The use of collaborative project delivery systems in the construction industry requires cooperation and shared management of the construction process to achieve success.This growth in collaborative systems requires project representatives to effectively manage conflict.Project failures utilizing collaborative methods are frequently attributed to an inability of project representatives to collaboratively resolve conflict.Research suggests that minorities are prone to use a collaborative conflict management style and the inclusion of minorities in construction management (CM) roles can reduce negative conflict.The growing evidence that increasing workforce diversity in CM is beneficial to the industry indicates that there is value in determining whether minority CM students could help manage conflict better.Researchers at Central Washington University’s (CWU) CM program employed the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Instrument (TKI) to compare the differences in conflict management styles between majority and minority CM students.Two conflict management styles showed statistically significant differences including Competing and Accommodating.Differences also existed along the Cooperative axis of the TKI graph.However.there was no statistically significant difference regarding Assertiveness.Results indicate that minority CM students are stronger in some attributes required for collaboration and exhibit conflict management behaviors that complement their majority counterparts.
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