Gender, Psychological Type and Conflict Style Preference

Abstract

Research on the effect of gender on interpersonal conflict in organizational settings has revealed contradictory findings. This research attempts to clarify the issue. One hundred and thirty-five experienced first- and mid-level managers responded to questionnaires regarding gender, psychological type, and conflict style preference. Consistent with previous research, results indicated that gender was related to psychological type: male respondents were predominantly “thinkers” and female respondents were predominantly “feelers.” Psychological type influenced conflict management for only one of five conflict style preferences. “Feelers” were more likely to choose an obliging style than were “thinkers.” Similarly, gender influenced conflict style preference for only one of five conflict management choices. Male respondents had a higher obliging score than did female respondents. Overall, however, results indicated that while psychological type may be a more powerful indicator of conflict style preference than is gender, neither factor accounted for a substantial amount of variance in conflict style preference. Implications of these findings are discussed.

A quantitative study of tethered chains in various solution conditions using Langmuir diblock copolymer monolayers

“…Note that (h rms /R g ) r=1 L 1.45 in both good and theta solvents. For comparison, values obtained by MC simulation for good solvent conditions fall in the range of 1.40 -1.43 104) . Linear regressions of the data in Fig.…”

Effects of Gender, Education, and Age upon Leaders’ Use of Influence Tactics and Full Range Leadership Behaviors

“…Demographic variables such as gender, age, and educa tional level have been used to predict many behaviors, including effectiveness (Eagly, Karau, & Makhijani, 1995;Thompson, 2000), communication style (Kirtley & Weaver, 1999), decision making (Ganzel, 1999;Radecki & Jaccard, 1996), productivity (Kovar & Overdorf, 1995;Wilson & Hossain, 1999), participation (Itzhaky & York, 2000;O'Connor, 1996;Williamson, 2000), confl ict style (Chusmir &Mills, 1989;Duane, 1989; P. S. Sorenson, Hawkins, & R. L. Sorenson, 1995), success (Blank & Levesque, 1993;Chusmir & Parker, 1992;Sutherland, 1999), and power (Jenkins, 2000;Lips, 2000). Although a great deal of research has concerned the relationship between leadership and gender, few researchers have explored the relationship between leadership and age, and fewer still the relationship between leadership and educational level.…”

Conflict styles of men and women at six organization levels

“…Korabik et al, 1993) or have found smaller differences among more experienced managers (e.g. Sorenson et al, 1995), suggesting that male and female conflict styles may converge at higher levels.…”