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Summary
Conflict management influences individual wellbeing, group performance and organizational effectiveness. This research examined the psychometric qualities of two versions of the newly developed test for conflict handling. The lean version (Study 1 and 2) included problem solving, forcing, yielding and avoiding as distinct conflict management strategies, and the expanded version (Study 3) also included compromising. A negotiation study (Study 1) showed substantial convergence between self-reports, opponent-reports and observer rated behavior for problem solving, forcing and yielding, but not for avoiding. In Study 2 and Study 3 the psychometric properties were examined of the lean and the expanded version, respectively. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed good to excellent psychometric qualities of both versions of the scale. We conclude that the scale is a parsimonious, flexible and valid instrument to assess conflict management strategies at work. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Introduction
The effectiveness of individual employees, teams and entire organizations depends on how they manage interpersonal conflict at work (Tjosvold, 1998). Managers spend an average of 20 per cent of their time managing conflict (Thomas, 1992), and evidence suggests conflict and conflict management at work substantially influences individual, group and organizational effectiveness, as well as wellbeing, as indicated by health complaints and doctor visits (De Dreu et al., 1999; Spector and Jex, 1998). Given the importance of conflict management in organizations, it is vital to have and develop reliable and valid measurement instruments. Such instruments help researchers to obtain valid data through self and peer-report, and practitioners to diagnose conflict management strategies at work. Unfortunately, the measurement instruments that have been described in the literature either suffer from low psychometric quality, or the psychometric quality is unknown. The present research was designed to assess the psychometric qualities of a revised and updated version of the Dutch Test for Conflict Handling (DUTCH) designed by Van de Vliert (1997). The test has been developed by Dutch scholars but is not necessarily applicable only to people from the Dutch culture. As we will elaborate upon below, the theoretical basis for the test generalizes across culture and the original test corresponds closely with tests developed in the United States (Van de Vliert, 1997).
As an outline, we first discuss the theoretical basis underlying the instrument, and...