engleski

Determinants of conflict management behavior: Does the choice of major and study progress play a role?

The main goal of this study was to examine the differences in employing conflict management strategies with regard to the study program and the study progress. In total, 437 students from two faculties from the University of Rijeka, Croatia participated in the research. Dutch Test for Conflict Handling (DUTCH) was used to measure students’ conflict management preferences. The results showed that students of both majors used strategies of compromising and problem solving the most. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed the main effect of the study program on the students’ preferences for compromising. It was found that the students of psychology reported using compromising more often than the students of economics and business. The interaction of the study program and the study progress on compromising was also significant. It was found that the seniors of psychology preferred compromising significantly more than the seniors of economics and business. Another ANOVA showed that the main effects of the study program and the study progress on forcing were significant with no interaction: preferences for forcing were higher among senior students than among freshmen as well as among the students of economics and business than among the students of psychology. The results provide guidelines for the future design of study programs relative to the needs of the labor market and social needs for integrative solutions and inclusiveness. Despite the validity of our findings, the results cannot serve as an accurate predictor of the student behavior in the workplace. It is possible that college students would use a combination of conflict management strategies once they enter the workforce. In addition, our results are based on self-report data. That is why we suggest that future studies include experimental design as a more accurate way of data collection.

Conflict management, DUTCH test, students, study major

nije evidentirano