The Incidence and Management of Conflicts in Secular and Non-Secular Tertiary Institutions in South West Nigeria.

Abstract

This paper compared the incidence and management of conflicts in secular and non-secular tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The sample of this study was made of sixty staff, and two hundred and forty students randomly selected each from two secular and two non-secular tertiary institutions in south western Nigeria. A validated questionnaire was designed and administered to collect data on the occurrence of conflict and conflict management strategies. Data collected were analyzed using frequency counts and percentage. In addition, t-test and Pearson Product Moment Correlation statistics were used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that conflict is common to both secular and non-secular tertiary institutions. The study however revealed that the level of occurrence of conflict is low in the two types of institutions. It was also revealed that there is no significant difference in the conflict management strategies adopted by authorities of both secular and non-secular tertiary institutions. In addition, the study revealed that the conflict management strategies adopted by authorities of both secular and non-secular tertiary institutions are significantly related to their effectiveness. Based on the findings, it was recommended that authorities need to give prompt attention to addressing causes of conflicts. The use of dialogue in resolving conflicts should be embraced. In addition, all stakeholders in tertiary institutions are encouraged to employ religious exercises for divine intervention to reduce the emergence of conflict or for resolving existing conflicts. Key words: Conflict, occurrence of conflict, conflict management, secular tertiary institutions, non-secular tertiary institutions.