Administrative Negotiation Skills and Their Relationship to Organizational Conflict Management Among Middle School Principals in Wasit Governorate from the Perspective of Faculty Members

This study examines administrative negotiation skills and their relationship to organizational conflict management among middle school principals in Wasit Governorate from the perspective of teaching staff. The importance of this study stems from the significance of these two variables in improving school performance and creating a stable learning environment, as well as the importance of the research sample, which consists of teaching staff members who form the cornerstone of the educational institution. In light of this, the researcher sought to identify the relationship between administrative negotiation skills and organizational conflict management among middle school principals from the perspective of teaching staff by achieving the following objectives: To identify the level of administrative negotiation skills among middle school principals from the perspective of teaching staff. To identify the level of organizational conflict management among middle school principals from the perspective of teaching staff. To reveal the statistically significant correlation between administrative negotiation skills and organizational conflict management among middle school principals. To identify statistically significant differences in administrative negotiation skills according to the following variables: (Length of service: five years or less / more than five years), (Gender: male - female), (Geographic location: rural - urban). To identify statistically significant differences in organizational conflict management based on the same variables (length of service, gender, and geographical location), the researcher employed a descriptive correlational approach. The research sample was selected using stratified random sampling with proportional distribution, comprising 400 members of the teaching staff in Wasit Governorate. Two instruments were used to measure the research variables. The researcher developed an administrative negotiation skills scale, following the scientific steps for constructing psychological scales. The final version of this scale consisted of 36 items distributed across four dimensions: preparation and planning skills, persuasion and influence skills, communication skills, and objection management skills. The researcher also developed an organizational conflict management scale, which, in its final version, consisted of 30 items distributed across five dimensions: cooperation style, courtesy style, competition style, compromise style, and avoidance style. After verifying the psychometric properties of both scales in terms of validity and reliability, they were administered to the sample for statistical analysis. The researcher used a range of methods for data collection. Appropriate statistical analyses were conducted, including: the one-sample t-test, the independent samples t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient, Cronbach's alpha coefficient, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), and descriptive statistics, using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS( The research results showed that middle school principals possess a very high level of administrative negotiation skills across all dimensions. Their organizational conflict management skills were also found to be high, with the avoidance approach being the most prevalent, followed by the compromise approach. The results revealed a statistically significant positive correlation between administrative negotiation skills and organizational conflict management, particularly with the cooperation and compromise approaches, while a negative correlation was found with the avoidance approach. The results also showed statistically significant differences in administrative negotiation and organizational conflict management skills based on gender (favoring males) and on length of service (favoring those with more than five years of experience). However, no statistically significant differences were found based on geographical location (rural vs. urban), indicating a similarity in skill levels between the two environments. Based on the findings of this research, a new study was developed. The researcher drew a number of conclusions, recommendations, and suggestions, which will be presented in Chapter Five