Discipline

Educational Management

Abstract

This dissertation aims to explore the lived experiences of administrators in managing conflicts within their work environment. Specifically, the study seeks to describe the participants' experiences in understanding the nature of conflict, causes of conflict, examples of conflict, and their strategies in managing conflict. Examining the participants' challenges and coping mechanisms is also an objective of the study. Hermeneutic phenomenology is utilized to describe and interpret the basic structures of lived experience and recognize the pedagogical experience. The result of this study revealed themes found in the lived experiences of the administrators and the challenges they encountered in managing conflict, namely Nature of Conflict, Human Conflict, Human Behavior, Conflict Management Strategies, and Challenges in Conflict Management. Five major conflict management strategies were identified, such as integrating, competing, avoiding, compromising, and obliging. It was concluded that administrators utilized different strategies that were congruent with their leadership styles and based on the context in which conflict took place. It was recommended that administrators should recognize diversity as one key factor that could cause disagreements among school stakeholders.

Keywords

conflict management strategies, human conflict, human behavior, stand-alone senior high school