Effects of Academic Entitlement on Conflict Management: Implications of a Consumer Culture for the Student–Teacher Relationship

This study examined a conflict management model in which students’ customer orientation toward education affected their sense of academic entitlement, which led to different conflict management preferences. Participants were 689 undergraduate students. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized model and results showed that: 1) students’ customer-orientation influenced their academic entitlement and conflict preferences; and 2) academically entitled students were more likely to engage in distributive bargaining and negotiate with their instructors for a compromise. The findings imply that mitigating student customer orientation and academic entitlement is critical to improving the student–teacher relationship.