Author(s)

Etta C. Gray, James Arthur Williams

James Madison University.
University of Phoenix.

Retail managers were examined to determine their leadership styles and any potential correlations to conflict management styles. Research findings suggest that successful retail managers exhibit transformational leadership styles, and those that exhibit laissez-faire leadership is strongly correlated with avoidance conflict management style. The Conflict Management Style (CMS) and Multi Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) instruments were used to survey participants in this study. A MLQ scoring manual was used to identify leadership styles, and a CMS scoring manual was used to determine conflict management styles. Pearson correlation (SPSS, version 17.0) was used to correlate between MLQ and CMS findings.

Transformational Leadership; Conflict Management; Retail Managers; MLQ; Avoidance Conflict Management

Gray, E. & Williams, J. (2012). Retail Managers: Laissez-Faire Leadership Is Synonymous With Unsuccessful Conflict Management Styles. Open Journal of Leadership, 1, 13-16. doi: 10.4236/ojl.2012.13003.