Causes of Conflict Among Peer Co-Workers in a Non-Governmental Organisation in Kenya

Abstract

Conflict is an inevitable occurrence in any human interaction setting and organisations are no exception as they are involved in conflict management on a daily basis. Conflict is often viewed as being destructive, but when managed properly it can be constructive, especially in the workplace. Conflict hinders healthy working relations between peer coworkers and the general organisational performance can be affected as well. Peer co-worker conflict is common in organisations and therefore the aim of this article was to explore the causes of conflict among peer co-workers in a nongovernmental organisation in Kenya. A qualitative research approach was adopted and semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted to collect data from fifteen employees of the same hierarchical level who were selected using purposive sampling. The data collected was analysed using Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis model. The findings revealed that there were various causes of conflict among peer co-workers in the organisation, and the peer co-workers were aware thereof. It was evident that conflict frequency differed among the peer co-workers with the conflict occurrences being from daily to weekly and at times monthly intervals. The findings further revealed that these conflicts hinder healthy working relationships between the peer co-workers. Therefore, the study concluded that peer co-workers should be trained and equipped with skills to aid in conflict management between themselves.