Manipulation in interpersonal relationships :

Abstract

Manipulation has historically been perceived as a negative behavioral characteristic. The problem of this study was to examine the utilization of Machiavellian manipulation by elementary school principals and to analyze the sources of variability in the use of manipulation according to gender.

This study was concerned with the investigation of the behavioral characteristic of manipulation as an administrative skill. Adult Continuing Education is concerned with developmental learning skills as they apply to various professional work environments. Manipulation was the skill investigated. A sample of 60 educational administrators was defined from a population of 219 elementary school principals whose schools were located in Lawton, metropolitan Oklahoma City and metropolitan Tulsa. 30 principals were male and 30 principals were female.

The statistical measurement used for the study was the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Two-Sample Test. The nonparametic test was selected because it is most sensitive to any kind of differences in the distributions from which the two samples were drawn--differences in location, central tendency, dispersion and skewness. Comparison of the data by gender obtained from the study indicates that male and female administrators both use Machiavellian manipulation, and there is no significant difference between groups. This necessitates further investigation of the modernization of the idea that manipulation is an organizational administrative tool and is used by both male and female administrators.