A STUDY OF INTERVENTION STRATEGIES USED BY BULGARIAN MANAGERS IN SUBORDINATES’ CONFLICTS

Abstract

Managers frequently play a third-party role in subordinates’ conflict in attempt to reach a solution. Their interventions are considered as emergent or informal in order to be distinguished from the formal (professional) third parties because of the existence of significant differences between these two types of intervention.
The paper presents the results of a study of managerial intervention strategies in subordinates’ conflicts. Questionnaire data were collected from 300 Bulgarian managers from different organizational levels. For the purpose of the study six intervention strategies were examined: overlooking, autocratic intervention, providing impetus, mediation, arbitration and use of formal third party. Findings showed that mediation is the only third-party strategy that is frequently used by the majority of managers while intervening in conflicts. There is also a strong tendency to lean on autocratic power resolving subordinates’ conflicts. The greater frequency with which Bulgarian managers use mediation than autocratic intervention reveals that they do not wish to exert control over the final outcome of the conflict by all means. They are more likely to intervene as mediators in the disputes of their subordinates helping them to find a solution on their own. The cross-tabulation of the frequencies with which managers use mediation and autocratic intervention showed that one-third of the respondents often use both strategies. Nevertheless, no positive correlation was found between the frequency of use of mediation strategy and the frequency of use of autocratic strategy. The correlation analysis revealed that there are statistically significant relationships between the frequencies of use of other combinations of strategies. These results indicate the need for further research to identify the factors that determine the combinations of different intervention approaches. The study found the following significant relationships between the frequencies with which managers use the different intervention strategies and the demographic characteristics of the respondents: men tend to provide impetus and to arbitrate subordinates’ conflicts more frequently than women, older managers tend to resolve conflict with the help of a formal third party more frequently than their younger colleagues and managers with higher academic degrees tend to act as mediators in conflicts between their subordinates more frequently than those with lower academic degrees.
Finally, theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.