The relationship between conflict management styles and managers’ creativity in small and medium enterprises Ahmadi Mina*, Mohammadi-sh Hamed** *Faculty member, Farvardin University, Iran **PhD Student in Management, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran Online published on 4 April, 2015. Abstract Conflict is a factor that is known to challenge the status quo and provides the foundation for innovation and change. So, one of the important tasks of managers is the conflict management in organizations. Due to the growth of researches in the field of creativity, as well as the importance of managers’ role for the conflicts between their selves and their employees, the main objective of this study is to examine the relationship between conflict management styles and creativity of managers in small and medium enterprises. In this cross-sectional study, the research method is of the descriptive-survey type, and in terms of objective, it is an applied research during which, the required information were collected using two questionnaires: standard and valid questionnaire of the conflict management styles of managers (collaborating style, compromising style, avoiding style, accommodating style, competing style); and creativity questionnaire containing 50 questions relating to creativity, to determine the level of managers’ creativity. Statistical population of the research includes the managers and experts of small and medium enterprises in Sari. The sample size according to Cochran formula is 130. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed with the Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.91. For data analysis, structural equation modeling (SEM) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and LISREL and SPSS software were used. The results of structural equation test (confirmatory factor analysis) of the studied variables showed that conflict management styles have a positive significant impact on the creativity of managers in small and medium enterprises. The avoiding style dimension (E3) with the highest correlation (0.68), has the most impact on managers’ creativity, then the compromising style with the correlation of (0.56), and the accommodating style with the correlation of (0.53) are at the second and third place. The collaborating style and competing style with correlations of 0.49 and 0.44 are the next ones. Among these, the competing style with the correlation of 0.44 has the least impact on the managers’ creativity. Top Keywords Conflict management, conflict management styles, managers’ creativity, small and medium enterprises. Top |