Abstract:

This research was carried out in Tabuk region, Saudi Arabia on 41 school administrators from public secondary schools. The respondents were asked to identify and rank the areas in which conflicts are most likely to originate from. It is found that cause of conflict from parents made up the most figure in their response, followed by principal's character and both teacher's and student's behaviour. While these school administrators have identified the cause of their conflicts, they have also indicated that most of them would prefer to use avoidance when managing conflicts, unless the situation becomes urgent and demanding. Majority respondents have also stated that they would use their position and power to settle conflicts, but if the situations are new without any reference or experience, they would change their approach by being collaborative and putting their teacher's needs first before making their decisions in conflict resolution. Most school administrators in this region have shown good leadership skills and it can be shown from improving existing communication methods, conveying their school mission and vision clearly and also increasing their involvement in both their teachers’ welfare and student’s academic achievement. Using Pearson's correlation, it is profound to know that while system and rules and curriculum level are least likely to be the cause of conflict, they have the highest influence towards their behaviour in conflict management. On the other hand, it is found that leadership styles are affected greatly by cause of conflict from society (r= .955, p< .01), followed by conflicts caused by students behaviour (r=.951, p< .01). Findings from this relationship study may suggests that strategic conflict management should include the management of both cause and effect, such as communicating clearly to the stakeholders outside of the school while improving the school administrators approach to deal with conflicts arising from both society and students related problems.

Keywords:

Strategic conflict msnagement.