The Teaching Profession according to Communication Styles while Solving Conflict Situations

An essential qualification requirement of the teachers ́ profession is to handle the conflict situations effectively focusing on cultivation healthy kinds of relationship with other participants of the educational process, keeping discipline, communicative and good teaching atmosphere. In this contribution, we compare styles used in solving the conflict situations insight teaching profession objectively. Slovak elementary school teachers (N = 22) and secondary grammar school teachers (N = 42) were ask to complete a questionnaire consisting of 25 questions with 5 types of solving the conflict situations at school (avoiding, fighting, compromising, accommodating, collaborating). The occurrence and the use of different teachers ́ approaches to solving the conflict situation were compared and analyzed. The Likert scaling and the method verified by professor Northouse were used for data evaluation. It is of high importance to pay attention to the dominant style (or the absent one) of solving the conflict situations in the teacher-student, teacher-teacher or teacher-superior interactions and to explore the differences of applying them.


Introduction
Nowadays, the problem of the conflict solving and its techniques, as well as the strategies how to handle them is a very hot and research required topic. It is a part of teaching profession as well. The teachers face the conflicts with students, colleagues, superiors or parents almost regularly. The most frequent consequences of these situations are stress, pressure, egocentrism, manipulation, breaking up of relations, subordination, superior attitude, anger or aggression. On the contrary, the conflict can lead to new perspectives, to great effort and self-confidence; it can help in self-expression, ability to handle demanding situations and it creates new dimensions in relationship (Kolenova, 2018).
People do not see the teaching profession in its complexity or they pay an attention only to the situations, which are not very well handled by teachers. Although teachers face them almost every day, they are exposed to human interaction daily. They are trying to solve problems and conflicts in the best way they are able to and according to their psychological, pedagogical and educational knowledge. Default settings for successful handling a conflict are mental strength, patience, self-control, social feeling, tolerance of frustration, self-confidence, good estimation, feeling and courage for risk, emotional stability, ability to recognize others' behaviour, reliability, honesty and tolerance of others' mistakes (Kohoutek, 2009).
There are often self-reflexing criticism of one's performance in the phase of the adaptation in profession (Ross & Bruce, 2017). The problems start when a teacher does some failures while explaining certain topic, when he/she is not sufficiently prepared for educational process, when he/she speaks quietly or with wavering voice, when he/she does not consider the school administration adequately important. But experienced teacher in the self-regulating phase is capable to react appropriately in unexpected classroom situation, in communication with superior or pupils´ parents, to find solution when pupils break the rules or an agreement, to give an individual attention to those who fail. However, there are many high-risk factors that influence solving of the conflict situations in more complicated or not right way, e.g. nervousness, restlessness, a low level of tolerance in emotionally strong situations, impatience, annoyance, etc. (Durdiak & Gatial, 2006).  Cummings et al., 2001;Krivohlavy, 2002)  The usual sources of a conflict at workplace are dishonesty, negligence, misunderstandings, half-truths, different aims and opinions, unhealthy and unsteady boundaries, not coping with a conflict well, conviction without acceptation, hidden conscious and unconscious expectations. The disputes rarely appear unexpectedly, they are sharp and abrupt, but their origin was being usually somewhere in the past (Mihalcova et al., 2007). Argumentative people are keen on making conflicts or on being in a collision with other people. The consequence of this irritating behaviour is that others hate them and refuse to talk to them. They do not understand relevant arguments of the opponent; they are emotionally unstable and overestimate or underrate themselves (Boros, 2001). According to Fehlau (2003), the factors that often initiate the conflicts are discrepancies in motivations or goals, incompatibility of different roles, different perception of the problem, differences in evaluation, and an effort of acceptation or of change. Mendlikova (2007) considers people, situations and a person himself/herself to be an initiator of the conflict.
Conflict is a dynamic act and it is very useful to observe the flow and the transition of the particular phases and the process in its complexity. There is a significant importance in seeing it from the perspective and being able to identify a moment, when it is getting worse or uncontrollable (Plaminek, 2012). Ondrusek et al. (2004) suggest that the conflict is a developing process that consists of several phases highlighted in Table 2.  Ondrusek, Labath & Tordova, 2004;Plaminek, 2012)  Systematic observations led to the conclusion that the problem is distinguished by certain behavioural patterns (Plaminek, 2004). Conflict is usually perceived as a situation which steals time, energy, strength, good relations and puts people in bad mood. On the other hand, it is a source of new ideas, basis for cooperation, for self-controlled learning, self-improvement and training how to find solutions in competitive environments.

Conflict Management Strategies
While being in conflict, the most important is the ability to honestly say "no" and to submit one's feelings and thoughts while being able to listen to the opponent's arguments. Proksch (2010) considers active listening essential, although we are often too occupied by our own thoughts-stream and arguments to attentively listen to the arguments of someone else. There are different strategies to resolve the conflict. However, it eventually comes down to individual´s ability to react in that situation. An authoritative style of solution is typical for those who assert their own ego. An adaptation respects one's needs. An escape means to deny the conflict. An agreement and a compromise are the most acceptable options for both sides. The way in which people react to conflict situation is called conflict management technique or strategy ( Figure 1). (De Dreu, Evers, Beersma, Kluwer & Nauta, 2001).

Figure 1. Five conflict management strategies
Although both sides are trying to gain something from the conflict, Wolff and Nagy (2015) suggest that the solution for the competing sides are peacemaking and finding a non-conflict way. Every solution has some advantages and some disadvantages and it depends on an each individual, which one of the methods he or she prefers (Siskova, 2012). Gymerska, Kozuch and Zaskvarova (2009) point out that a general form of handling all the conflicting situations does not exist. It is necessary to consider which way is preferred in an actual situation. Comparison of the categories of the reactions to the conflict is in Table 3. Table 3. Comparison of reactions to conflict situations (Gymerska et al., 2009;Northouse, 2011;Scott, 2009;Siskova, 2012) authors reactions to a conflict according to individual authors Gymerska et al. 2009  First, it is necessary to eliminate emotions for a rational proceed solving the conflict. Then we are able to find out that there was no rational background behind the conflict, either the interpersonal, miscommunicating, misunderstanding or emotional reason (Plaminek, 2012). A well-handled conflict can help in sustaining correct relationship in the academic field (Laukova, 2018). Conflict itself is not a completely negative or positive (Goksoy & Arkon, 2016), but if someone does not recognize and handle it early, the opportunity to solve it can be easily missed (Brandt, 2001). However, conflict can affect teachers´ and students´ performance in negative way as well (Ozgan, 2016). Overton and Lowry (2013) found out, that the skills of solving conflicts can help to improve the teamwork and satisfaction of employees. In the teaching profession, many situations appear which may lead to the conflict. Jehn and Mannix (2001) assert three fields of conflicts: in relationship, in task and in process. Solving the conflict situations in teaching process could have two views. (i) The conflict is a part of teaching process and teacher has it under control. This conflict is a source of learning. On the other side, there are situations, when (ii) unexpected conflict appears. Perceiving and managing conflict by teachers, causes of conflicts, strategies of solving them and their effects were analyzed by Catana (2016). The effects on teaching-learning process are well described in Thapa (2015).

Methodology
The purpose of this study was to compare objectively the styles of solving the conflict situations that are commonly used by teachers. The observed categories were teachers at elementary school and at secondary grammar school in conflict situation with pupils, colleague or superior. According to age average of teachers in our sample, the group of 35 years old or younger was used, while the teachers above the age of 35 represented the other group.

Research Questions
1. Which one of the five styles of solving conflict situation is dominant (or in absence) by teachers teaching at different type of a school (elementary school versus secondary grammar school) and of different age (35 years old and younger versus older than 35 years)?
2. Which one of the five styles of solving the conflict situation is dominant (or in absence) by teachers in conflict with pupils, colleagues and superior?
3. Which one of the five styles of solving conflict situation is dominant (or in absence) in general?

Research Sample
The research sample consisted of 64 teachers from the northern Slovakia, who are employed at elementary school and at secondary grammar school, with age varying in between 21 and 50 years. The demographic characteristics are highlighted in the Table 4. Each teacher completed Conflict Style Questionnaire (Northouse, 2011) during his/her timeout of teaching process. Respondents assessed 25 propositions on scale 1 -5 (1 = never, 5 = always) according to person they could be in conflict with (A = subordinate/student, B = peer/co-worker, C = superior/principal).
The questionnaire: Conflict Style Questionnaire (Northouse, 2011) was based on previous approaches (Rahim & Magner, 1995;Wilmot& Hocker, 2011) and was designed to identify the respondent's style of solving certain conflict situation (avoiding, fighting, compromise, accommodation, collaboration). It was translated and modified with an agreement and an official written permission of professor Northouse for purposes of our research. Except to demographic characteristics, the questionnaire included 25 propositions related to the style of solving the conflict situation in teaching profession (5 propositions to each of five styles). We used Northouse´s (2011) method for evaluation data and the Likert´s scaling (scale 1 ꟷ 5).
Comparing the overall score, it is possible to find out which style the respondent prefers and which one he/she uses seldom. Comparing the score in relation to person A (student), person B (colleague) and person C (superior) there is possible to see how the respondent's style alters or doesn't change depending on various relations. A score in such questionnaire indicates how the respondent reacts to a specific conflict situation at a certain time, thus, the respondent's styles may change in a different conflict. The questionnaire about the style of conflict solution is not a personality test that could categorize someone, though it targets assessment of more and less dominant styles in certain situations, being in a conflict with a subordinate, a colleague or a superior.
The Likert scale, created by an American psychologist Rensis Likert, is a technique for measuring attitudes in questionnaires. It consists of statements that can be answered by respondents on the centrally symmetrical scale that represents the rate of agreement. The Likert's scaling allows not only ascertaining the attitude, contentment or experience of a respondent, but also approximate the strength of experience (Hayes, 1998).

Data Analysis
Data were analyzed using Statgraphics Centurion XVII and Statistica.
Reliability of questionnaire for each scale is indicated in Table 5 Table 5 The tightness of the relation between respondent´s tendency of solving the conflict using the same or different style according to the person who is he/she in conflict with. The criterion validity was calculated this way (Table 6). There were only one statistically significant difference in results on the 99.9 % level of significance. It means that the respondent disposes by almost decided style of solving conflict situation in dependence of a person he/she is in conflict with.

Findings and Results
We were studying the data collection in different groups of teachers. At first, we compared results of teachers working at elementary school and those teaching at secondary grammar school. According to the evaluation of the Likert scales (Table 7), the elementary school teachers use the styles of conflict situation solution in the following descending order: compromise, collaboration, accommodation, avoiding and fighting. The grammar school teachers use the styles of conflict situation solution in the following descending order: collaboration, compromise, avoiding, accommodation, fighting (Table 7). According to the Northouse method for data evaluation, the elementary school teachers use the styles of conflict situation solution in the following descending order: compromise, collaboration, accommodation, avoiding, fighting. The grammar school teachers use the styles of conflict situation solution in the following descending order: collaboration, compromise, avoiding, accommodation, fighting (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Styles of solving conflict situation by the elementary school teachers and secondary grammar schools teachers
The results related to the comparison of solving the conflict situation by the elementary school and the secondary grammar school teachers show that the compromise dominates as a style at elementary schools with the collaboration at the second place. In case of the grammar school teachers, there was collaboration as the dominant style followed by the compromise. However, the difference between occurrences of these two styles was not statistically significant. Surprisingly, solving a conflict situation in a style of fighting occurs at both elementary and secondary grammar schools.
The second variable potentially influencing the results was the age of the respondents. 35 years old and younger were using the styles of solving the conflict situation in the following descending order: collaboration, compromise, avoiding, accommodation and fighting (Table 8). According to the Northouse method, teacher younger than 35 years solve the conflict situation as follows: collaboration, compromise, accommodation, avoiding and fighting. Older ones use the styles in the following descending order: collaboration, compromise, avoiding, accommodation and fighting ( Figure 3).

Figure 3. Representation of conflict situation solution styles related to age categories
We find out that none of the styles absents completely. The style of solving conflict situations does not remarkably change with age and both collaboration and compromise are used more frequently than the other styles. that this occurrence may be caused by the practice and work experience. It could be interesting to observe the differences in distribution of the age intervals in several categories.
We were also interested in the results' dependence on the person who is teacher in conflict with. According to the Likert scaling, teachers used the styles of solving the conflict with a pupil (person A) in the following descending order: compromise, collaboration, accommodation, avoiding, fighting (Table 9). The styles of solving the conflict with a colleague (person B) was in the following descending order: collaboration, compromise, avoiding, accommodation, fighting (Table 9) and with a superior (person C) such as follows: collaboration, compromise, accommodation, avoiding, fighting (Table 9). According to the Northouse method for data evaluation, teachers used the styles of solving the conflict with a pupil (person A) in the following descending order: compromise, collaboration, accommodation, avoiding, fighting (Figure 4). With a colleague (person B) the situation was such as follows: collaboration, compromise, avoiding, accommodation, fighting ( Figure 4) and with a superior (person C) was it almost similar: collaboration, compromise, accommodation, avoiding, fighting (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Representation of the styles of solving conflicts with a pupil (A), a colleague (B) and a superior (C)
In the conflict with a colleague and with a superior dominates collaboration, which is considered the best type of conflict solution. Interesting for further research is the ascertainment of the compromising which is the most frequent style of solving teacherpupils conflicts in our sample.
Brief and well-arranged data summary in relation to a person who is teacher in conflict with is elaborated in  According to the Likert scales evaluation, the style teachers generally use to solve the conflict situation is in the following descending order: collaboration, compromise, avoiding, accommodation, fighting (Table 11). According to the Northouse method of data evaluation, teacher generally use the styles of conflict situation solution in the following descending order: collaboration, compromise, avoiding, accommodation and fighting ( Figure 5).

Figure 5. Styles of solving the conflict situation
Within this part of the research, it was discovered that the collaboration followed by compromise are the dominant styles of solving the conflict situation. Very important remark is the lack of usage of fighting as a style of solving a conflict.

Discussion
We have tried to objectively compare the styles of solving the conflict situation used in the teaching profession. It was found out that the dominant style at elementary schools is compromising followed by collaboration, while at secondary grammar schools the prevailing style is collaboration followed by compromising. However, it is very important to emphasize that the difference in using these two styles was not striking. Morris-Rothschild and Brassard (2006)  The style of solving conflict does not remarkably change with ageing. In addition, the collaboration and compromise are used more frequently in our two groups than the other styles. This could be influenced by practice, work experience, the aversion to fighting or avoiding conflicts, and refusing to mould one's needs. It seems seminal to study whether this trend is observable in different age distribution within shorten age intervals. Yasin and Khalid (2015) remark that the older teachers in the age interval of 25-50 years prefer collaboration. Kartal Kartal, Yirci and Ozdemir (2016) mentioned that teachers with 1-5 years of practice use the style of accommodation most frequently, because new teachers perceive their surroundings and people in a positive way. Teachers with 11-15 years of practice use compromise most often and teachers with 21 and more years of practice prefer the style of asserting themselves.
According to a person (pupil, colleague, superior) who teacher is in conflict with, the dominant style in conflict with a colleague and with a superior seems to be collaboration, which is generally viewed as the ideal type of conflict solution. The prevailing style of solving a conflict with a pupil is compromise. Scott (2009) found out that a person who uses compromise is trying to find a quick and correct solution or proposes a suggestion suitable and acceptable for all sides. On the other hand, Ciuladiene and Kairiene (2017) mentioned that students often incline to avoid the conflict. Davidson, McEwee and Hannan (2004) claim that a subordinate interest in relationship with a superior, who has a remarkable impact on their future prosperity in the society. Friedman, Tidd, Curral and Tsai (2000) found out, that people who assert themselves or use the style of avoiding are more affected by stress. Assertive individuals are focused mainly on the result, they present their opinions, and aims with the strength of their personality and their relationship with the opponent is the least important aspect within the conflict (Siskova, 2012).
The most dominant style over all was collaboration followed by compromise. The style of fighting was used the least. None of the five styles of solving the conflict situation absents completely. In research of Cobanoglu et al. (2015) research integrating -compromising was the conflict management strategy mostly used in the classrooms.

Conclusion and Suggestions
Teacher is able to reduce the level of emerging and imminent conflict via the early source identification. There are several studies which indicate that the male and female teachers have different approach to the conflict situation and process of solving it (e.g. Savran & Sunay, 2017). Women are more emotional and may be less experienced in several techniques and strategies how to solve conflict in more constructive and rational way, less sensitively or emotionally. The female way of communicating is remarkably biased towards interpersonal relationships, the sphere of human psyche, intimacy and feelings (Lipovetsky, 2007). It was suggested that the male teachers use conflict management strategies more than female teachers (Savran & Sunay, 2017). There could be observable dominancy of solving conflicts by both male and female teachers, regarding the possibility of male and female character traits influencing the result. Brewer, Mitchell and Weber (2002) had carried out a research and discovered that male individuals prefer a dominant style of conflict solution, asserting themselves, while females have reached a higher score than males regarding the style of avoiding.
Another research field could be developed in observing how the pupils' age or type of school, etc. influence the choice of style of conflict solution. Savran, Sunay (2017) realized that teachers at private schools used domination strategy more.