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                            Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 
                            2011 
                            Leadership Leadership Orientations Orientations and Conflict and Conflict Management Management Styles of Styles of 
                            Academic Deans Academic Deans in Masters in Masters DegrDegree Institutions ee Institutions 
                            Linda Kimencu 
                            West Virginia University 
                            Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd 
                            Recommended Citation Recommended Citation 
                            Kimencu, Linda, "Leadership Orientations and Conflict Management Styles of Academic Deans in Masters 
                            Degree Institutions" (2011). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 3028. 
                            https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/3028 
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                 Leadership Orientations and Conflict Management 
                Styles of Academic Deans in Masters Degree Institutions 
                              
                         Linda Kimencu 
                               
                      A dissertation submitted to the 
                   College of Human Resources and Education 
                      at West Virginia University 
                in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of 
                               
                               
                          Doctor of Education 
                              in 
                       Educational Leadership Studies 
                                       
                               
                        Paul Chapman,Ph.D.,Chair 
                        Ernest Goeres, Ph.D 
                        Reagan Curtis, Ph.D 
                        Dan Hursh, Ph.D 
                        Gerald Blakely,Ph.D 
                                           
                  Department of Educational Leadership Studies 
                      Morgantown, West Virginia 
                           2011 
        
        
       Keywords: Leadership, Conflict management, Academic deans 
              2011 Linda Kimencu 
        
                          Abstract 
        
                Leadership Orientations and Conflict Management 
               Styles of Academic Deans in Masters Degree Institutions 
                              
                         Linda Kimencu 
                              
        
       Previous research suggests that academic deans follow the human relations and structural 
       perspectives in conflict management (Feltner & Goodsell, 1972). However, the position of an 
       academic dean has been described to have undertones that are more political and social than 
       hierarchical and technical. Hence, the current study evaluated the role of the academic dean in 
       conflict management from a more inclusive perspective that involved the Bolman and Deal four-
       frame leadership theory: Structural, human resources, political and symbolic frames and Rahim 
       Organizational Conflict Inventory (ROCI-II) instrument that evaluated the five dimensions of 
       conflict management: Integrating, obliging, compromising, dominating, and avoiding.    
       The respondents of the study included 93 academic deans heading Business and Education 
       colleges in Public Masters Colleges and Universities-Larger programs (Carnegie Classification, 
       2010).  The research found significant relationships between deans’ leadership frames, styles, 
       and conflict management styles: Integrating conflict management style was positively related to 
       all the four frames; contrary to the dominating conflict management style which was negatively 
       related to the human resource frame.  An education dean was 2.59 times more likely to have a 
       political frame than a business dean; deans with less than five years of experience in the position 
       of an academic dean were 3.23 times more likely to have a human resource frame than deans 
       with more experience in the position; and finally, deans with more than ten years of experience 
       in academia were more likely to use the compromising conflict management style than deans 
       with less experience in academia with a medium effect size of .24. This knowledge can be used 
       during deanship trainings and job placements. 
        
        
             LEADERSHIP ORIENTATIONS AND CONFLICT                             iii 
                                              
                                              
                                              
                                              
                                              
                                              
                                              
                                              
                                              
                                              
                                         Dedication 
           I dedicate this dissertation to my husband Shadrack and our son Alan; and to my parents, George 
           and Lucy.  Thank you for your unconditional love and support through this major milestone in 
           my life.