Gestão de conflitos na Universidade Federal do Cariri: uma abordagem de rede para as relações entre variáveis do conflito organizacional

Abstract

This work aimed to analyze the relationships between intragroup conflict, conflict management styles and sociodemographic and functional variables of public servants at the Federal University of Cariri, in a network perspective. It started from the understanding that conflict is a social phenomenon, inevitable, complex and unpredictable, having the ability to influence the quality of processes, products and relationships. The research adopted the quantitative method, being applied the Escala de Conflitos Intragrupos (ECIG), which investigates the conflicts in the task and relationship dimensions; the Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory (ROCI-II), which investigates five styles of conflict management: Domination, Evasion, Accommodation, Negotiation, and Integration; and sociodemographic and functional issues. In data analysis, a non linear methodological approach was adopted for complex objects of study. The data were submitted to a network analysis through the RStudio software, to verify associations and identify the most influential variables in the set. The analysis of the results of the types of conflict evidenced the grouping of the items in only one cluster, corroborating with several studies that pointed out that one dimension of the conflict can be confused and transformed into the other. In the descriptive analyses, it was observed that the amounts of conflict perceived by the servers remained at low levels for both task conflict and relationship conflict. As for management styles, high frequencies were observed for more than one style, which can be explained by the use of more than one conflict management style by the participants. It was found that only four styles were identified: Integration, Evasion, Accommodation and Domination, with the Integration style being the most frequent among the participants. In summary, the highest frequencies indicated that most participants (>60%), in the relationship with co-workers, agree to collaborate seeking decisions acceptable to all (65.1%), to try to avoid disagreements (64.3%) and in exchanging precise information to reach solutions to problems together (63.9%). The network analysis showed that there are no decisive correlations between intragroup conflict, conflict management styles and sociodemographic and functional variables. Measures of centrality, strength and expected influence were verified to identify the most influential variables in the network. It was observed that the gender variable is the one with the lowest strength and that the education variable has the least expected influence. The variables with the greatest expected influence were g5 (integration behavior, value = 1.09), c2 (personal friction, value = 0.90), c11 (disaffection, value = 0.90) and g17 (avoidance behavior, value = 0.89). The identification of these variables indicates the strategic points to be considered in the formulation of interventions by the organization. It is concluded that conflict management permeates elements of relationships between people, which must be considered in any intervention planning. Finally, propositions are suggested for the diagnosis of conflict relationships, as well as actions for the development of individual and group competences for conflict management.