An empirical analysis of effects of workplace conflict management on performance of nurses in public hospitals in Kenya: A case of Thika Level 5 hHospital in Kiambu County

Abstract

Hospital managers and nurses are partners in the delivery of optimal health care; they share theresponsibility of creating a healthy workplace for all members of the health care team. However, theissue of conflict management tends to be overlooked in many organizations and government hospitalsin Kenya are not an exception. The study used a descriptive research design. The target population ofthis study consisted of the 210 nurses working at Thika Level 5 Hospital. The study had a sample sizeof 63 nurses. The study used stratified random sampling procedure to select the study sample. Primarydata was collected using questionnaire. The reliability of the instrument was high at a Cronbach’sAlpha Coefficient of 0.75. Content and constructed validity of the research instrument were tested. Thedata was analyzed using descriptive, inferential statistics and content analysis. The study establishedthat personality conflicts, intergroup conflicts and cross-cultural conflicts were the main types ofconflicts experienced in Thika Level 5 Hospital; majority of the hospital’s nurses lacked adequateconflict management skills. The workplace conflict management significantly affected the performanceof nurses in Thika Level 5 Hospital. The study recommends that the management of Thika Level 5Hospital implement frequent staff training programmes tailored towards enhancing their workplaceconflict management skills and also adopt more effective conflict handling styles such ascooperativeness, compromise and collaborative conflict management styles Similar studies should bedone in other public hospitals in the Kenya for comparison purposes and to allow for the generalizationof findings.