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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background to the Study

Conflict is generally regarded as a disagreement regarding interests or ideas (Esquivel and Kleiner, 1997). Organizational conflict is the discord that occurs when the goals, interests or values of different individuals or groups are incompatible and those individuals or groups block or tend to frustrate each other’s attempt to achieve their objectives. These actions and reactions make conflict an inevitable part of organizational life since the goals of different stakeholders such as managers and staff are often incompatible (Jones et al, 2000). Bagshaw (1998) noted that conflict is a fact of life, in organization as well as other areas of life, as people compete for jobs, resources, power, acknowledgement and security. Dealing with conflict is difficult because it arouses primitive emotions such as people feeling threatened, which creates a version of the age old stress responses: fight or flight.

Proper management of conflict leads to organizational productivity and effectiveness. Effective conflict management is the concept of how an organization is achieving planned objectives by harnessing the individual’s and groups’ efforts. According to Richard et al (2007) organizational performance, plus the plethora of internal performance outcomes normally associated with more efficient or effective operations and other external measures, relate to considerations that are broader than those simply associated with economic valuation such as corporate social responsibility.

Ensuring effective conflict management tends to be a crucial part of managerial actions in an organization. to reduce industrial conflict, managers have engaged in building relationships with all subordinates, planning for the upcoming period, conducting basic training, fostering inter personal communications and developing procedure for routine tasks with the involvement of employees, (www.google.com). The development of procedures for routine tasks with the input of employees could motivate employees as they would feel that their contribution to organizational performance is essential and publicly recognized. This will lead to increase productivity, commitment and job satisfaction.

Conflict management enhance creative problem solving, enabling people to turn conflict situations into constructive learning opportunities, developing creative and more appropriate solutions,  preserving relationships, saving time  and money,  empowering people to resolve their own disputes and creations of more durable outcomes. In Pennsylvania (USA), for example, the concept of conflict management was employed by the Board of Central Rail Road to avert the negative impact of poor decisions of the company’s management. Stephen (1990:591-605). The concept of conflict management was also used in Omega, a Swiss Company, to improve their organizational structure in a way that fostered collaboration and enhance the company’s continued success, (Henry, 2009:16-24). Other benefits according to the integrationist view as cited by Sev (2002) claims that conflicts enhance organization’s effectiveness by stimulating change and improving decision making. Conflict is functional when it initiates search for new and better ways of doing things. Conflict is a discord that connotes with its negative aspect that will hamper productivity, lower morale, and hinder group performance, or create competing coalitions or reduce productivity. (https:\\www.google.com)

Some instances of organizational responses to conflicts would suffice at this juncture. There was the nationwide ASUU strike in 1996. Rather than address the staff agitation for improved welfare and salary structure, the Federal Government ordered them to resume work or face penalty. Such fiat compliance were the common practices in traditional industrial and managerial behaviors, but the trend has consistently shifted in contemporary times (Wikipedia.org).  

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