A Study of the Relationship between Perceived Conflict and Conflict Management Styles among the Managers and Personnel of West Azerbaijan Province Sport and Adolescent Organization

Today, the increasing complexity of organizations and differences in thinking, opinions and individual beliefs has made conflict the inevitable part of organizational life. Regarding this, the aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between perceived conflict and conflict management styles among the managers and personnel of West Azerbaijan Province Sport and Adolescent Organization. It is a survey research that involves the descriptive and correlational study of a two-group statistical population selected, respectively, from Sport and Adolescent Organization and several sport groups of West Azerbaijan Province; the first group included 50managers and heads and the second one included 150 personnel and trainers. The data were collected by Dubrin (1985) and Afzal Rahim (1983) questionnaires and were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and significance testing. The results of independent t-test showed a significant difference between the conflict perceived by the managers and personnel; that is, the average conflict perceived by the managers is significantly higher than that perceived by the personnel. Additionally, the other findings of the research indicated that there is a significant difference between the compromise and conflict management styles of the managers and those of the personnel; namely on average, the compromise and accommodation among the personnel is higher compared to the managers. However, there was no significant difference in competition, collaboration and avoidance styles of the mangers and the personnel. Also, the results of Pearson’s correlation coefficient showed a significant and positive relationship between the conflict perceived with collaboration, avoidance and compromise styles in both groups. Nevertheless, the relationship between the conflict perceived with competition and accommodation styles was not significant.