Assessment of negotiation styles in higher education through a game-based assessment tool

The purpose of this concurrent mixed-method research is to examine the negotiation styles of candidate sports coaches in higher education by using a game-based assessment tool called ENACT game. The research was carried out with 3rd and 4th-degree university students who study in coaching education programs in Turkey. Students consist of 221 male (%68,4) and 102 female (%31,6). Furthermore, 12 volunteer students were interviewed as part of the qualitative part of the research. Results indicate that there is a positive significant relationship between conflict-handling styles and negotiations style only among integrating style and avoiding style. On the other hand, there is no significant relationship between the dominating, compromising, obliging styles of conflict handling and the dominating, compromising, and obliging styles of negotiation, respectively. Interviews with students revealed that negotiations in ENACT game-based assessment are very close to their real-life experience. Besides, it can be stated that discussing the aspects of the student’s views on the goal achievement effort, relationship, and social skills according to the framework of the social interdependence can make significant contributions to further improvement of the ENACT game-based assessment tool.