MANAGERIAL EFFECTIVENESS, CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND PERSONALITY TYPES IN ORGANIZATIONS

Abstract

Managers play a vital role in the success of an organization. Amanager becomes effective only when he structures people and events to pull the relevant information for his decision making. An effective manager has the ability to design the work situation at every stage of operations in such a way that people around him know what is expected of them. The manager's performance is measured not merely by the degree of technical skill and professional competence, but also by the extent of human relations he uses in getting things done. In the fast changing industrial environment, managers are required to find out new ways to stimulate greater productivity and job satisfaction necessary for continuous success. Today there is a need to study managerial effectiveness in a new dimension. Many researches have focused on several aspects of managerial effectiveness such as accomplishment of goals, managerial actions, behaviours and roles. Gupta (1996) suggested three aspects of effectiveness: activities of his position, achieving the results and developing further potential. One of the major factors contributing to managerial effectiveness is how a manager handles the conflicts arising within the organization. It is necessary that management be capable of resolving conflicts before the dysfunctional consequences affect organizational performance. The avoidance-approach dimension of conflict management is significant in determining the effectiveness of managerial behavior. Many psychologists assume that personality characteristics influence the adequacy with which people perform their jobs. An employee's behavior is moderated by his personality type. Thus personality is also an important factor in determining effectiveness of a manager. Several researches have been found that working conditions of public and private sectors differ (Roy 1991, Kool and Saksena 1989, Joseph and Kesvan 1977). Due to this difference, performance of managers and their effectiveness also differ to a great extent. Many researchers have reported solution oriented and approach mode as the most preferred style of conflict resolution [Putnam and Wilson (1991), Samiullah et al. (1997) and Sayeed (1990)] and avoidance as the least preferred style (Sayeed, 1990, Drory and Ritov, 1997). The effect of personality characteristics on managerial effectiveness has been found contradictory in previous studies. Kumar (1970) and Chakrabarti (1984) reported significance of personality characteristics whereas Palmer (1974), Jacobs (1970), Malaviya (1978), Singh, Agarwala and Malhan (1981) suggested small contribution of personality. Keeping this viewpoint in mind the main objective of the present study was to examine the effect of public and private sector organizations, Type Aand Type B personality and avoidance and approach modes of conflict resolution on managerial effectiveness. The design of the study was 2 x2 x2 factorial design. There were three independent variables and each variable has two levels viz., types of organization (public and private sector), personality type (Type Aand Type B) and conflict resolution strategies (avoidance and approach) and managerial effectiveness is dependent variable. For the purpose of study large size organizations located in Uttar Pradesh were selected from both public and private sectors. The total sample consists of 200 middle level managers, 100 from public sector and 100 from private sector. Analysis of variance was used to analyze the data. Newman-Keul's range statistics was used to study the significant difference between means. VI Data has been analyzed from three angels. First of all overall analysis of managerial effectiveness was done. Secondly each sub-area of managerial effectiveness was analyzed and lastly all the factors of these sub-areas were analyzed individually. The conclusions of the study are as follows: 1. The main effects of types of organization and conflict resolution strategies are found significant on managerial effectiveness. 2. The interaction effects of types of organization x personality type and types of organization x conflict resolution strategies are found significant on managerial effectiveness. 3. All the three sub-areas: activities of his position, achieving the results and developing further potential, are equally contributing to managerial effectiveness. 4. There has been found a significant difference in networking, management of market environment, motivating, consultative, discipline, client management and competence, and image building between public and private sectors. 5. There has been found a significant difference in communication and task assignment, colleagues management, conflict resolution, integrity and communication, motivating and delegation between Type A and Type B personality. 6. There has been found a significant difference in networking, colleagues management, welfare management, discipline and confidence in subordinates between avoidance and approach strategies of conflict resolution.