INTRODUCTION RationalePersonality traits are one of the mostimportant determinants of conflict management resolution skills. Big FivePersonality Dimension also known as Five Factor Model is one of the most widelystudied and discussed models by researchers.
Big Five personality traitsconsists of five traits conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion,openness to experience, and emotional stability (Robbins et al. 2008). Moberg(2001) found that big five factor model of personality has direct impact on thepreferences of conflict management resolution skills. Conflicts are one of the important parts oforganizational life. The main parties of conflict are always human part oforganization. Conflict cannot be avoided and most of us see it as a destructiveprocess (Lindelow & Scott, 1989 cited in Mukhtar & Habib, 2010).
How weperceive conflict, positive or negative, depends on how conflicts are handled(Rahim, 1986). Thomas (1976) developed a two-dimensional framework of conflicthandling modes, which distinguished five conflict handling modes collaborating,accommodating, competing, avoiding, and compromising mode.There was no study conducted yet indetermining the relationship between personality traits andconflict management resolution skills of Managers of Cooperative in Digos City.Thus, this study will intend to contribute to the body of knowledge. Research Objectives The purpose of this study is to lookinto the relationship of personality traits and conflict management resolutionskills of managers of cooperative in Digos City.
Specifically,this study seeks to answer the following objectives:1. Assess the levelof personality traits in terms of:1.1Conscientiousness; 1.2 Agreeableness;1.3 Extraversion; 1.4 Openness to experience;and1.
5 emotional stability; 2. Assess the level of conflict managementresolution skills in terms of the following:2.1 Collaborating;2.2 Competing; 2.
3 Avoiding; 2.4 Accommodating; and2.5 Compromising.
3. Determine the significant relationshipbetweenpersonality traits and conflict management resolution skills of Managers ofCooperative in Digos City. 4. Determine if personalitytraits significantly influence the conflict management resolution skills ofManagers of Cooperative in Digos City.
Review ofRelated Literature Thissection presents various literatures and studies from different authors whichhave essential bearing in this study. The readers will get to understand thevariables in this study through the readings presented. PersonalityTraits Big five personalitytraits consists of five traits Extroversion, Agreeableness, Openness toexperience, Emotional stability, and Conscientiousness (Robbins et al.2008).Extroversion is “a personality dimension describing someone who issociable, gregarious, and assertive”.
Agreeableness is “a personality dimensionthat describes someone who is good-natured, cooperativeand trusting”.Conscientiousness is “a personality dimension that describes someone who isresponsible, dependable, persistent, and organized”. Emotional stability is “apersonality dimension that characterizes someone as calm, self-confident,secure (positive) versus nervous, depressed, and insecure (negative). Opennessto experience is “a personality dimension that characterizes someone in termsof imagination, sensitivity, and curiosity”. Robbins.
et al (2008).In addition, someearly studies supported a relationship between conflict styles and personalitydimensions measured as Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) (Kilmann &Thomas, 1975), but others have reported weak relationships between personalityand styles of handling conflict (Jones & Melcher, 1982) or personality andnegotiation outcomes (Pruitt & Carnevale, 1993; Wall & Blum,1991). Thisinconsistency has led some researchers to question whether individualpersonality traits are important in predicting conflict handling styles andnegotiation behaviors (Lewicki, Litterer, Minton, & Saunders, 1994).Furthermore, themajority of the past research focused on isolated, readily available and singlepersonality trait rather than on a comprehensive model of personality structure(Antonioni, 1998; Ma & Jaeger, 2003).
With the emergence of a widely accepted comprehensive personalitymeasure—the Big Five (Costa & McCrae, 1995), recently studies have linked BigFive personality factors to conflict styles and more promising results havebeen obtained (Antonioni, 1998; Moberg, 1998; Moberg, 2001).On the other hand, Digman(1990) provides a thorough review of the history and development of the BigFive, which takes its name from Norman (1963). The initiative to develop thistaxonomy formally began after McDougall wrote in 1932, “Personality may withadvantage be broadly analyzed into five distinguishable but inseparablefactors” (p. 15). Since that time, an impressive body of knowledge has developed,providing evidence for a five-factor model of personality.
This model has beenshown to be highly robust, existing across different theoretical frameworks,cultures, and samples and using different instruments and sources of ratings(Barrick & Mount, 1991). More recent, efforts have been undertaken toclassify the Big Five into an even higher order set of domains (Digman, 1997).Business researchers’ interest in the Big Five became accelerated following Barrick and Mount’s1991 meta-analysis of the relationshipbetween the Big Five and job performance.
ConflictManagement Resolution Skills Conflict managementis based on the principle that it is impossible (and not always desirable) toeliminate conflict and not all conflicts can be resolved, but learning how tomanage work conflicts is beneficial for employees and the organization (Dreuand Weingart, 2003; Teague and Roche, 2012). Traditionally,managers considered that suppressing conflict and keeping peace at all costswas the best way to manage conflict. However, the recent view is that conflictsmay be a warning sign for a more serious problem that needs to be resolved(Darling and Walker, 2001). On the other hand, resolvingconflict is one of the fundamental management tasks.
The strategy one tends to employto approach conflict situations represents one’s characteristic mode ofconflict handling or conflict style (Black & Mouton, 1964; Moberg, 1998).Furthermore, recentstudies indicate that line managers handle workplace conflicts in manyorganisations, there is little theoretical and empirical research on how theyactually perform such unpopular HR roles (Hunter and Renwick, 2009; Björkman etal., 2011). Moreover, there aredisagreements about the key factorsinfluencing line managers’ conflict managementmodes; psychologists emphasise the role of the conflict situation (Rahim, 2002,Thomas et al., 2008) and personal traits (Antonioni, 1998), while otherscholars focus solely on the impact of the organisational aspects of managinginterpersonal conflict (Teague and Roche, 2012). The contribution of this paperlies in investigating whether situational, personal and/or organisationalaspects influence line managers’ conflict management modes.Collaborating mode involvescooperation between the parties to reach a win–win solution that satisfies bothparties. It is very similar to the integrative and problem-solving types, asall seek to find a long-term solution considering the interests of both parties(Holt and DeVore, 2005).
Accommodating modeignores one’s own needs and is associated with attempting to play down thedifferences and emphasising similarities (Rahim, Magner and Shapiro, 2000).This can be efficient in solving interpersonal relationship conflicts due toits long-term orientation (i.e.
to develop trust), but not task conflicts(Chung-Yan and Moeller, 2010).Competing mode hasbeen identified with a win–lose orientation. Competing may mean standing up forone’s rights and/or defending a position that the person believes to be correct(Rahim, Magner and Shapiro, 2000).
Avoiding mode is usedto prevent conflict, to ignore the situation and postpone the conflictsituation (Rahim, 2002).It is often used out of fear of confrontation due tolack of confidence in conflict management skills (Rahim, 2002). Canary (2003) found that avoidance isgenerally ineffective at resolving disagreements. Compromising mode isassociated with give-and-take and attempts to satisfy each party’s concern(Thomas et al.
, 2008). Rahim (2002)found that compromising is the most successful mode at resolving interpersonalconflicts.
