Conflicts Management Strategies In Public Universities In South-East, Nigeria

Abstract

The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population of the study comprised all the lecturers and students in public universities in South East. The sample for the study is 2768 respondents out of the total population of 2 0,379 population. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled conflict management strategies questionnaire.

The data generated for the study were analyzed using mean and standard deviation for answering the research questions while t-test statistics was used for testing the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance It was discovered from the findings that causes of conflicts in public universities include: leadership styles of vice-chancellors, competition for inadequate resources structural variation in school organization, and manipulation of information by vice-chancellor. The findings revealed that types of conflict observable in public universities in South East include: Conflict between lecturers and students, vice chancellors and lecturers conflict, student-student conflict. Consequences of conflicts in public universities in South East include: disorganization of school calendar, absenteeism in school activities among the clears, frosty relationship between the vice chancellors and their staff.

Most commonly used strategies in managing conflicts in public universities in South east include: use of dialogue and negotiation, being proactive in handling conflicts, striving for good interpersonal relationship. Conflicts could be managed by involving both parties to a conflict in a discussion, involving lecturers and students in decision-making; being fair and firm, and holding regular meetings with all stakeholders.