Rahim (2001) defines conflict as an interactive process that manifests itself in
incompatibility, disagreement, or dissonance within or between social entities (i.e.,
individuals, groups, or organizations). Blake and Mouton (1964) were the first
researchers to propose a grid for classifying the modes of handling interpersonal
conflicts into five types based on two dimensions: concern for production and
concern for people. Rahim (1983) used a similar conceptualization to create five
conflict management styles based on two dimensions—concern for self and concern
for others which portray the motivational orientation of a given individual during
conflict. Recently, a dualistic model of harmony is proposed by Leung, Koch, and
Lu (2002) to study conflict management focus on the harmony of the relationship at
interpersonal level based on two perspectives—instrumental harmony and value
harmony. Since this study investigates the conflict management styles of supervisors
at an individual level, Rahim’s model is used as the basic framework here