Conflict Management Styles of Male and Female Branch Managers of Bank of the Philippine Islands: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Gender and communication research has long lived to answer the question of whether male and female differences exist in communication skills and behavior. Several studies and literature on the topic even show significant differences between both genders in the area of leadership, particularly conflict management skills. However, results seem to be of two categories—one category points to stereotypical claims and assumptions (Conrade 1991), while the other points to the exact opposite of those claims (Duane 1989). Conflict management and gender studies suggest that females are more likely to use communicative styles such as collaboration and accommodation, whereas males are said to likely use competitive styles. Other researches on the other hand, point to the findings that males and females do not differ at all in their conflict management styles. The contradicting findings point to a gap in knowledge and this research aims to fill that gap by verifying if indeed the stereotype on gender and conflict styles is true or false especially in the Philippine setting. Specifically, this research wants to answer this problem: “How do male and female managers compare in terms of their conflict management styles?” To answer this question, this research aims 1) to know the nature of Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) and its managers; 2) identify the conflict situations that the BPI managers encounter; 3) discover the sources, levels, and stages of these conflicts; and 4) discover the conflict management approaches and styles that male and female managers use as self-reported and as observed by the subordinates. To answer these problems, the study made use of a descriptive comparative research. The study used content analysis to compare and contrast the styles of managers to conflict. It employed a survey questionnaire and interview schedule. The questionnaire, meant to identify the dominant conflict management styles, was designed for the manager and the subordinates. Thus, for every manager, three subordinates were included to assess their bosses’ style. Hence, they were of two kinds—one for the manager, and the other for the subordinates. The results of the survey were tabulated so as to determine frequency and ranking of the responses. The interview schedule on the other hand, specifically sought to gather information about the organization and conflicts therein. The data gathered from this were summarized and compared contrasted to discover their similarities and differences. The data revealed that the managers, whether males or females, dominantly used communicative styles, specifically collaboration in conflict situations. Both the self-reports and observation of subordinates pointed to this pattern. Both genders also rarely differed in their dominantly preferred conflict styles. Even in dealing with difficult clients and employees, both genders had same dominant preferences. It was only in power asymmetries and resource scarcities that the differences in dominantly preferred styles emerged. For power asymmetries, males chose compromise while females chose accommodation. On the other hand in addressing resource scarcities, males chose compromise and females collaboration. This was the only difference noted. In conclusion, there seems to be little indication that conflict style differences arise from gender rather, the differences seems to be an offshoot of the differing conflict situations being addressed.