Personality traits, management styles & conflict management in a military unit

Aims: Personality of managers affects their managerial style and their conflict management method. This study was performed with the aim of investigating the relation between personality traits, leadership styles and conflict management methods in a military unit. Methods: This cross-sectional correlation study was performed on 200 senior managers of a military unit in Qom who were selected by available sampling method. The leadership style was investigated by leadership styles questionnaire and managers’ personality traits were investigated by NEO questionnaire and their conflict management method was studied by Robbins questionnaire. Data was analyzed by SPSS 16 using descriptive and inferential statistical methods. Results: The benevolence-consolatory imperative leadership style was the most frequent style (65.5%) and compatible personality was the most observed characteristic (19.5%). The extrovert personality had positive relation with participatory management style. There was a significant positive relationship between the extrovert personality and management style score. In addition, there was a significant positive relationship between neuroticism and incompatible style. Conclusion: The benevolence-consolatory imperative leadership style is the most frequent style and compatible personality is the most observed characteristic among the studied unit’s senior managers. There is a significant positive relationship between solution-seeking and controller methods of managing conflict and management style score and there is a significant negative relationship between neuroticism and management style score.