Introduction: Conflict management is regarded as a basic organizational leadership skill in the 21st century. Hospitals as the important centers of the health system need effective methods and appropriate strategies for organizational conflict resolution in order to reach their cardinal objective of communities’ health. The present research aims to determine the conflict management strategies used by managers of hospitals affiliated with Lorestan University of Medical Sciences (LUMS).

Methods: This study is descriptive-analytic. The study population consists of 177 managers from 13 hospitals affiliated with LUMS. Data was collected through interviews using questionnaire containing demographic questions and Stephen Robin’s conflict management questionnaire and was analyzed with SPSS software.

Results: Average age of managers was 36.47 ± 6.9 years, their mean years of service were 12.5 ± 8.2, and their mean years of managerial experience were 5.8 ± 5.6. Females constituted 53.1% and males constituted 46.9% of the subjects. Identified strategies of conflict management were non-intervention (49.7%), control (44.6%), and solution orientation (5.7%). Conflict management strategy and sex of managers had significant association (p = 0.36). Correlation coefficient showed significant association between conflict management strategy and age of managers (p = 0.01).

Conclusion: According to our research results, styles of conflict management are different among managers and many factors influence organizational conflict management. Therefore, determination of conflict management styles is very important in every organization, especially in complex environment of hospitals.

  Hakim Research Journal 2008 11(2): 54- 58.