THE EFFECT OF CONFLICT MANAGEMENT ON PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC SERVICE

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THE EFFECT OF CONFLICT MANAGEMENT ON PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC SERVICE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

1.2 Statement of the Problem

1.3 Research Objectives

1.4 Research Questions

1.5 Research Hypotheses

1.6 Significance of the Study

1.7 Scope of the Study

1.8 limitations of the Study

1.9 Definition of Terms

1.10 Profile of Keystone Bank Plc

CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Conceptual clarification

2.2.1 Concept of conflict

2.2.2 Conflict Management

2.3 CONFLICT HANDLING BEHAVIOUR

2.4. Criteria for Conflict Management

2.5 Conflict Management Strategy

2.6 The Role of Trade Unions in Conflict resolution

2.7 The Role of Management in Conflict Resolution

2.8 Effect of Conflict Management on the Organization

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Research Design

3.3 Population of the Study

3.4 Determination of Sample Size and Sampling Procedure.

3.5 Method of Data Collection

3.6 Instrument of Data Collection

3.7 Test of Validity and Reliability

3.8 Reliability of the Instrument

3.9 Method of Data Analysis

CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

4.1 Demography of respondents

4.2 TEST OF HYPOTHESIS

4.3 INTERPRETATION OF FINDINGS

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 SUMMARY

5.2 CONCLUSION

5.3 RECOMMENDATION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Appendix

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

1.1 Background of 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).

Clearly, conflict and differences of opinions always exist in all organizations; from such differences new and better objective methods of conflict resolution emerge McShane and Glinow (2000). Attempts to enhance the beneficial attributes of conflicts have resulted in management devising different policies, rules and regulations in the organization. In modern organizational systems, collective bargaining and problem solving are widely used tools to resolve conflicts and strengthen the pact between employers and employees. The essence of bargaining is to facilitate agreement on specific terms, with both parties giving concessions in an objective manner, (Sev 2004).

In Nigeria, the concept of conflict management and resolution has been employed in diverse organizations as reported by Hotepo et al (2010), diverse view of conflicts and conflict management practices were discussed. Their study focused on service organizations in Nigeria from which they developed ways of improving organizational performance and productivity. However, many perceived conflict as dysfunctional, destructive, and unpleasant fact in an organization (Henry, 2009). Notwithstanding, it has been proved that conflict can also be beneficial as it tend to encourage creativity, new looks at old condition, better clarification of points of view, and the development of management capabilities to resolve differences (Russell, 1976:13-21).

The crux of this research is to explore the dynamics of conflict resolutions in relation to organizational performance in Nigerian organization. As captured in the research topic, we shall examine the sources of organizational conflicts and their effects on performance using Keystone Bank Plc (Bank PHB) as a case study.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Businesses nowadays are operating in a turbulent environment where organizations are searching for measures that will allow them to improve their performance and competitiveness. Economic challenges and political issues may occupy the centre stage, but internal wrangling among staff; union demands for improved welfares and the myriads of corporate social responsibilities also impact greatly on organizational performance.

In the face of these challenges many organizations have continued to blaze the trail, for example, first bank, access bank and zenith bank while many others such as Allstate Trust Bank, Savannah Bank, and Fortune Bank have given in to fate. The fluxes in the banking sectors present some peculiar issues relevant to our discourse. In keystone bank there were unprecedented mass retrenchment of staff, undue pressure on labour for deposit mobilization, and threat of job insecurity. These issues have inadvertently drawn labour against management with mixed outcomes in keystone bank. In the main, the outcome were largely unproductive such as low morale, low productivity, cynicism, distrust, high employee turnover, absenteeism, defects, high job dissatisfaction, and low loyalty to the organization in the bank all of which have affected the bank negatively. Management of keystone bank was taken to task as they confront labour unions that are trying to protect the interests of their members; and, as well as, assure stockholders of security of their investments and potential returns. These issues lingered for awhile and most people tend to attribute the performance problem that led to the nationalization of the bank to this persistent conflict in the bank. It is against this background that this study is undertaken to ascertain the effect of conflict on the performance of Keystone Bank especially at the Makurdi branch.

1.3 Research Objectives

The main objective of this study is to examine the effects of conflict management on the performance of Keystone Bank, Makurdi branch. The following specific objectives shall also be explored in this study.

1. To determine the major causes of conflict in Keystone Bank Makurdi branch

2. To determine the adoption and practice of conflict resolution in Keystone Bank, Makurdi branch.

3. To determine if conflict management in Keystone Bank can increase the organizational productivity.

4. To determine if conflict management can improve the quality of decision in Keystone Bank Makurdi branch.

5. To ascertain if conflict management result in job satisfaction/ commitment in Keystone Bank Makurdi branch

1.4 Research Questions

This will seek answers to the following research questions:

1. What are the major causes of conflict in Keystone Bank, Makurdi branch

2. To what extent do keystone bank practice conflict resolution?

3. To what extent do conflict management in Keystone bank increase organization’s productivity?

4. To what extent does conflict management improve the quality of decisions in Keystone bank, Makurdi branch?

5. To what extent do conflict management result in job satisfaction /commitment in Keystone Bank, Makurdi branch.

1.5 Research Hypotheses

HO1: Conflict management in Keystone Bank, Makurdi branch significantly does not increase productivity.

HO2: Conflict management in Keystone Bank, Makurdi branch significantly does not improve the quality of decisions in the bank.

HO3: Conflict management significantly does not result in job satisfaction/ commitment in Keystone Bank, Makurdi branch.

1.6 Significance of the Study

The significance of this study lies in the fact that at the end of this research, the minds of the masses will be illuminated as to the impact of conflict management on organizational performance.

This research work will be of great use to the management of Keystone Bank knowing the best strategy to employ in managing conflict so as to benefit both parties (employers and employees). It will also help them to learn how to recognize and benefit from their differences in the bank. To students and other researchers, the study will go a long way to increase the existing body of knowledge in the area of conflict management.

1.7 Scope of the Study

Since this research work is a semester work, the researcher intends limit to Keystone Bank Plc, Makurdi branch alone and placed much emphasis on the influence of conflict management. Organizational performance was also brought in to know how effective an organization can be if organizational conflict are properly managed.

1.8 limitations of the Study

This study was inevitably limited by some factors such as follows:

Finance: in availability of finance was a great constraint to the research. This forced the researcher to limit the scope of the study to only one branch of keystone bank instead of studying more branches.

Time: time also constitute a great constraint in this study, since the researcher was expected to finish this study within just two semesters, the range of data for investigation was scaled down to only 5years in order to facilitate timely completion of the study. This therefore limits the extent of applicability of the study findings and results.

1.9 Definition of Terms

1. Conflict: Is a process which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party.

2. Chase: A very big difference between two people of groups.

3. Discord: Is want of agreement; absence of unity or harmony in sentiment or action; variance leading to contention and strife; disagreement; applied to persons or to things, and to thoughts, feelings, or purposes.

4. Productivity: Is the amount of output per unit of input (labour, equipment, capital).

5 Stakeholder: A person or company that has interest in an organization.

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