CONFLICT MANAGEMENT AND EMPLOYEES’ PRODUCTIVITY AMONG SELECTED MINISTRIES IN LAGOS STATE CIVIL SERVICE

Abstract

Productivity in public work organization determines the level of expansion and capacity to contribute to government lofty goals and objectives of promoting the welfare of the citizens of a country. Public work organization could only experience high productivity during industrial peace and harmony if conflict is properly managed between workers and government and among various levels of workers. Past studies on employees’ productivity have not adequately emphasized conflict management to enhance work place peace and harmony. This study therefore examined Conflict Management and Employees ‘Productivity Among Selected Ministries in Lagos State Civil Service. Theory of conflict handling behaviours was used as a frame work. Research design was survey. A multi-stage sampling technique was adopted which consisted of purposive, stratified, and simple random selection. Two Ministries in Lagos State Civil Service were selected namely: Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health. The sample size was 210 involving the use of Taro Yammane sample size determination method. Questionnaire was the research instrument used to elicit quantitative data from the respondents. Data were analyzed by using SPSS (statistical package for social science). Respondents gender indicated that 51.2% were male while 48.8% were females. majority of the respondent were within the range of 30-39 years (43.9%) while 58.5% of the respondents spent less than 10 years in service. While majority of the respondents (43.9%) were married, 29.3% were single and 26.8% had divorced. More so, 78.0% had B.sc and above degrees while 12.2% were school certificate holders and 9.8% were OND and NCE holders. As regards the link between causes of conflict and employees ‘output, while 56.1% of the respondents believed that nothing caused conflict in the workplace, 37.1% strongly disagreed with this view and 7.3% disagreed, however, 4.9% agreed. In respect of types of conflict experienced in relative to employees ‘job performance, 43.9% of the respondents strongly agreed with strike while 24.4% disagreed strongly and 17.7% disagreed, whereas 14.6% agreed. Hypothesis one revealed that there was a significant relationship between causes of conflict and employees’ performance. Hypothesis two equally indicated a significant relationship between types of conflict experienced and employees’ performance. Hypothesis three showed significant relationship between conflict and organizational performance while hypothesis four equally revealed significant relationship between existing methods of conflict management relative to workers’ target in the work place. It was, therefore, recommended that Organizations be it private or public, small or big should formulate and execute policies, programme, rules and actions that are legal and employees based, Conflict in whatever level should not be ignored but should be effectively managed for better employees’ productivity in the workplace. Since conflict is in evitable in an organization, workers at all levels should be trained and given the right behavioral orientation as to reduce the occurrence of conflict at work place.