Staff Perception on Conflict Management Strategies in Tertiary Institutions of Adamawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Wherever there are people there is bound to be conflict due to their differences in all aspects in life. It is a well known fact that no two individuals are the same even identical twins. In a work situation people of different educational, professional, cultural and psychological background are employed to work hand in hand for the achievement of the organizations objective. As a result of these differences, conflict due occurs and conflict management becomes paramount. This paper therefore dwells on the perception of staff on the conflict management strategies and approaches used in Adamawa state tertiary institutions. The findings indicate that educational managers in these institutions make use of integrating, competing, compromising, smoothing and avoiding as conflict management techniques among their subjects. However, in managing these conflicts, the educational managers gives consideration to the level of trust among conflicting parties, the time and situation of the conflict as indicated by the mean score of 3.7 to 4.1.The paper recommends that educational managers should be careful in selecting the conflict management strategies for settling disputes among their staff.