Conflict Management Styles of Supervisors towards their Subordinates A Study of Textile Sector of North India

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1 Conflict Management Stles of Supervisors towards their Subordinates A Stud of Textile Sector of North India Pooja, Dr. Shabnam Saxena 2 Research Scholar,Harana School of Business, Guru Jambheshwar Universit of Science & Technolog, Hisar arapooja08@gmail.com 2 Professor,Harana School of Business, Guru Jambheshwar Universit of Science & Technolog, Hisar shabnamsaxena@gmail.com Abstract- Conflict is inevitable in ever organization, but at the same its resolution is imperative. The primar purpose of this paper is to identif the conflict management stles used b supervisors in handling conflict with their subordinates in textile sector and secondl to find the inter relationship between conflict management stles under stud. Rahim s Organizational Conflict Inventor II was used to identif the stles used b supervisors. The sample size of emploees from 0 textile units of North India was selected b using convenience random sampling technique. and validit was used to measure the internal consistenc of items. Statistical techniques wiz factor analsis, mean, standard deviation and correlation were applied to analze the data. The results of the stud indicate that integrating stle is mostl used b supervisors while handling the conflict with their subordinates and dominating stle is least preferred. Kewords: Conflict Management Stles, Integrating, Dominating,.. I.INTRODUCTION Conflict is present in all venue of life and avoidance of conflict is not possible. Conflict, an inevitable component of social life, has been highl prevalent in organizational settings where people work together (Cosier & Ruble, 98). Conflict is defined as the condition in which people s concerns appear to be incompatible (Thomas, 976). Conflict is an interactive process that manifests itself in 44 incompatibilit, disagreement, or dissonance within or between social entities (i.e., individuals, groups, or organizations) (Rahim, 200). Literature acknowledges that conflict has both positive and negative effects and emphasized that the conflict can contribute to group failure or success (Amason, 996), so the resolution of conflict and the preferences of conflict handling stle is ver important. Wilmot and Hocker (200) conflict management stles refer to patterned responses or clusters of behavior, that people use in conflict through diverse communication tactics. Blake and Mouton (964) on the basis of two dimensions: concern for people and concern for production classif the stles of handling interpersonal conflict into five tpes: withdrawing, forcing, smoothing, compromising, and confrontation. Thomas (976) defines five conflict management stles: collaborating, competing, accommodating, avoiding and compromising b adopting new redefined dimension: cooperativeness and assertiveness. Rahim and Bonoma (979) also adopted the basic model of Blake and Mouton (964) but different names were given to the dimensions: concern for self and concern for others. Concern for self determines the degree to which a part attempts to satisf its own concerns. Concern for others determines the degree to which a part wants to satisf the concern of others. The conflict management stles named b Rahim are obliging, integrating, dominating, avoiding and compromising.

2 Rahim Dual Concern Model of conflict Management Stles High Low High Integrating Obliging Concern for Others Compromising Low Dominating Concern for Self Avoiding Concern for Self Source: (Rahim, 983) 2. II.REVIEW OF LITERATURE The existing literature undergone stud b researcher related to the title is presented here as in the form of following table. Sr. Author s Year Objective Findings No. name Havenga 2004 To identif how the gender and age effects the use of conflict Integrating stle is most commonl used and no significant difference is found with regard to gender management stle b managers of small business 2 Ozkalp et al To identified the conflict management stle used b Turkish managers of different sector Findings indicate that integrating stle is most preferred conflict management stle b Turkish managers and second most preferred conflict management stle is compromising. 3 Ahmed et al. 200 To examine relationship between personalit traits and preferred conflict handling stle 4 Manak & Katono 200 To investigate whether there is an difference exist in use of conflict management stles b male and female managers at different Findings indicate that there is significant relationship between personalit tpe and conflict handling stle adopted b individuals. There is no statisticall significant differences exist in the wa men and women handling conflict with their subordinates, peers and supervisors. 45

3 5 Croucher et al. 6 Gultekin et al. 7 Hamdam et al. organizational levels in Uganda 20 To examine conflict stle preferences in India and the predictive effects of various demographic variables on conflict stle preference 20 To examine the relationship between the stages of moral development and conflict handling stles of academicians. 20 To investigate the conflict management stles used b nurse managers in the Sultanate of Oman 8 Hans & Barki 202 To stud the conflict management stle used in oil and gas sector in Sultante of Oman. 9 Mukhtar 202 To identif the mostl used conflict management stles in Pakistan Academia, Banking and Industrial sector 0 Ogunbao 203 To examine the conflict management stles used b project managers of Nigeria construction industr and its impact on project team motivation Khan et al. 205 To examine the choice of strateg in conflict management with relation to their leadership stles among managers in banking sector of Pakistan Findings reveal that in India Hindus prefer the integrating and dominating stle and Muslim prefer the integrating and compromising stle and demographic variables (age and sex) are significant predictors for all five conflict stles for both Muslims and Hindus. Results indicate that individuals at higher stages of moral development use obliging stle and individuals at lower stages of moral development use dominating stle. Integrating stle is most preferred b nurse managers. Lower level emploees used collaborating and accommodative stles within the organization Findings indicate that compromise, dominate and avoidance are the most famous techniques to be used Finding indicates that conflict management stles adopted b project managers have a significant impact on the motivation of the project team, and confrontation conflict management stle is the most effective in solving issues in construction project management. Findings indicate that there is positive correlation between leadership/managerial stles and conflict management modes. Objectives of the stud To identif the conflict management stles used b supervisors towards their subordinates of textile sector. To stud the inter-relationship between conflict management stles used b supervisors towards their subordinates. 3. III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Instruments and Statistical Analsis Sample Size and Data Collection The sample size was consisted of emploees from 0 textile units of North India. The convenience random sampling method was used to collect data. A conflict evaluating questionnaire that comprises two sections was used. The first part covers personal information, whereas the second part consists of ROC-II inventor which was personall distributed to the respondents. Rahim s Organizational Conflict Inventor ROC II model was applied to find the conflict management stles used b managers. The questionnaire contains 28 items to measure five conflict management stles on 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongl agree (5) to strongl disagree (). The five conflict management stles are: avoiding (6 items), dominating (5 items), integrating (7 items), compromising (4 items), and obliging (6 items).statistical Analsis was carried out with the help of SPSS 8.0 version. Descriptive-cu m- 46

4 explorator research design is used to achieve the research objectives. Factor analsis, mean, ranking method was used to achieve the first objective. Greater mean indicates the most preferable conflict management stles used b managers. Correlation was applied to find the inter-relationship between conflict management stles. Cronbach s alpha coefficients were examined to check the reliabilit of the constructs that were measured in this stud. The construct validit was calculated b appling factor analsis to the items in the questionnaire. V.RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS Demographic Profile: With the help of descriptive statistics, the demographic profile of the sample size is shown in Table. Out of total, 37.2% respondents were in the age group of and 30.8% were in the age group of % were male. 84.3% were married and 5.7% were single. On the basis of parenthood 80.2% had children. In terms of education 3.4% of the respondents had education up to post graduation and 9.8% had professional education. TABLE: DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE Variable Frequenc Percentage Age Below & above Sex Male Female Marital status Married Unmarried Parenthood Children No children Education Graduation Post Graduation Professional An other and Validit of Scale The reliabilit of a research instrument concerns the extent to which the instrument ields the same results on repeated trials. To test reliabilit Cronbach s Alpha method was used in the stud. Cronbach s Alpha is the statistical method for testing constructs reliabilit in research. Alpha value above 0.7 is the acceptable level in most of the studies. Validit can be defined as the degree to which a test measures what it is supposed to measure. Convergent validit means that each measurement item has high correlations with other items which measure the same hpothetical construct. In the stud the test revealed that all factors have Cronbach s Alpha value more than 0.7 (Table 2), which means that all factors have good internal consistenc. For convergent validit α should be greater than 0.7, AVE (Average variance explained) should be greater than 0.5 and α should be greater than AVE. In the stud all the factors have α >0.7, AVE>0.5, α>ave. Hence confirmed convergent validit (Table 2) Scale TABLE 2: RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF SCALE Cronbac h Alpha(α ) Indicator Integrating.72 High Obliging.8 High Compromisi ng.78 High Dominating.89 High Avoiding.89 High AVE * Converge nt Validit α should be > AVE.53 α > AVE.50 α > AVE.52 α > AVE.66 α > AVE.62 α > AVE

5 *AVE: Average Variance Explained Explorator factor analsis is used to test the earlier postulation that the underling set of data contained 5 distinct factors. Before proceeding for factor analsis, it is required to check the appropriateness of the data through Kaiser- Meer -Olkin (KMO) measures of sampling adequac and the Bartlett s test of sphericit. Bartlett s test is applied to test the overall significance of correlation matrix. KMO measure indicates the proportion of variance in the variables, which is a common variance. A minimum value of 0.5 of KMO is acceptable for running factor analsis (Field, 2005). Hutcheson and Sofroniou (999) suggested that the value between 0.5 & 0.7 are considered mediocre, values between 0.7 and 0.8 are good, values that is between 0.8 and 0.9 are taken as great and values above 0.9 are superb. According to the findings KMO value was great with ( Table 3) which was above the benchmark of 0.5 and Bartlett s test of sphericit is significant (0) which reveals that data are appropriate for factor analsis. TABLE 3: KMO AND BARTLETT S TEST Kaiser-Meer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequac Bartlett s Test of Sphericit Square Approx. Chi- df Sig items were subjected to explorator factor analsis using Principal Component Analsis with Varimax Rotation. As a result, 24 items with 5 factors were revealed (Table 4). The selection of a factor and an item was guided b the criteria: KMO> 0.6, Eigen value >.0, communalit of each statement > 0.5, factor loading >= 0.5, respectivel. Based on these criteria, the first five factors were selected. variance explained b these five factors was The results are presented in Table 4. TABLE 4: ROTATED COMPONENT MATRIX Items Integrating Obliging Compromising Dominating Avoiding Communalit M supervisor tries to investigate an issue with me to find a solution acceptable to us. M supervisor tries to integrate his/her ideas with those of mine to come up with a decision jointl M supervisor exchanges accurate information with me to solve a problem together M supervisor collaborates with me to come up with decisions acceptable to us. M supervisor generall tries to satisf the needs of mine. M supervisor usuall accommodates the wishes of mine M supervisor gives in to the wishes of mine

6 M supervisor usuall allows concessions to me M supervisor tries to satisf the expectations of mine. M supervisor tries to find a middle course to resolve conflict M supervisor usuall proposes a middle ground for breaking deadlocks M supervisor negotiates with me so that a compromise can be reached M supervisor uses Give and Take so that a compromise can be made. M supervisor uses his/her influence to get his/her ideas accepted. M supervisor uses his/her authorit to make adecision in his/her favor M supervisor uses his/her expertise to make a decision in his/her favor M supervisor generall firm in pursuing his/her side of the issue M supervisor sometimes uses his/her power to win a competitive situation of a problem. M supervisor attempts to avoid being put on the spot and tr to keep our conflict to himself/herself M supervisor usuall avoids open discussion of his/her differences with me M supervisor tries to sta awa from disagreement with me. M supervisor avoids an encounter with me M supervisor tries to keep his/her disagreement to himself/herself in order to avoid hard feelings. M supervisor tries to avoid unpleasant exchanges with me

7 Eigen values % of variance explained Three factors which represent compromising, dominating and avoiding conflict handling stles contained all the items that are earlier included in the scale. Factor which represented obliging stle contained 5 items as against 6 items earlier included in the scale. Item M supervisor often goes along with suggestions of mines has not been loaded on an factor so this item is dropped from the scale. Factor which represent integrating stle contained 4 items as against7 items earlier included in the scale. Item M supervisor tries to work with me to find solutions to a problem which satisf our expectations and item M supervisor tries to work with me for a proper understanding of a problem has communalit less than.5, so these items are dropped from the scale and item M supervisor tries to bring all our concerns out in the open so that the issues can be resolved in the best possible wa has not been loaded on an factor so this item is also dropped from the scale. So the totals of 24 items are included in the scale. Factor : First factor extracted in this analsis comprised four variables: M supervisor tries to investigate an issue with me to find a solution acceptable to us, M supervisor tries to integrate his/her ideas with those of mine to come up with a 50 decision jointl, M supervisor exchanges accurate information with me to solve a problem together, M supervisor collaborates with me to come up with decisions acceptable to us and explained of total variance. The factor loading for this factor ranged from to Each of these variables represented the integrating stle of conflict management. Factor 2: Second factor extracted in this analsis explained of total variance and comprised five variables: M supervisor generall tries to satisf the needs of mine. M supervisor usuall accommodates the wishes of mine, M supervisor gives into the wishes of mine, M supervisor usuall allows concessions to me, M supervisor tries to satisf the expectations of mine. Each of these variables represented obliging stle of conflict management. Factor 3: Third factor extracted in this analsis comprised four variables: M supervisor tries to find a middle course to resolve conflict, M supervisor usuall proposes a middle ground for breaking deadlocks, M supervisor negotiates with me so that a compromise can be reached, M supervisor uses Give and Take so that a compromise can be made and explained.082 of total variance. The factor

8 loading for this factor ranged from to Each of these variables represented compromising stle of conflict management. Factor 4: Fourth factor extracted in this analsis explained of total variance and comprised of five variables: M supervisor uses his/her influence to get his/her ideas accepted, M supervisor uses his/her authorit to make a decision in his/her favor, M supervisor uses his/her expertise to make a decision in his/her favor, M supervisor generall firm in pursuing his/her side of the issue, M supervisor sometimes uses his/her power to win a competitive situation of a problem. Each of these variables represented dominating stle of conflict management. The factor loading for this factor ranged from to Factor 5: Fifth factor extracted in this analsis explained of total variance and comprised of six variables: M supervisor attempts to avoid being put on the spot and tr to keep our conflict to himself/herself, M supervisor usuall avoids open discussion of his/her differences with me, M supervisor tries to sta awa from disagreement with me, M supervisor avoids an encounter with me, M supervisor tries to keep his/her disagreement to himself/herself in order to avoid hard feelings, M supervisor tries to avoid unpleasant exchanges with me. The factor loading for this factor ranged from to Each of these variables represented stle of conflict management. Descriptive Statistics Table 5 depicts the mean and standard deviation for all the conflict management stles. The mean measured for all the five conflict management stles were 4.2(integrating), 3.76(obliging), 3.644(compromising), 3.047(dominating) and 3.236(avoiding). The mean value shows that the most used stle for handling conflict b supervisor was integrating stle followed b obliging, compromising, avoiding and dominating. TABLE 5: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS Conflict Handling Stles N Mean Rank Std. Deviation Integrating Obliging Compromising Dominating Avoiding TABLE 6: PEARSON INTER-CORRELATION BETWEEN CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STYLES Variable s Integrati ng Obliging Compro mising Dominat ing Avoidin g Integr ating Obli ging.28* * ** **.00.52* ** Compro mising.260** ** Domin ating.298** ** Correlation is significant at the 0.0 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). Avoi ding Table 6 depicts that there is statisticall significant positive correlation between integrating and obliging conflict management stle. There is also statisticall significant positive correlation between obliging, compromising, dominating and avoiding at % level 4. VI.CONCLUSION: The present stud illuminates the phenomenon of conflict management stles used b supervisors towards their subordinates of Textile sector of North India and the interrelationships between various conflict management stles under stud. The result 5

9 indicates that the integrating stle is most preferred b the managers towards their subordinates while handling conflict and dominating stle is least preferred. Future scope: The stud can also be extended to whole of India. Other sectors ma also be targeted. A comparative stud ma also be conducted between public and private sectors. using generalization linear models. London: Sage Publications. [2] Khan,M.L., Langove, N.,Shah, F.A.& Javid, M.U.(205). The Modes of Conflicts and Managerial Leadership Stles of Managers. Global Business and Management Research: An International Journal, 7(2), [3] Malhotra, N. (2004). Marketing Research-An applied orientation. Pearson Education, New Delhi. REFERENCES [] Ahmed,I.,Nawaz, M.M.,Shaukat, M.Z. & Usman,A.(200). Personalit Does Affect Conflict Handling stle: Stud of Future Managers. International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, (3), [2] Al-Hamdan,Z.,Shukri,R.&Anthon, D.(20). Conflict management stles used b nurse managers in the Sultanate of Oman. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 20, [3] Amason, A.C. (996). Distinguishing the effects of functional conflict on strategic decision making: Resolving a paradox for top management teams. Academ of Management Journal, 39, [4] Blake, R. R. & Mouton, J. S. (964). Managerial Grid. Houston, TX: Gulf. [5] Croucher, S.M., Holod, K.J., Hicks, M.V., Oommen, D. & DeMaris, A. (20). An examination of conflict stle preferences in India. International Journal of Conflict Management, 22(), [6] Cosier, R.A. & Ruble, T.L. (98). Research on Conflict handling Behavior: An Experimental Approach. The Academ of Management Journal, 24, [7] Field, A. (2005). Discovering Statistics Using SPSS, 2nd ed. London, SAGE. [4] Manak,T.G. & Katono I.W.(200).Conflict management stle in Uganda: a gender perspective. Gender in Management:An International Journal, 25(6), [5] Mukhtar, U. (202). Identification of Frequent use of Conflict Management Stles in Pakistan Academia, Banking & Industrial Sector. International Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences, 2(5), 4-5. [6] Ogunbao,O.M.(203). Project Managers Conflict Management Stles and Its Impact on Project Team Motivation in Nigeria Construction Industr. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 4(7), ISSN [7] Ozkalp,E.,Sungur,Z.&Ozdemir, A.A.(2009). Conflict management stles of Turkish managers. Journal of European Industrial Training, 33(5), [8] Rahim, M. A. (200). Managing conflict in organizations. Westport, CT: Quorum Books. [9] Rahim, M.A. & Bonoma, T.V. (979). Managing organizational conflict: A model for diagnosis and intervention. Pschological Reports, 44, [20] Thomas,K.W.(976). Conflict and Conflict management. In M.D. Dunnette (Ed.). Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Pscholog(p ).Chicago: Rand McNall. [2] Wilmot, W. W. & Hocker, J. L. (200). Interpersonal conflict. NY: McGraw-Hill. [8] Gultekin, S., Bahan Karapinar, P.,Metin Camgoz, S. & Ergeneli, A.(20).Do Stages of Moral Development Matter in the Preference of conflict Handling stles with peers. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science,(7), [9] Hans, A. & Barki, A.S.H. (202). Conflict Management Stles in Oil &Gas sector in Sultanate of Oman. International Journal of Information Technolog and Business Management, 4(). [0] Havenga W. (2004). Gender and Age differences in conflict management within Small Business.SA Journal of Human Resource management, 6(), [] Hutcheson, G.D. & Sofroniou, N. (999). The multivariate social scientists: Introductor statistics 52