CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The general view of managing conflict in an institution
such as Federal College of Agriculture, Ishiagu, the principles and
sub-structures of the tertiary institution are designed to provide the necessary vertical and
horizontal links and inter-relationship that ensure the maximum potential for
communication and understanding. Therefore, two parties must be involved in
every existing tertiary institution and for the survival and effectiveness of the institution.
The employer and the employee must cooperate to work together for the
attainment of that organisational goal. Though in spite of the strong desire
that exist among the parties, there are some problems that may arise and these
can result to conflict among them. The employer may be having interest
detrimental to the employee or/and the desire of the employer and his employee
are more or less unlimited.
1.2
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In any organisation, be it public, private or government
establishment, there is bound to be disagreement, misunderstanding and
contradiction from time to time. It is realized that the level of economic productivity
of any organisation is measured in terms of the relationship and the capacity
to keep conflict at a reduced or minimized rate. Below are some of the problems
inherent in organization:
a.
One of the problems
facing organisation is the maintenance of collusion of the organisation.
b.
Lack of good
management policy, when there is no effective and efficient management policy,
there is bound to be grumbling among the workers, which eventually lead to
conflicts.
c.
Low salary earning in
an organisation.
d.
Lack of effective
communication in the organisation.
e.
Lack of fulfillment
of benefit equally brings about conflict in an organization.
1.3
STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESIS
Ho: Effective conflict management has no direct
impact on administrative staff productivity.
Hi. Effective conflict management has direct
impact on administrative staff
productivity.
1.4
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main objectives of this study are as follows: –
a.
To determine the
extent to which conflict affects job performance.
b.
To identify the
conflict factors.
c.
The identification of
major sources of conflicts.
d.
Determination of
which factors of conflict are related to job performance (physical or mental).
e.
Recommending
measure(s) for managing conflict for effective performance in an organisation.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE STUDY
The importance of this study is to find out various
possible ways of minimizing and effectively manage conflict in order to
increase organisational efficiency. Since the country is of a total system made
up of sub – system such as compound and organisation, most times, conflicts do
arise as a result of conflicting views between the workers and management. In
actual sense, this may be due to parties looking at the same issues from
different perspectives which may all be correct. There is to also study how
communication can be effectively used in organisation setting, because
effective communication will bring about non-distortion of goals and peaceful
co-existence in the organization. Effective management in organisation will
definitely increase the national benefits.
1.5
SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
This project is concerned about how to manage conflict
for effective productivity in an institution. The researcher wants to know the
effect conflict has in an institution in general and Federal College of
Agriculture, Ishiagu in particular. In
the course of carrying out this research work, we had faced some limitations
some of which is to strike a balance between our lecture(s) time, exam period
and the time needed to visit the places required by this research work – the
place of our case study included. We had also faced the constraints of getting
information from our questionnaires as not everybody was willing to give us the
needed attention. Finally, as students, finance was one of the major
constraints considering our financial stand and the present state of the
economy.
1.6
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Various management scholars have come out with their
understanding about conflict and what its management is all about.
Organisational conflict and its management came about in an effort to study the
cordiality among people in work environment.
·
Organisation:
An organisation can be defined as a system of consciously coordinated
activities or forces of two or more permanent social or human system that is
structural and goal oriented.
·
Conflict:
Conflict refers to a competition and fighting for control, predominantly when
resources are scarce. Traditionally, conflicts mean disagreements,
contradictions or incompatibility between groups and individuals.
·
Management: This
is the art of getting things done through people. The Management process
includes planning, organizing, staffing, control and directing activities that
takes place in an organisation to achieve goal.
·
Negotiation: This
is communication of information sharing process in which parties try to work
out their real, perceived or potential difference through agreement that
defines future behaviour.