Relationship between emotional intelligence and conflict management styles of managers in guidance and high schools in Khorasan province

Conflict is a naturally occurring phenomenon with either positive or negative effects, depending on its management. It is a phenomenon inherent within all organizations, and arises from the differences of goals, needs, interests, attitudes, values and perceptions between the interaction of groups such as management and employee. In fact, it is inevitable in changing organizations. School as an organization is involved with conflict. Conflict cannot be resolved; rather, it has to be managed. Researchers have recorded five patterns of conflict management styles that are competition, accommodation, compromise, avoidance, and collaboration. Researches revealed that conflict management requires skills that are emotionally based, and emotional intelligence (EI) is a more significant factor in predicting success. The purpose of this study was to identify relationship between the administrators’ conflict-management styles and their emotional intelligence. The examined population for the research was comprised of 589 administrators (292 males and 297 females). The selection routine was followed by multistage sampling method. Conflict-management styles test was used for identifying administrators’ conflict-management styles and EI test for emotional quotient rate. The data obtained were analyzed by using Pearson correlations. Analyses of the data indicated positive correlation between EI and collaboration style. Also, there was a negative correlation between EI and competition, accommodation, and avoidance styles, but there was not any correlation between EI and compromise.