Managerial roles of school principals in handling conflict between principal and teachers in their interaction in Teldeniya tamil medium schools

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study is to examine school principals’ managerial roles in handling conflicts between teachers and principals when they interact each other. For achieving the main purpose, researchers examined variables such as communication gap, administrative defects, individual behavioral patterns and principals ‘managerial skills among the sample from Tedeniya Tamil Medium schools. 144 out of 224 Tamil medium teachers are selected by using stratified sampling method for the study. The survey research design is used for data collection and the study used questionnaire and an observation sheet. The data collected from questionnaire is analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviations). The findings from the analysis showed that that communication gap between teachers and principals played the most prominent role in the conflicts in their relationship. It is also revealed from the analysis that administrative defects caused conflicts between them. But, Individual behaviors served in a small scale in causing conflicts between teachers and principals. The schools Principals and teachers hold positive attitudes in their inter-relationship. Moreover, the research revealed that most of the principals employ the gathering technique in handling conflict management. The study suggests several strategies in enhancing relationship between teachers and principals and techniques for conflict managerial roles of the principals.