| Summary: | Irreconcilable conflict between individuals serving in the roles of community college administrators and faculty members, when mishandled, marginalizes stakeholders and compromises shared governance (Bess & Dee, 2014; Del Favero, 2003; Del Favero & Bray, 2005; Garbarino, 1975; Kezar & Eckel, 2004; Peterson, 1974; Schrecker, 2010). This study explored how community college administrators and faculty make sense of their experiences of conflict with the other, and
in doing so, provides insight into how conflict is currently handled and how it might be handled more thoughtfully. When participants spoke from perspectives that signaled biases relevant to power, control, and authority, there was a greater chance that conflict would be mishandled. Everyone's feelings were hurt when conflict was mishandled, and hurt feelings influenced the quality of future interactions. When participants spoke from a different, interdependent perspective-one
underpinned by faculty sensibilities, a positive attitude, and an understanding of faculty and administrator role expectations-cycles of mishandled conflict were interrupted, and episodes of conflict were handled more thoughtfully and effectively. Keywords: administrator faculty conflict, educational organizational culture, cultural theory, grid and group theory, cultural bias.
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