Abstract
The rapid digital integration of educational administration processes has revolutionized interaction processes between school management and teachers. While digital mediums contribute to administrative convenience and efficacy, the lack of non-verbal signals inevitably leads to misinterpretation, slow responses and escalation of disputes. This study seeks to examine the linkage between digital communication and school principals' conflict management practices within the context of the Manmunai North Educational Division of Batticaloa Educational Zone. Its overall purpose is to find out how widely digital mediums are used, common conflict management techniques adopted by school principals, and the relation between the different communication mediums used and the effectiveness of conflict resolution. Using a quantitative descriptive-correlational design with a census of all 59 administrative heads (Principals, Deputy Principals and Assistant Principals) of the 40 mixed type of schools, a survey on a sample of 176 teachers who were proportionally selected from all schools through stratified random sampling using the Slovin's formula was also administered to offer a teachers' perspective on interactions between management and teaching staff. The general results have established a high degree of use of instant messaging as a communication tool, which is correlated to an increase in 'avoiding' and 'accommodating' conflict management approaches among school management, the study finds that while the different mediums allow for effective quick sharing of transactional information; they greatly obstruct resolving complex interpersonal issues, thus requiring supplementary face-to-face communication to be addressed. It concludes that the excessive use of text-based digital communication, lacking set protocols results in a decreased conflict resolution capability and suggests setting clear contextual rules for digital communication and targeted conflict management training for school managers.
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How to Cite
Digital Communication and Conflict Management Practices among School Principals in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. (2026). Tamilmanam International Research Journal of Tamil Studies, 12(05), 302-313. https://tamilmanam.in/journal/index.php/issue/article/view/856
