A Research On The Relationship Between Personality And Interpersonal Conflict Management Styles

Conflict is omnipresent in multiple forms of life. Different people tend to employ diverse conflict management styles due to differences in personalities.According to Mc Crae and Costa’s theory on personality, five dimensions of personality were proposed: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. On the basis of the above model, Mc Crae and Costa developed NEO five-factor inventory to test the personality dimensions of individuals. Besides, Rahim and Bonoma have differentiated five styles of conflict management based on the dual concern model. Rahim also designed Organization Conflict Inventory-II to identify people’s preference for certain management styles to handle conflict. So given the high reliability and validity of them, the two inventories are exercised to test the personality dimensions and the preferred conflict management styles of the subjects respectively in the present research.After calculating and analyzing the 203 valid questionnaires, the author finds: Firstly, the subjects tend to have the personality of conscientiousness, followed by openness. Secondly, Chinese people have preference for integrating and compromising to deal with conflict, which means cooperation styles are more popular than uncooperative ones. Thirdly, conflict management styles are correlated with certain dimensions of personality positively or negatively. There is a positive relationship between integrating and four dimensions respectively: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion and agreeableness. But a negative relationship is found between integrating and neuroticism. Negative associations are found between dominating and three personalities: openness, conscientiousness and agreeableness. Obliging is found negatively related to openness and conscientiousness, while avoiding is found to be negatively associated with conscientiousness. However, no association has been found between compromising and personality dimensions. The findings have been explained from different aspects, such as the national culture and personal traits.The findings of the present research can provide guidance for individuals and companies to understand how personality dimensions affect conflict management styles so that they can train members to choose the most effective style to deal with interpersonal conflict.