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.

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