WELCOME TO KENTERPRO:
ORGANISATIONAL CONFLICT AND ITS IMPACT ON WORKERS' PRODUCTIVITY OF UNIVERSITY OF JOS CONSULTANCY IN PLATEAU STATE

 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background to the Study

Every organisation hopes to grow in its activities to aid productivity. This can only be achieved by adopting effective strategies which aim at reaching organisational goals and objectives. Conflict can be a serious problem in an organisation. It can create chaotic conditions that make it nearly impossible for employee to work together. Organisations cannot exist without conflict. In every organisation, conflict could either be positive or negative conflict which at times increase productivity and at times reduce productivity. The organisation productivity depends on how employees are satisfied with their job and the relationship that exist in the organisation. (Abiodun, 2014).

Organizational conflict refers to the condition of misunderstanding or disagreement that is caused by the perceived or actual opposition in the needs, interests and values among people who work together. According to Sudha and Khan (2013) organizational conflict may also be termed as workplace conflict. The conflicts occur during situations where there is an interaction between two or more members of an organization involving contradictory opinions. These opinions may be brought forward concerning any particular decision or task that has taken place within the organization. Organizational conflict, in simpler terms, implies to the outcomes of the human interaction that commences with the declaration of a member of the organization that his values, attitudes or goals are not compatible with the attitude, values or goals that have been set by the organization and needs to be followed by the members of the organization (Siira, 2012). The incompatibility of the opinions may arise between two members of the organization working in the same group, between two groups of members in the organization or within a person who is working member of an organization. There are several types of conflicts that may arise within an organization. The various types of conflicts are the task conflicts, process conflicts and the relationship conflicts.

Organizational conflicts are influenced by a variety of factors like the lack of clarity in the responsibility of the team members, the organizational relationship that is shared by the members of the organization. The scarcity of the needed resources may lead to the rise of conflict between the members of the organization. The disagreement of the members on the fields of interest may also lead to the conflicts and altercations within the workplace. The main causes of the organizational conflict are the disruption of the communication, the lack of accountability on the part of the members (Marion & Gonzales, 2013). The misunderstanding on the part of the employees may also lead to the conflicts within the organization. Organizational conflict may also arise from the conditions where the targets that are set by the superiors are not met by the employees who work under their supervision (Bhat et al, 2013). The following report deals with the theories of the conflict within the organization. The report aims to look into the causes behind the conflict within the organizations, the different types of the conflicts and the factors that influence the incidents of organizational conflict. The report, on the concluding note, attempts to look into some ways that may be helpful in the management of the conflicts that arise among the members of the organization.

Conflict is a reality in organisations and is not necessarily a negative term and like politics and power it has value to the organisation. To Spaho (2013) conflict may connote animalist violence, destruction, barbarization, loss of civility, irrationality. Alternately, it may signify adventure, novelty, clarification, creation, growth, dialectal relationality etc. Conflict can be both positive and negative and has acquired a multitude of meanings. Anthropologists have viewed conflict to exist between cultures and societies. Economists view conflict as emanating from the allocation of scarce resources. In the opinion of Sonnentag, Unger and Nägel (2013) physiatrists and Psychologists have been concerned with intrapsychic conflict, that is, conflict that goes on within an individual. For students of Administration, Sociologist offer the greatest insight into conflict and are concerned with understanding conflict within an organisation including interpersonal, inter-group and inter-group opposition. An administrative view of conflict defines the subject as all kinds of “Opposition or antagonistic interaction”. It is based on scarcity of power, resources, social position and differing value structures. Conflict is both functional and dysfunctional. Functional form represents confrontation that benefits or supports the goals of the organisation. Any conflict that cannot meet this standard is undesirable, and the administrator should seek its eradication. The demarcation between functional and dysfunctional is neither clear nor precise; no level of conflict can be adopted at face value as acceptable or un-acceptable. Thus functional and dysfunctional conflict is defined in terms of organisational affect. If the conflict supports the goals of the organisation and improves the organisation’s performance, it is functional or constructive form of conflict. Without functional conflict, there would be few new challenges; there will be no stimulation to think through ideas; organisation would become a pathetic and stagnant. Those interactions, according to Babatunde (2013) that hinder organisational performance are defined as dysfunctional. Many think that functional or dysfunctional nature of conflict is determined by people’s perceptions and response to the conflict and not by its effect on the organisation. In our definition, how the participants perceive the conflict is irrelevant. The participants may perceive an action as dysfunctional, in that the outcome is personally dissatisfying to them.

            Huntington (2001) and her American teammates naïve assumed that good team work has no conflict. The way to create effective team is to accept the existence of conflict, resolve it when it hinders performance or productivity and even encourages it at times. It is entirely appropriate to say that there has to be conflict. On the other hand, another school of though has argued that conflict must be avoided because it indicates a malfunctioning within the group. Another school of thought argued that conflict is natural and inevitable outcome in any organisation.

• Statement of the Problem

Organizational conflict is conflict that occurs between two or more individuals that work together in an organisation. Many individual differences lead to organizational conflict, including personalities, culture, attitudes, values, perceptions, and the other differences. Conflict arises due to a variety of factors. Individual differences in goals, expectations, values, proposed courses of action, and suggestions about how to best handle a situation are unavoidable. This can happen in the university between students, it can also be among lecturers. It can also cause significant emotional and physical harm and can lead to aggressive behaviours when the leadership of the institution lack the social skills necessary to cope with their frustrations and finally affects their job performance.

 Conflicts are inevitable and dealing with them in a healthy way is crucial. When this type of conflict (organizational) is mismanaged, it can harm the relationship. But when handled in a respectful and positive way, it can provide an opportunity for growth and ultimately strengthening the bond between two people. By learning the skills needed for successful conflict resolution, one can keep his personal and professional relationships strong and growing. Intrapersonal conflict involves expression of strong emotions, disagreement over certain issues in school, clash over values, ideas, opinion or views. Interpersonal conflict occurs in schools among students which include tension, animosity, annoyance etc. others involves uncountable verbal and non-verbal behaviours which crop up each day create conflict that would require counselling.

It is in line with this that this study seeks to examine organisational conflict and its impact on productivity of University of Jos Consultancy with a view of finding proper solution.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

            The main purpose of this study is to examine organisational conflict and its impact on productivity of University of Jos Consultancy in Plateau State. Other specific objectives of the study are to:

1. Determine the causes of conflict in University of Jos Consultancy.
2. Find out the impact of conflict on performance of University of Jos Consultancy.

• Find out how conflict can be effectively managed in University of Jos Consultancy.

1. Determine conflict resolution and how it affects University of Jos Consultancy performance.

1.4 Research Questions

            The research questions that guided this study are:

1. What are the causes of organisational conflicts in University of Jos Consultancy?
2. What are the impact of conflict on University of Jos Consultancy performance?

• How can conflict be effectively managed in University of Jos Consultancy in order to increase productivity?

1. To what extent does conflict resolution have effect on the productivity of University of Jos Consultancy?

1.5. Significance of the Study

It is hoped that the outcome of the study would be significant to school counsellors and psychologists, teachers and school administrators, education policy makers, parents/caregivers and the students.

Counsellors and psychologists would benefit from the outcome of this study, as it would increase their knowledge of factors precipitating interpersonal conflict among workers of organisational staff. Similarly, the counsellors and psychologists would be acquainted with the proper counselling technique that is positively decreasing the productivity of organisations. Whenever faced with such problem among their clients, they would easily apply the skills to redress the problem.

Furthermore, the outcome of this study will help administrators in understanding the negative impact of interpersonal conflict on the productivity of an organisation and performance of workers. Also, it will help them to encourage and assist their staff to acquire conflict resolution skills in order to achieve their maximum potentials and also improve their job performance. The research will also help managers of an organisation to know whether or not, the organisation can function in the presence of conflict and also to know the impact of conflict on productivity of workers.

Policy makers who are concerned with issues of discipline and implementation of laws in University of Jos will also benefit from the findings of this study. Thus, their future policy formulation can feature some of these likely behaviour problem that could be exceptional when dealing with issues that has to do with conflict resolution. So the outcomes of the study therefore can serve as a basis upon which special provision could be given to staff with interpersonal conflict problem with the hope that the resultant effect of conflict resolution skills training would form new way of handling and managing students who exhibit interpersonal conflict at home and school. 

Finally, it is hoped that the findings of this study when conducted will increase the body of knowledge, particularly in the field of organisational conflict and resolution strategies; by demonstrating the importance of conflict resolution skills training in reducing organisational conflict among staff. The study would be a point of reference to future researchers, who may wish to carry out further investigations on similar topic by serving as a source of literature on the variables under study.  

1.6 Scope and Delimitation of the Study

            This research covers organisational conflict and its impact on workers productivity. It shall be restricted to University of Jos Consultancy Jos Branch. The study will cover from 2016-2022.

1.7. Operational Definitions of Terms

Conflict: Is a behaviour designed to inhibit the attainment of goals by another group or person.

Organisation: Is the coming of people together to work for common goals.

Effectiveness: getting desired outcome within defined resources.

Organisational Effectiveness: Is the measure of how successfully organisations achieve their missions through their core strategies.

Performance: Is everything about the performance of employees in a firm or a company or an organisation.

Training: It refers to bridging the gap between the current performance and the standard desired performance.