Conflict management and job satisfaction in employees of the Hellenic Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KEELPNO)

OBJECTIVE To examine the association between conflict management and job satisfaction among the employees of the Hellenic Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KEELPNO). METHOD The study was conducted with a sample of 107 employees of all professional categories. For the data collection, an anonymous self-administered questionnaire was used, the first part of which contained questions recording socio-demographic and work-related characteristics. The Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory-II (ROCI-II) was used to explore conflict management and the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) the job satisfaction levels. Statistical analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 19.0. RESULTS As far as overall job satisfaction levels, the largest group of employees expressed dissatisfaction (48.6%), and a small percentage expressed satisfaction (6.5%), while 44.9% were neutral. The factors associated with the highest levels of satisfaction were supervision (mean=17.17), relationships with colleagues (mean=15.48), and the nature of the work (mean=14.94), while the factors associated with the lowest levels of satisfaction were salary (mean=8.99), the possibilities for advancement (mean=9.4), and the fringe benefits (mean=9.62). Concerning conflict management with supervisor, application of the technique of integrating was related to an increase in satisfaction regarding supervision (beta=0.34, p<0.001), while a dominating style was associated with higher satisfaction with communication (beta=1.24, p=0.026), and overall job satisfaction (beta=5.94, p=0.05). CONCLUSIONS Conflict management with the supervisor using techniques such as integration and compromise are positively related with employee satisfaction concerning supervision. Overall job satisfaction is a more complicated issue, related to several factors.