RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY FACTORS AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STYLES

TLDR

The Big Five personality traits—extroversion, openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism—are commonly linked to distinct interpersonal conflict styles such as integrating, obliging, dominating, avoiding, and compromising. This study aimed to investigate how each of the Big Five factors relates to the five conflict‑management styles. Data were collected from 351 university students and 110 managers who completed standardized questionnaires on personality and conflict style. Extroversion, conscientiousness, openness, and agreeableness were positively associated with the integrating style; extroversion also predicted a higher dominating style, while agreeableness and neuroticism were negatively associated with dominating; extroversion, openness, and conscientiousness negatively predicted avoiding, whereas agreeableness and neuroticism positively predicted avoiding.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the Big Five personality factors and five styles of handling interpersonal conflict. The Big Five factors are extroversion, openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism, and the five conflict styles are integrating, obliging, dominating, avoiding, and compromising. A total of 351 students completed questionnaires. As a check on generalizing the results beyond students, 110 managers also completed the same surveys. The main results indicate that extroversion, conscientiousness, openness, and agreeableness have a positive relationship with integrating style. Extroversion has a positive relationship with dominating, while agreeableness and neuroticism have negative relationships with dominating. Extroversion, openness, and conscientiousness have a negative relationship with avoiding, while agreeableness and neuroticism have a positive relationship with avoiding. Implications of the study and suggestions for future research are discussed.