Conflict Management Strategies and Employees’ Productivity in a Nigerian State Civil Service

Uwa Kinsley Lazarus^1,

¹Department of Business Management, Akwa Ibom State University, Obio- Akpa Campus, Akwa Ibom State

Cite this paper:
Uwa Kinsley Lazarus. Conflict Management Strategies and Employees’ Productivity in a Nigerian State Civil Service. Journal of Business and Management Sciences. 2014; 2(4):90-93. doi: 10.12691/jbms-2-4-2

Abstract

This study examines the role of conflict management strategies on employees’ productivity in a Nigerian civil service. Four conflict management strategies were considered which include collective bargaining, negotiation, avoidance and imposing. The descriptive survey design was adopted and self developed questionnaire tagged Conflict Management Strategies and Employees’ Productivity Questionnaire was used in the data collection. The reliability of the instrument was tested and Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient of 0.92 was obtained for the whole instrument. Taro Yamane formula was used in determining sample size and stratified random sampling technique was used in selecting 240 respondents from a cross-section of four ministries in Akwa Ibom State Civil Service, South- South, Nigeria. Pearson Product Moment Correlation and multiple regression were used to analyse the hypotheses. Collective bargaining and negotiation showed a significant positive contribution to employees’ productivity while that obtained for avoidance and imposing were significantly negative. Also, collective bargaining and negotiation were significantly positively related to employees’ productivity. Therefore, it was recommended that conflict in whatever level should not be ignored but should be effectively managed for better employees’ productivity in the workplace. Workers at all level should be trained and given the right behavioural orientation on how to handle conflict. There is also a need for training and retraining of managers on how to effectively managed conflicts for better employees’ productivity in the workplace.

Keywords:
conflict conflict management strategies employees productivity

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