Organizational Conflict Management Styles And Industrial Harmony In Nigerian Manufacturing Firms

Abstract

The inevitability of conflict in the workplace in an undisputed reality and so also is the need for its effective handling in order to mitigate unwanted outcomes. Using 3 conflict management styles from the Thomas-Kilman model (1974) namely, collaborating, compromising and accommodating styles, the study investigated (a) the use of these styles by management of some manufacturing firms in Port Harcourt, Nigeria to handle conflict and (b) the relationship between the styles and industrial harmony measured by low strike incidence and mutuality. We hypothesized that no significant relationship exists between the styles and industrial harmony. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted. Questionnaire was administered to a sample of 240-respondents drawn, using Krejcie and Morgan (1972) table, from a population of 642 employees. 219 copies of returned questionnaire were usable. Data generated were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Results revealed just about average use of the styles in the management of conflict and that all the styles highly correlated industrial harmony but comparatively more so with the collaborating style. The study concludes that there is need to look beyond conflict management styles in explaining the control of conflict and the achievement of relative harmony in the workplace. We recommend a greater involvement of employees in decisions when conflictual situations are confronted as well as an extension of the tenets of the collaborating styles to include a more integrative problem-solving.