CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN THE TEACHING STAFF OF A SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN THE TEACHING STAFF OF A SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

Summary/Abstract: Conflicts in everyday life are considered to be bad, they should be neutralized, solved or avoided. Management science and organizational theory say that conflicts are not unwanted. On the contrary, they are desirable to the extent that they bring about positive changes. They are not manipulated, but managed. How it is implemented in practice depends on the national culture, the characteristics of the organization and its culture, the personality structure of individuals and their relationships in the group, that is, the organization. In successful and stable organizations, there are always conflicts, at different organizational levels, and they can be uncontrolled, spontaneous or deliberately created, with the aim of preventing the organization from becoming static. The minimum level of conflicts makes the organization alive and creative. In organizations that are in the process of organizational changes, the level of conflicts is higher and they must be controlled, in order not to cause negative effects of changes, but to be useful for future performance. Education in Serbia for the last 20 years or more has been facing problems of modernization due to: new educational standards, state graduation, application of IT, methods of financing, etc., which leads to contradictions. These contradictions arise between: new requirements for the quality of education and traditional ways and methods of teaching, the need for new ways of management in educational institutions and the unwillingness of the existing staff for changes, the need of modern society for rapid changes in educational institutions and the psychological unpreparedness of the pedagogical community for innovation . Resolving these contradictions often takes the form of conflict. Educational activity as a specific activity implies a difference in the interests of students, teachers, management staff, administration and parents. So, there are different interests that are a prerequisite for the appearance of conflicts. Is it possible to manage conflicts in an educational institution? As much as teachers know their school, i.e. their colleagues, the aim of the paper is to point out the need to know the problems of conflicts, management and finding solutions for them. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to have knowledge about the forms and nature of the conflict. The paper gives an account of the experimental research on the state of conflicts among the teaching staff, practical classes, in the high school of Graphics and Media, Belgrade . The results show a higher percentage of avoiding, or withdrawing from, conflicts. The reason for this is that individuals do not insist on fulfilling their interests at the expense of others, as well as a developed awareness of conflict behavior in specific institutions, such as educational ones. The age of the teaching staff also contributes to this. Teachers of practical classes are highly professionally prepared, which is evidenced by a favorable socio -psychological climate.

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