COUNSELORS’ CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE CONFLICT RESOLUTION

In human interactions, conflict has been a common experience for various reasons which include socioeconomic and personality factors. Allowing conflicts to deteriorate will consequently lead to puncturing peaceful coexistence to the extent that can overwhelm national security and even become serious international catastrophe. Hence, effective conflict resolution as one of the essential services rendered by counselors require empirical investigation. The study focuses on impact of counseling styles being used by counselors (in Nigeria) as conflict management strategies for effective conflict resolution. Study participants (n=1274) who are Nigerian counselors, age 21 to 70 years (Mean=2923; SD=1.02) from diverse counseling backgrounds, were assess with Conflict Management Questionnaire (CMQ) which is a 15-item scale (α = 0.81; standardized α = 0.72). Analysis checked for CMQ reliability, correlation among factors, and the component and rotated component matrices for the five counseling styles. Standard deviation of the accommodating and compromising styles clustered more around the mean, suggesting they are the study participants’ preferred styles. Factor analysis reflects the two styles as having moderate negative (low) and large positive (high) associations when compared with the other three styles. This implies that conflict resolution counseling effectively facilitates tolerance values and working sense of gratitude. It must be clearly noted that the current study reveals accommodating and compromising styles as most common strategies use by participants in their tasks of conflict resolution counseling. There is need for further research using, probably, mixed methods design for an all-inclusive methodical interrogation that could yield more robust findings beyond what the use of quantitative approach presents in the current study.