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

Month
Activity
January	Recruitment Procedure Recruitment email Obtained consent of subjects willing to participate in the study Informed Consent form for Pre-questionnaire Workshop One Agenda Introduction/Informed Consent Form for Workshop One Workshop Overview, objectives, goals & outcomes Open Discussion Break-Out Session (two interactive activities introduced) Closing Informed Consent Form for Post-Survey Post-Survey Workshop One
February	Workshop Two Agenda Introduction/Informed Consent Form for Workshop Two Discussion about application of conflict management strategies from workshop one Large group activity Debriefing Closing Informed Consent Form Post-Survey Post-Survey Workshop Two Overall Workshop Assessment Individual Interviews Informed Consent Form Interviews Interview Protocol Guide

Sample. A total of ten participants were involved in the intervention. These participants represented faculty members at the ranks of assistant, associate and full

professors, associate deans, deans and chairs of departments and colleges from across various academic disciplines. Purposeful sampling was used as an instrument to collect data from the targeted demographic in this action research study. Table 3 provides a demographic representation of those participants who participated in the conflict management workshops by gender, years of service to the institution, ethnicity and professional designations.

Table 3-Characteristics of Study Participants

Demographic Parameters	N (%)
Gender Male Female Total, n (%) Years of Service at MSU 1 to 5 years 5 to 10 years 10 + years Race/Ethnicity Caucasian African-American Hispanic Other Professional Designations Assistant Professor Associate Professor Full Professor Administrator and/or Full Professor	5 5 10 1 1 8 6 3 0 1 1 1 5 3