THE EFFECT OF CONFLICT MANAGEMENT ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE

1.1 Introduction

Conflict management is a skill any organization requires, as no organizations actually exist without the existence of conflict. The managing organizational conflict is the general framework of the entrance and comprehensive treatment by which means that depend on the resolution of problems and disputes (Taher et al., 2007). Conflict in an organization was always under interest of researches and its interest has not reducing till now (Paresashvili et al., 2017). Conflicts of interests arise in group scarcity of freedom, position and resources (Long, 2015). Employees, who have different personality, have different attitude towards organizational conflicts. As a result they have different behavior during conflicts.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Conflict is wide spread in human societies and runs through the whole organization both profit and non-profit making organization. It arises among members in an organization and even within the personality of an individual. Thus, conflict is one of the most difficult challenges a manager faces. The American Heritage College Dictionary defines conflict as “a state of disharmony between incompatible or antithetical persons, ideals, or interest; a clash”. A modern view of conflict is defined as follows: “conflict is a process in which one party perceives that its interest are being opposed or negatively affected by another party.

The use of the word perceived in the Second definition is a reminder that the source of a conflict can be real or imagined. Conflict can also mean that there is a difference in opinion or agreement between two parties or groups who are trying to achieve the same goal, causing one of the parties to feel that his or her efforts to achieve the goal is being hindered or .challenged by the other party. When disagreement is poorly dealt with, the outcome can be contention, creating a sense of psychological dissonance between people.

Conflicts occur due to the dynamic state of things today in organization and the society at large. In this way we could say that there is a growing recognition of the importance of conflict in organization. A recent survey that managers spends a considerable portion of their time dealing with conflict, and that conflict management has become increasingly important to their effectiveness most especially in the area of organizational productivity, therefore we can say that conflict is inevitable and important in human process.

In the earlier stage, conflict was viewed as evil and also linked with violence, destruction arid irrationality to re-engage it negative connotation by this definition “Conflict” is regarded as harmful and must be avoided.

To the “traditionalist” the absence of conflict in an organization is an evidence of success in status- quo interest, yet the existence of conflict in an organization shows that the degree of co-operation is generally present in a well-managed organization. Due to this, we could say that conflict is better off when it is managed than eliminated. In this way one agrees that with the growing realization, conflict has a number of benefits as well as costs.

Therefore it needs to be managed rather than eliminated. The various ideals about conflict, human relations argued that conflict is a natural and inevitable occurrence in all groups and organization and that conflict is a normal and natural consequence of human interaction :n organization settings, but they are complex and its occurs for many reasons. For example, internal stress coming from the person and overlapping with the job, incompatible expectations among workers, workers group and values etc. With these the human relations come out with the idea that conflict need not be evil, but rather has the potential to be a positive drive in determining organizational productivity, thus it is inevitable and unavoidable.

Therefore, in Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to investigate the Effect of Conflict Management on Employee Performance.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

The real challenge managers are facing today is the necessity of understanding and learning how to respond positively and creatively to conflict at the various levels and in the widely diverse areas found in the organization.

Conflict, if not properly managed can cause problem in job satisfaction and organizational commitment, thus, leading to an un-conducive atmosphere, strikes, labour disputes and unrest, distress on the part of the organization as well as hindering the realization of the organizational goals and objectives. The focus of the study will be on how to manage conflict effectively in order to avoid those problems.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to investigate the Effect of Conflict Management on Employee Performance using Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To examine the impact of conflict on employee performance
2. To examine the nature of conflict on employee job commitment
3. To find the means of managing conflict with the organization
4. To examine the different types of conflict and its impacts on organizations
5. To emphasized the relationship between conflict management and the employee performance
6. To examine the causes, sources and solution of conflict in business organization

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Is there any means of managing conflict with the organization?
• Is there any relationship between conflict management and the employee performance?
• What is the impact of conflict on employee performance?
• What is the nature of conflict on employee job commitment?
• What are the different types of conflict and its impacts on organizations?
• What are the causes, sources and solution of conflict in business organization?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: Conflict management does not have any significant effect on Employee performance.
• H1: Conflict management has significant effect on Employee performance.

Hypothesis Two

• H0: Implementation of conflict management policies does not have significant effect on employee productivity.
• H1: Implementation of conflict management policies has significant effect on employee productivity.

Hypothesis Three

• H0: There is no significant relationship between conflict management and the employee performance
• H1: There is a significant relationship between conflict management and the employee performance

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1.7 Significance of Study

The importance of the study is to look at the impact of conflict management in the organization. It is hope that the findings and recommendations would be useful to both public and private organizations. This study will help managers in exploring the benefits realization that conflict can bring to any organization, using NAHCO as a mirror.

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Effect of Conflict Management on Employee Performance using Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti as a case study.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Organization of Variables

The variables adopted by this study are: Conflict Resolution and Organizational Productivity. The study will seek to investigate the influence of conflict resolution; the independent variable, on the dependent variable; organizational productivity.

The variables for this research are consequently operationalized as follows:

Y = f(X)

Y = Conflict Management

X = Employee Performance

where Y = Dependent variable

X = Independent variable

y = f (x1, x2, x3…xn)

x1 = Conflict Management

x2= Conflict Management Policies

x3= Conflict Management Relationship

y = (y1, y2, y3)

y1= Employee Performance

y2 = Employee Productivity

y3 = Employee Performance

y= f(x1) __________________ (1)

y = f(x2) __________________ (2)

y = f(x3) __________________ (3)

The study will focus on equation (4) above.

Based on regression, we have

y1 = α0 + β1×1 + μ…. (1)

y2 = α0 + β2×2 + μ…. (2)

y3 = α0 + β3×3 + μ…. (3)

Where, α is the constant of the equation, β is the coefficient of X the independent variable where μ is the error or stochastic term in the equation.

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1.11 Operational Definition of Terms

Conflict: This is define as a disagreement between two or more organizational members or groups based on the fact that they need share resources or because they have different goals, values or perception.

Conflict management: This is a holistic approach to divergent orientation between both parties (employer and employees) as the case may be, with the objective of mitigating the effect of the conflict, preventing conflict from ensuring and to make the most of the opportunities offered by the same conflict.