THE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES OF CONFLICT BETWEEN ACADEMIC AND NON-ACADEMIC STAFF OF FEDERAL UNIVERSITIES

This study investigated management strategies of conflict between academic and non-academic staff of federal universities in South East, Nigeria. The study was guided by nine research questions and nine null hypotheses. The design of the study was descriptive survey. The population of the study was 16,387 respondents. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select a sample of 1,025 subjects, comprising 527academic and 488 non-academic staff from the universities. Purposive sampling technique was also used to select another 10 academic and non-academic staff for the focus group discussion (FGD). The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire titled: Management Strategies of Conflict Questionnaire (MSCQ) and focus group discussion guide which was put in prose form. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study were that interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts, interdependence conflicts, breakdown in communication, subordinate conflicts and breakdown of collective bargaining, among others are the nature of conflicts experienced in the federal universities. It was also found that breach of communication, poor human relationship, unequal attention to staff welfare, differences in staff perception, inadequate representation of staff in decision making, competition for scarce resources and their allocations, were among the sources of conflicts. The study revealed that conflict increases disunity, communication gap, bitterness, helps staff to voice out their dissatisfactions, reduces motivation, decreases productivity.

Conflicts are inevitable in any organization. This is more so in an organization as a university with a structure that allows two or more units or groups to share functional boundaries in achieving its set objectives. In universities, people with differing nature -students, lecturers and administrative staff - have to work harmoniously together. The organizational structure is such that staff and staff, students and students, staff and students share functional boundaries to exchange knowledge.

The goal of university education is pursued through its main functions and activities of teaching, research, dissemination of existing and new information, service to the community, and being a storehouse of knowledge (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004). In carrying out these functions, there are always conflicts within and among the categories of people within the university community, namely students, academics, non-academics and their unions. These categories of people have different purposes and expectations from the university. In pursuance of their individual and group purposes and expectations they sometimes disagree with one another due to their differing ideals which result to conflict.