and Leadership Styles among faculty members in a university setting, as evidenced by the statistical tests conducted. The low p-value rejects the null hypothesis, and the significant F-value supports the conclusion of a difference in styles.