Are Women in IS Better at Managing Conflict?

As the workforce becomes increasingly diversified, it becomes increasingly important to understand the conflict resolution attitudes brought to IS by both men and women. This research is designed to investigate (and possibly to challenge) assumptions that may exist regarding the relationship between gender and conflict resolution for both males and females. Using a large group of emerging IS professionals as subjects, the results of this study indicate that men and women show differences in their conflict resolution attitudes. When compared to their male counterparts, women entering the IS workforce are more likely to utilize a collaborative conflict resolution style and men are more likely to avoid conflict. As collaboration is generally considered more productive and avoidance more disruptive in the conflict resolution process, the study suggests that women entering the IS workforce may initially possess more effective and constructive conflict resolution attributes than their male counterparts.

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