Full Project – ASSESSMENT OF PRINCIPAL STRATEGIES IN MANAGING CONFLICT IN SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Full Project – ASSESSMENT OF PRINCIPAL STRATEGIES IN MANAGING CONFLICT IN SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Conflict, an age long social phenomenon, is as old as mankind. Experiences world over have shown that there is no human society without conflict because citizens continually struggle over values, claims to status, power and scarce resources. In this regard, conflict can take many forms including physical confrontation, disagreement and direct competition and sometime wanton destruction of life and property. In extreme cases, conflict leads to devastation of life and property. Obi (2004) sees conflict as human and social problems which involves mutual hostility, differences, disagreement, opposition resulting to man‟s inhumanity to man, use of violence, turning point or crisis which can escalate to the level of psychological warfare or physical or naked war. Conflict which is a product of interaction between or among people usually has ulterior motives. The conflicting parties or individuals have peculiar interest they represent, pursue, protect or project. In other words, conflicts occur as a result of social, religious, cultural, political, professional or occupational considerations or dissimilarities in opinions, interests, social and intellectual discrimination. Conflict as it affects Secondary School system means misunderstanding or disagreement between or among students and students, teachers and teachers, students and teachers, students and principal, teachers and principal and school and host community. Conflicts could be triggered by examination malpractices, injustice in disciplinary issues, appropriation of school resources amongst staff and general insensitivity. All these conflict issues require strategies for their management.

The word „strategy‟ is derived from the Greek word „strategi‟ which means „command of a general or the act of a commander-in-chief‟. According to Oboegbulem (2010), the term „strategy‟ was first used in the military to describe the grand plan for winning a war, but in recent times the term has been generally applied to business firms and other organisations including educational institutions. There is demand therefore for effective management to attain such success.

Management is the guidance or direction of people towards the actualization of organisational goals and objectives. Mgbodile (2004) defines management as the co-ordination of all the resources of an organisation through the process of planning, organising, directing and controlling in order to attain organisational objectives. Peretomode (1996) sees management as the social or interactional process involving a sequence of co-ordinated events-planning, organising, co-ordinating and controlling or leading in order to use available resources to achieve a desired outcome in the fastest and most efficient way. Also Koontz, O‟Donnel and Wechrich (1980) present management as a set of activities which is primarily concerned with planning, organising, staffing, controlling and co-ordinating. It can be inferred from the above definition that management is a social process which have goals to achieve and these goals are actualized through planning, organizing, staffing, directing, controlling and coordinating of the efforts and activities of people in an organisation. In general, management is the mobilisation and exploitation of human and material resources of an organisation to achieve the organisational goals. It is executed through planning, organising, staffing, controlling and co-ordinating. The teacher is a potential classroom or school manager.

Chiaha (2005) defines a teacher as a person with registrable professional qualification that enables him to be appointed to teach in any recognized educational institution and should be physically fit, have sound mind and be mentally alert. A head teacher or principal is a teacher who by virtue of his/her academic attainment, cadre or whatever is appointed by the State Universal Basic Education Board through the Local Government Education Authority to spearhead the management of a primary institution. In general, school as an educational organisation which is always in continuous interaction with staff (tutorial and non tutorial staff), students etc faces conflict challenges that require particular plans to avert these challenges so that the stated educational objectives can be attainable.

In Secondary Schools, conflicts commonly occur when teachers are scrambling or struggling for a fair share of farm products from the school farm, students‟ handicrafts, equal share of edibles during end of term/year parties or ceremonies organised by colleagues. Conflicts are also recorded when arguments ensue over administrative lapses and inconsistencies in encouraging teachers‟ sense of achievement. Experiences show that when a teacher records some exclusive performance in the course of discharging his/her duties, the head teacher sometimes fails to recognize or appreciate such outstanding achievement by way of awarding prices or giving incentives. This behaviour usually arouses anxiety in the teacher therefore bringing conflict precisely between the teacher and his/her boss. Conflicts occur among students over who becomes the class leader or which house appears victorious in founder‟s day competition or between students and teachers over examination scores or bullying and general disobedience amongst school children to teachers. Conflict could occur between schools in a sports competition say a football match. Conflict could also occur between schools and the host community over school land boundary or failure of one in achieving its duties and responsibilities which have reciprocal interdependence, and so on and so forth. All these conflicts need to be amicably resolved or managed well in order to develop, achieve and sustain the stated goals of the organisation. Hence, Marx in Enyi (2001) posited that unrestrained conflicts as currently experienced in many organisations are becoming so dysfunctional that they tend to be destroying the organisations themselves. Also Fadipe (2000) affirmed that conflict within school organisation leads to disruptions and therefore impedes the attainment of educational goals. Thus these challenges need appropriate management.

Conflict management entails the process by which certain strategies are introduced and utilized in an organisation to control conflict and its distractions. These processes are handling disagreement in opinion, seeking ways of avoiding or terminating violence between people, controlling discord in opinion due to human interaction. Onwura (2010) observed that conflict management requires skills which are emotionally based and reflect self esteem and flexibility on the part of administrators. Conflict management or resolution requires intelligent and dispassionate troubleshooter totally endowed with natural wit and charisma that will enable him/her cope with the demands of conflict management.

Conflict management strategies are skills that can be administered to control conflict in a conflict situation. Ting-Toomey, Oetzel and Yee-Jung (2001) define conflict management strategies as general tendencies or mode of patterned responses to conflict in a variety of antagonistic interactive situations. Putnam (1988) views conflict management strategies as choice, intention or plan of action based on a person‟s goals and his or her analysis of the situation. Rahim (1983) identified five major conflict management strategies.  They  are:  Integrating,  Obliging,    Dominating, Avoiding and Compromising.

Integrating: A person who uses Integrating to manage conflict has a high concern for self and a high concern for others. This style focuses on effectively dealing with conflict in a collaborative way. It is merely involving openness, exploiting alternatives and exchanging differences to resolve the conflict.

Obliging: The Obliging style of conflict management has a low concern for self and high concern for others. This means one party essentially gives in or succumbing to the other in order to resolve the conflict. It is associated with attempting to ameliorate the differences and highlight the common ground to satisfy the concern of the other party.

Dominating: This strategy has a high concern for self and a low concern for others. It entails a person considering his/her interests and disregarding the other party. He arrogantly assumes that there is no conflict situation, yet there is. Here, one party goes all out to win his/her objectives and as a result often ignores the needs of the other party.

Avoiding: This involves a low concern for self and a low concern for others. This method does not allow for a well-resolved conflict because a person who uses the avoiding method disregards the conflict by being evasive (Gross & Guerrero, 2001). Avoiding strategy means a party failing to satisfy his/her own concern as well as the concern of the other party.

Compromising: This strategy has intermediate levels of concern for both self and others. Compromising as a conflict management strategy represents a middle ground; the individual is focused on his or her goals and the goals of the other party. The parties involved sacrifice some areas of their interest in order to allow peace reign.

The major causes of conflicts in the Secondary Schools in Alimosho LGA are numerous and varied to include: Differences in status of people; role allocation; inadequate physical facilities and equipment; inadequate evaluation mechanism; differences in performance criteria and reward system; role dissatisfaction; disagreement over goals; denial of teachers/students voice in decision making; difference in personal traits, background, values, and perceptions of people; poor communication skills; style of management and incompetence; poor attitude to work; the use of generational gap; anti-authority and prejudice.

These inadvertently ignite quarrels, misunderstanding and consequently fighting in the schools. This means that some considerable time and meager resources allocated to education for the period which should have been utilized for the achievement of the objectives of the organisation are now wasted to disputation. Song, Dyer and Thieme (2006) opined that conflict is a frequent occurrence in the workplace and consumes up to 20% of employees‟ time. In the light of these, the researcher deemed it necessary to explore and investigate the appropriate conflict management strategies that are utilized by principal and teachers in the management of conflicts in Secondary Schools in Alimosho LGA.

 

Statement of the Problem

There had been reported cases of misunderstanding and disharmony amongst teachers in Secondary Schools in Alimosho LGA caused by poor attitude to work; differences in personal traits, background, values and perceptions of people, poor communication skills; style of management and incompetence, denial of teachers/students participation during decision; role dissatisfaction; disagreement over goals; differences in performance and reward systems; role allocation; inadequate physical facilities and equipment; inadequate evaluation mechanism and differences in status of people. All these trigger conflicts which impeded academic activities in Secondary Schools in the area. The bizarre effects of conflict range from breakdown of communication and social cooperation, disruption of academic activities to instability, anarchy, chaos, rancour, acrimony, aggression, suspicion and superstition, emotional accusation and sometime litigation. Following these unacceptable situations, the present study attempts to explore the conflict management strategies utilized by principal and teachers in conflict situations in Secondary Schools in Alimosho LGA. Therefore, the problem of the study posed as a question is: What are the conflict management strategies used by principal in the management of conflicts in Secondary Schools in Alimosho LGA?

Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the utilization of the principal strategies in managing conflicts in selected Secondary Schools in Alimosho LGA in Lagos State. Specifically, the study seeks to:

1. Identify conflict management strategies used by principal to manage conflicts between the principal and teachers.
2. Identify conflict management strategies used by principal to manage conflicts between teachers and students.
3. Ascertain the conflict management strategies used by principal to manage conflicts between principal and students.
4. Identify the conflict management strategies employed by principal to manage conflicts amongst teachers.
5. Ascertain the conflict management strategies used by principal to manage student related conflicts.
6. Identify the conflict management strategies utilized by principal to manage conflicts between school and host community.

Significance of the Study

Dechurch and Marks (2001) established what they claimed was a „meta-taxonomy‟ that encompasses all other models of conflict management into two dimensions – Activeness and Agreeableness. Activeness is the extent to which conflict behaviours make a responsive and direct impression rather than inert and indirect one while Agreeableness make a pleasant and relaxed impression rather than unpleasant and strainful impact. In other words, they perceive conflict behaviour as having both open and closed expressions and tendencies that require passionate approach. Irrespective of the disorganising nature of conflict in organisation, there is tendency for agreement afterward when approached with the befitting management skills. This agreement (understanding) when achieved generates peace, harmony and progress in the organisation This study will benefit the Ministry of Education and the government, the community, the students, the teachers, the principal and further researchers.

The findings of the study will benefit the ministry of Education and the government in general in the sense that the areas that generate conflicts in educational institutions will be unraveled and the appropriate management strategies for averting these conflicts in the system outlined. This will pave way for conducive environment for effective teaching and learning in the system and the consequent realization of educational objectives.

The community will benefit from the findings of this study because if the school runs smoothly, the set goals and aspirations will be achieved. This situation will make it possible for the production of individuals who are worthy in both character and learning and so be useful to the community and fit in the society in general. The community will de-emphasise conflicting with the school since they have been educated on the negative effects of conflicts in the affairs of man.

Students will also benefit from the findings of the study as little or no time slated for academic activities shall be wasted because of conflict. Since no energy is decipated as a result of conflict, teachers will be committed to their work for the primary benefits of the students.

The principal will benefit from the findings of the study as the causes of conflicts in Secondary Schools shall be discussed. They shall avail themselves the need for allocation of job and scarce resources of the school without prejudice, this proper allocation is of course a conflict management skill. This will keep the schools in sound footing for effective teaching and learning.

The findings of the study will be beneficial to the teachers since a well managed conflict situation ameliorates teachers stress. This reduction in teachers stress and strain enhances job performance and satisfaction.

The findings of the study will benefit students researchers as they can lay hand on the work and source for the required information/material for further researches.

 

Scope of the Study

The study is to be carried out at Alimosho LGA, Lagos state, Nigeria. The content scope covered conflict management strategies of principal in management of conflicts between principal and teachers, between teachers and students, between principal and students,conflicts amongst teachers, amongst students and between principal and host community in Secondary Schools in the zone.

 

Research Questions

The following research questions will guide the study:

• What are the conflict management strategies used by principal to manage conflicts between principal and teachers?
• What are the conflict management strategies used by principal to manage conflicts existing between teachers and students?
• What are the conflict management strategies used by principal to manage conflicts between principal and students?
• What are the conflict management strategies employed by principal to manage conflicts existing amongst teachers?
• What are the conflict management strategies used by principal to manage student related conflicts?
• What are the conflict management strategies used by principal to manage conflicts between school and host community?

 

Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses have been formulated to guide the study. Each will be tested at 0.05 level of significance.

HO1: There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of principal and teachers on the use of conflict management strategies to manage conflicts between principal and teachers.

HO2: There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of principal and teachers on the use of conflict management strategies to manage conflicts existing between teachers and students.

HO3: The mean ratings of principal and teachers on the use of conflict management strategies to manage conflicts between school and the host community will not differ significantly.

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Full Project – ASSESSMENT OF PRINCIPAL STRATEGIES IN MANAGING CONFLICT IN SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS