The relationship between emotional intelligence and conflict management strategies in Iran University of Medical Sciences: 2009

Conflict in many organizations including universities is a common problem. But it must be remembered that it is not the conflict itself causing disintegration of relationships but it is the ineffective conflict management that causes undesirable consequences. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between manager's emotional intelligence (EI) with their conflict management strategies in Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS).

This was a descriptive correlational study performed in 2009 with a population of 103 administrators at IUMS. An EI Bar-On and a demographic questionnaire based on a Likert Scale as well Robin's conflict management guideline were used for data collection which were then analyzed by SPSS and LISREL using descriptive statistics, factor analysis and path analysis.

There was no correlation between EI and control strategy. A positive correlation was found between EI and conflict resolution strategy while the correlation between EI and conflict avoidance strategy was negative. There was correlation between EI and personal characteristics of the mangers. However, control strategy showed a negative correlation with age and a positive correlation with job experience. No significant correlation was found between conflict avoidance and conflict resolution strategies with personal characteristics.

The findings of the study suggest that manager's EI can be considered an important factor in recognizing conflicts and adopting appropriate strategies for conflict management in organizations.