AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF SUPERIOR-SUBORDINATE CONFLICT MANAGING STYLES INFLUENCING CORPORATE DECISION-MAKING

Planning in organization is aimed towards progress while conflict promotes regress path. Conflict between Superior-subordinates has been a main issue which \naffects decisions in organization. Traditionally, conflict has been considered to be an avoidable issue, the origin always traceable to trouble makers in the \norganization. The modern management addresses the whole problem from a different perspective by defining roles and goals of individuals clearly. Though \nmodern management perceives conflicts to be inevitable and are integral part of organization, superior-subordinate conflicts are very high. This paper presents \nthe strategy chosen by superior/ subordinate depending on his conflict management styles, either of them not aware of others strategy on the prisoner’s dilemma \nprinciple. The results indicate that conflict occurs in the organizational system and cannot be removed. Education and Experience has some effect apart from \ncognitive behaviour in choosing the conflict management style. Good decisions are not made when there is interpersonal conflict except where both superior and \nsubordinate chooses a low risk strategy. When both superior and subordinate chooses a high risk strategy, both would stick to their conflict management style. In \na high risk strategy for superior or subordinate, there may be a tendency to change their conflict management styles.