A constructive Approach to Managing Faculty Conflict: An Action Research Study

Research Question Data Source One Date Source Two Data Source Three

RQ1: How do faculty and administrators currently handle conflict? RQ2: How will faculty and administrator participation in a conflict management strategies workshop affect their approach to handling conflict? RQ3: What are the faculty and administrator perceptions of participating in a conflict management strategies workshop?

Pre-questionnaire prior to workshop one Post- questionnaire both workshops Overall workshop assessment Individual interviews Conflict management overall workshop assessment

Group Discussion workshop one Group discussion workshop two Individual interviews of selected participants from the workshops

Researcher’s journal and co-facilitators observational notes Researcher’s journal and co-facilitators observational notes Transcribed videos and researcher’s journal

Instruments

Pre-Questionnaire. Prior to the workshops, a pre-questionnaire was used as an instrument to assess participants knowledge of conflict between faculty and administrators on the campus of Morehead State University. The primary focus of the pre-questionnaire was to: (1) evaluate the participants level of knowledge regarding conflict between faculty and administrators, (2) their level of involvement with conflict,
(3) indirect vs. direct, (4) who the conflict occurred with a fellow faculty member or an

administrator, (5) how they handled the conflict, and (6) whether or not they were aware of any conflict management strategies. The pre-questionnaire guided the questions asked in the post-workshop surveys to measure overall impact.