International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol. 1 No. 7 [Special Issue –June 2011] 223 Do Stages of Moral Developmant Matter in the Preference of Conflict Handling Styles with peers? Selma GULTEKIN Research Assistant in Management and Organization Hacettepe University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Science Department of Business Administration, 06532, Ankara- Turkey E-mail: selmag@hacettepe.edu.tr, Phone: +90 (312) 297 87 00 Pinar BAYHAN KARAPINAR (Corresponding Author) Instructor in Organizational Behavior Hacettepe University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Science Department of Business Administration, 06532, Ankara- Turkey E -mail: pbayhan@hacettepe.edu.tr, Phone: +90 (312) 297 87 00/132 Selin METIN CAMGOZ Instructor in Organizational Behavior Hacettepe University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Science Department of Business Administration, 06532, Ankara- Turkey E -mail: selinm@hacettepe.edu.tr, Phone: +90 (312) 297 87 00/117 Prof. Dr. Azize ERGENELI Hacettepe University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Science Department of Business Administration, 06532, Ankara- Turkey Phone: +90 (312) 297 87 12 Fax: +90 (312) 299 20 55 Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the stages of moral development (pre- conventional, conventional, post-conventional) and conflict handling styles. Sample including 151 academicians completed Rahim’s Organizational Conflict Inventory ROCII-Form C and DIT with three scenarios. MANCOVA analysis did not reveal a significant main effect for the levels of moral development on conflict handling styles. However, supplementary univariate analyses reported that individuals at higher stages of moral development use obliging styles and individuals at lower stages of moral development use dominating style after controlling for gender. Implications of the study, and directions for future research were discussed. Keywords: Conflict handling styles, Moral development, Turkey, DIT 1.Introduction Conflict, an inevitable component of social life, has been highly prevalent in organizational settings where people work together (Cosier & Ruble, 1981). In response to growing demands for workplace harmony and productivity, effective conflict management is increasing its popularity. The literature on organizations acknowledges the potential for both negative and positive effects of conflict. As recent research has emphasized that the type of conflict can contribute to group failure or success (Amason, 1996; Tjosvold, Law & Sun, 2006), the ability to resolve conflicts and the preferences of conflict handling styles becomes very important. In this respect, researchers start to investigate certain variables, which are important for the individuals to handle conflict effectively at any level within the organization. Ethical aspects of conflict handling styles have been less thoroughly explored by both practitioners and academicians. Rahim, Garett and Buntzman (1992) indicated that some positive results for organizations are associated with ethical rather than unethical applications of certain styles of conflict handling. For instance Rahim et al. (1992) suggested that dominating and avoiding styles in conflict handling can lead to some financial and/ or personal loss and thus are less motivated by ethical motives. Therefore, ethical decision making might have some important implications for both organizations and the employees while handling conflict. Scholars argue different situational and individual factors that might influence the ethical decision making. Within the organizational literature, several models of ethical decision making have been developed.