AN INVESTIGATION OF CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES OF THE PRINCIPALS AS PERCEIVED BY PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS

The purpose of this study is to evaluate teachers’ opinions on primary school principalsmanagement styles and how frequently the principles use conflict solving skills in case of conflictsin schools. In this context, answers to the following questions were sought: what is the usagedegree of school principals’ skills like integrating, compromising, dominating and avoiding;whether there is meaningful difference according to teachers’ perceptions school principal’smarital status, gender and principals’ experience. The design of the study is descriptive and28-item Conflict Management Styles Survey was applied to 142 teachers. The results of thestudy revealed that according to the teachers, school principals use ‘integration’ skill more than other skills; according to the gender and marital status variable there is no meaningfuldifference among the teachers perceptions; according to principals’ experience variable thereis meaningful difference concerning ‘domination’ style of the principals.