EVALUATION OF CONFLICT MANAGEMENT SKILLS: DEVELOPING A MODEL FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS

Abstract

Conflict among staff is a natural phenomena or a part of daily school life. If these are not handled in a positive way, they can affect the staff interpersonal relations which will negatively affect the whole school climate. Different approaches have been in practice for handling conflicts in the schools, e.g. Mediation, Negotiation, Avoidance, Collaboration etc. Acquiring the basic working knowledge of these skills may provide the school teachers and principal with the necessary tools to solve their interpersonal problems/conflicts in a more responsible and productive way. The main focus of this study was to review the existence of conflicts in schools, its nature, types and different conflict resolution strategies which have been adopted by the schools’ principals. A descriptive research design was utilized for collection of data, population of the study consisted of 357 secondary schools of selected districts of KPK in which 250 schools’ teachers and principals were selected. For data analysis Kendall’s Tau B and Kendall’s Tau C were utilized in which teachers and principals’ responses were compared. Findings of the study show that conflicts exist in all the schools which testify the fact that adequate measures need to be taken for its management. Furthermore findings of the study reflect that compromising, collaboration and accommodation styles were preferred by most of the principals. Recommendations are made on the basis of research findings that educators and all the principals should be properly trained in conflict management strategies.