Emotional intelligence and conflict management style among Christian clergy

Research regarding Protestant Christian congregations and clergy leaders in the United States indicates that conflict and conflict management are significant challenges. One result of this is that clergy are experiencing a significant rate of forced terminations. This research explored this issue by investigating the relationship between emotion and conflict management utilizing the two constructs of emotional intelligence and conflict management style. The study sought to identify and measure any significant relationships between these two constructs and identify the levels of emotional intelligence and preferred conflict management styles among a group of Christian clergy. A population of Protestant Christian clergy participating in various types of peer learning experiences across the southern region of the United States was used as the study population for this research. The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) and the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) were used as the research instruments in this study. The study investigated the hypotheses that Christian clergy as a group have higher than average scores in emotional intelligence than the general population and that higher scores in emotional intelligence would correlate with particular styles of conflict management. The study found no significant correlations between emotional intelligence and particular conflict management styles. It did find that overall, clergy scored in the low average range for emotional intelligence. Female clergy were found to have higher scores in emotional intelligence than male clergy. Ministers exhibited higher scores in emotional reasoning and in managing emotions than other dimensions. Clergy identified compromising as their most preferred conflict management style. Recommendations for improving emotional intelligence and responding to conflict are included.