Conflict Management in the Nigerian University System

Abstract

Conflict is an attendant feature of human interaction and cannot be eliminated; however, its proper management and transformation are essential for peace and progress in human society. It has been observed that Nigerian universities has for decades been faced with so many crisis ranging from conflict between academic staff and university administrators, students versus academic staff, students versus university authorities , non-academic staff versus university administrators. The conflicts have given rise to distrust and hostility among professionals and academics, thus, contributing in hampering smooth, effective and efficient administration in the universities. It also appeared that despite this situation, stakeholders in education seemed to develop non-challant attitude towards these conflicts. If this role conflict is not checked it can be descriptive and negative as people involved will often see one another as enemies. This is unwholesome for the University community and Nigeria educational system as a whole. This paper examined conflict management in higher institutions of learning with specific reference to Nigerian Universities. Some causes of conflict were identified as well as ways these conflicts could be managed. Well-fashioned recommendations on how conflict could be more effectively managed for the achievement of the system's mission, goals and objectives and in particular the pursuit of industrial harmony in the system were also made.

Investigating the Impact of Leadership Behaviour on Conflict and Employee Engagement in Nigerian Universities

“…Therefore, managers are known to spend over forty percent of their time attending to conflicts (Raeve, et.al., 2008). Conflicts, especially intra group and boss-subordinate conflicts within an academic department or between say the vice chancellor and the registrar of a university could remain covert for years but be most devastating in their primary and secondary effects (Ndum & Okey, 2013). The work place could become ludicrous and hostile, even as quit intensions amongst several other negative tendencies in conflict situations would diminish employee engagement and productivity (Fincham & Rhodes, 1992;Barbuto, Phipps, & Xu, 2010;Curseu, 2011).…”

“…The full range leadership scales and the academy-specific scales (Bergquist, 1992;Bass & Avolio, 1995) were modified and reduced to twenty-nine in order to be context specific and eliminate duplication. The twenty questions on conflict and engagement were extracted from several works (Curşeu, 2011;Ndum and Okey, 2013). A total of 720 hard and on-line copies of the questionnaire were distributed, 418 were returned and 402 were found usable.…”

“…This is even as problems of inadequate funding, student cultism, deteriorating infrastructure, examination malpractices, labour strikes, academic corruption and poor international reckoning are rife (Odia and Omofonmwan, 2007;Salako, 2014).The growth-induced challenges have been exacerbated by national leadership failures and the culture of corruption; which infringe on the performance of most Nigerian institutions (Odia and Omofonmwan, 2007;Okebukola, 2018). Accordingly, Nigerian universities have a rich history of conflicts induced either externally via matters of political appointments, poor funding, wage legislation and labour disputes or internally through students unrest or work related frictions amongst staff, even as individuals and work groups like faculty and staff appear most polarised (Raeve, Jansen, Brandt, Vasse, & Kant, 2008;Ndum & Okey 2013). Within this context, the challenge of appropriate leadership for conflict reduction becomes more important, given that Nigerian universities, especially the public-owned ones experience the greatest instability (strikes and closures) world-wide, in spite of pressures to produce graduates of greater entrepreneurial and employability skills and competencies (Ebura, Udida, Ekpiken and Bassey, 2009;Adeleye, 2015).…”

A Review of Conflict Management in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions

“…Until the open hostility is manifested, it remains at the level of intra-personal problem. Ejiogu (1990) quoted in Ndum and Okey (2013) identified three major types of conflicts:  Conflict due to hierarchy of positions. This may take the form of subordinate conflict, between the boss and his subordinates, such as between lecturers and students.…”

“…Many researchers however agree that conflict has positive effects. Robins (1998) cited in Ndum and Okey (2013) asserts that conflict is a positive force and necessary for effective performance. It is essential for group formation and for progress; it fosters critical evaluation, innovation and change (DeChurch and Marks, 2001;Aina, Awolusi and Odunlami, 2015).…”