Journal of Emerging Trends in Economics and Management Sciences: Home

Article Title:
The Role of Group Leader's Conflict-Handling Style in the Palestinian Universities Students - Southern West Bank
by Marwan Said Jaloud, PhD.

Abstract:
The purpose of this study is 1) to examine whether the group leader?s conflict-handling style reduces conflicts among students 2) to examine whether the group leader?s negotiation skills reduces conflicts among students 3) to examine whether the group?s collective decision making reduces conflicts among students, and 4) to identify the moderating role of emotional intelligence in reducing conflicts among students. A model for reducing conflicts among students was developed and tested self-administered questionnaire to the Palestinian university students ? southern West Bank. A total of 600 questionnaires were distributed, with 510 being returned complete and valid. Results of the analysis suggest that the collaborative conflict-handling style is best to reduce conflicts among students. Also, collective decision making and having group leaders with good negotiating skills and high level of emotional intelligence were proved to be factors of reducing conflicts among students. Meanwhile, little differences in response based on various demographic indicators were observed. In order to reduce conflicts among students, efforts have to be put by universities to train students on several management and communication skills that would play a role in reducing the gap of trust among students as well. On the other hand, future research has to focus on the Islamic perspective of conflict management, and on how to prevent conflicts from happening rather than how to handle them as they occur.

Keywords: conflict management, negotiation, collective decision making, emotional intelligence

Download full paper