Exploratory study of conflict management in education sector of Afghanistan

Abstract

This research aims to explore employees’ understanding of functional conflict management and to explore specific behavioral skills effective for reaching a mutual agreement in the conflict resolution process in the education sector of Afghanistan. The phenomenological approach of the Qualitative methodology is applied while data collection was carried out through in-depth interviews. Data was analyzed by using thematic analysis approach. Major findings of the study illustrate that overall conflict is perceived as a negative phenomenon and decision makers have lack of awareness of the importance of functional conflict management in the workplace. Therefore, this study recommends that there is a dire need of developing capacity strengthening programs and to develop conflict management strategies, guidelines and procedures in workplace to avoid dysfunctional conflict and to encourage functional conflict for high performance. Providing capacity strengthening support to employees and enabling environment are other recommendations for positive changes in the Afghan educational institutions. Keywords: