English abstract
This study aimed to identify the status of the basic education schools' principals' practice of organizational conflict management strategies as perceived by social workers in the sultanate of Oman. To achieve this goal, the researcher developed a questionnaire included four areas of organizational conflict management strategies, namely: cooperation, competition, the use of power, and the settlement. The total number of items in the four areas was (40) with ten items for each strategy. The study population was composed of (325) distributed over seven educational governorates: Muscat, North Batinah, South Batinah, Dhahira, North Al-Sharqqiya, Al-Dakhiliya, and Dhofar. The study sample was randomly selected and numbered at (207): (89 male and 118 female social workers) with a ration of of (63.69%). The researcher used the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to calculate frequencies, means, standard deviations, and the relative significance (ranks). T-test and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) were also used. The field study reached in a number results including:
1. The ranks of the principals' practice of organizational conflict management strategies as perceived by social workers were as follows: cooperation strategy, competition strategy, the settlement strategy, and the use of power strategy where the mean was (4.12, 3.82, 3.69, 3.30 ) respectively.
2. There were statistically significant differences at the level of (a=0,05) for the type of settlement strategy variable in favor of male versus female principals, where the mean was (38.01) for the males, and (36.00) for the females.
3. The cooperation strategy was statistically significant at the level of (a=0.05) for the qualification variable in favor of the Diploma and BA versus the MA holders. The results show no statistical significance for the rest of the strategies on this variable according to the present study.
4. There was no statistically significant differences at the level of (a=0.05) between the levels of practical experience in relation to all the four organizational conflict management strategies.
5. The existence of statistically significant differences at the level of (a=0.05) for the educational governorate variable among the latter in relation to all the four organizational conflict management strategies identified in the present study.
The study recommended the followings:
1. Hold training workshops for the basic education schools' principals' in the educational governorates exposing them to administrative positions dealing with organizational conflict and its management strategies to improve the practices.
2. Focus on promoting the use of cooperation strategy, as a culture practiced among the various school staff despite their different qualifications.
3. Activate the program of exchanging visits between the schools' administrations through the Ministry of Education in various educational governorates each year; to deepen the educational communication and benefit from their numerous experiences in the contemporary educational issues such as organizational conflict management.
