The Glass Jaw. The Presence of Incivility, Conflict, and Bullying in Disempowering Workplaces: A Study of Middle-Level Managers in HEIs

Author

Maria Esther Caratini PradoFollow

Campus Location

Dallas Campus (Online)

Date of Award

11-2022

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2159-3824

Document Type

Dissertation

Department

Organizational Leadership

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Katherine Yeager

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Ana Maria Gomez de Torres

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Colleen Ramos

Abstract

Middle-level managers at HEIs experience stress-related conflicts that include incivility and bullying. There is a gap in the literature regarding middle-level managers’ contributions to improving interpersonal relationships in the workplace and the type of conflict-management training most suited to middle-level managers in HEIs when incivility, conflict, and bullying are present. This qualitative design study sought to understand conflict management from the perspective of HEI middle-level managers within the manager-to-subordinate relationship. The study examined the lived experiences of 10 HEI middle-level managers with coded data revealing four overall themes: structural challenges, sources of conflict, conflict training, and managing conflict. The results of this study showed that middle-level managers did not utilize knowledge obtained in conflict-management training, instead preferring to create their conflictmanagement tactics and strategies. The study’s results may help increase knowledge of conflict management for middle-level managers in HEIs and a greater understanding of the tools needed to work through incivility and bullying.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Prado, Maria Esther Caratini, "The Glass Jaw. The Presence of Incivility, Conflict, and Bullying in Disempowering Workplaces: A Study of Middle-Level Managers in HEIs" (2022). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 536.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/536