PERSONALITY ANTECEDENTS OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION STYLES (Osobowosc jako determinanta wyboru stylu rozwiazywania konfliktów)

Two research questions were attempted to answer empirically - first, whether there is a relation between personality traits and preferred styles of conflict resolution and second, which conflict resolution styles are strongly anticipated by personality traits. To answer these questions 60 employees filled NEO-FFI questionnaire measuring big five traits (the major personality traits) and a questionnaire measuring five major styles of conflict resolution. A correlation analysis showed agreeableness to correlate negatively with competition and positively with cooperation and accommodation. Extraversion clearly coincided with an active pursuing of own interests, i.e. it correlated positively with competition and negatively with accommodation. Neuroticism was not related to cooperation nor competition but was positively related to accommodation and conflict avoidance. Conscientiousness correlated only with conflict avoidance (negative correlation). Openess to experience was the only personality trait which did not correlate with any style of conflict resolution. As refers to the second question, competition emerged as the conflict resolution style most strongly correlated with personality traits. Personality traits less strongly predicted the tendency to cooperate, and to even lesser degree predicted tendencies to accommodate and avoid conflict. Finally, the tendency to cooperate was not correlated with personality at all.