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Full Project – Conflict management in business organisation

Full Project – Conflict management in business organisation

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Click here to Get The Complete Research Project Chapter 1-5

Full Project – Conflict management in business organisation

Click here to Get this Complete Project Chapter 1-5

CHAPTER ONE

 

1.0              INTRODUCTION

Even the happiest family has its rows and upsets. Industrial disharmony is paramount and traceable to human factor in the search for growth and efficiency of economic and commercial ventures. This elicits the apparent need to involve appropriate policies that ensures industrial peace. Conflict therefore is the interactive process manifested in incompatibility, disagreements, or distance within or between social entities. It can also be seen as a process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposes or negatively affected by another party. If two or more parties are not aware of a conflict, then no conflict exists.  When workers feel or imagine that there is misrepresentation, misapplication and non-application of terms and condition of employment, conflict ensures. This can manifest in several subsidiaries terms-quarrels, disputes over wages, over hours of work, impromptu payment of wages, over load duties, labour turnover, absentees etc.

In some situation, an organization may stimulate conflict by placing individual employees or groups in competitive situation. People may compete with one another to protect popular members or onset unpopular members. Most people assume that conflict must be avoided because it connotes antagonism, hostility, unpleasantness and dissension.

Indeed, managers and management theorists have traditionally viewed conflict as a problem to be avoided. In recent years, however we have come to recognize that thought conflict can be beneficial for example, when two members of a site selection committee disagree over the location of new plant, each may be forced to more thoroughly study and defend his or her preferred alternative.

As long as conflict is handled cordially and constructively, it is probably serving a useful purpose in the organization.

On the other hand, when working, relationships are disrupted and the conflict has reached destructive levels it has likely become complacement and apathetic. As a result, organizational performance and innovation may subsequently being to suffer. A tolerant level of conflict among organizational members on the other hand can speak motivation, creativity and initiative and raise performance. Conflict though can produce undesirable results such as hostility and lack of co-operation, which lowered performance.

Mangers must find and maintain the optional amount of conflict that foster performance of course, what constitutes optimal conflict varies with the situation and the people involved.

1.1     HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Conflict management involves implementing strategies to limit the negative aspect of conflict and to increase the positive aspect of conflict at a level equal to or higher than where the conflict is taking place. Furthermore, the aim of conflict management is to enhance learning and group out comes (effectiveness or performance in organizational setting) (Rahim, 2002, p.208). it is not concerned with eliminating all conflict or avoiding conflict. Conflict can be valuable to group and organizations. It has been show to increase group outcomes when managed properly (e.g. Alper, Tjosvold, and law, 2000: Bodtker and Jameson, 2001; Rahim and Bonoma, 1979; Khun and people, 2000).

Supervisors spend more than 25% of their time on conflict management, and managers spend more than 18% of their time on rational employee conflicts. These figures have doubled since the mid 1980’s. Companies have distinguished some key factor as ‘the growing complexity of organizations, use of terms and group decision making, and globalization’.

(Lang, 2009.p.240). The United Kingdom’s defense department realized that the new concept of dealing with them that matters. (Afisher, 2010, P.429).

It is now becoming more evident that this is something that companies and managers need to recognize, and deal with conflicts significantly affects employee morale, turnover, and litigation, which affects the property of a company either constructively or destructively. (Lang, 2009, p.240)

Turnover can cost a company 200% of the employee’s annual salary. (Maccoby and scudder, p. 48). The historical evolution of conflict management started in the 1950s and 1960s, at the height of the cold war, when the development of nuclear weapons and the conflict between the super powers seemed to threaten human survival. A group of pioneers from different disciplined saw the value of studying conflict as a general phenomenon, with similar properties whether it occurs in international relations, domestics politics, industrial relations, communities, families or  between individuals.

Nevertheless, the new ideas attracted interest, and the field grew and spread during the 1970s and 1980s. The number of scholarly journals and institutions rapidly increases. The field development its own subdivisions, with different group studying international crises, internal wars, social conflicts and approaches raging from negotiations and mediation to experimental games

  • STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

From the onset, one should state the fact that conflict does not necessarily indicate managerial failure but rather it is an inevitable but essential part of organizational behavior. Organizational management is filled with lots of conflict resolution problems because of scare resource, ideas and attention.

Conflict occurs when two or more people want the same thing and there is not enough to go round. Because of this scarcity, conflict has become an every day occurrence in our personal and job lives.

The research therefore observed, there are probable causes of conflict in a business organization. If such causes are not tackled from the grass root, they may continue to rear their ugly heads.

Today, many workers feel that conflict can not be avoided. It is this feeling that regularly creates conflict in a business organization such as PZ industries   PLC Aba. Staff of many organizations does not understand when to compete in such organizations so as to make the competition a healthy one and conflict free. This negative trend traces its roots to the notion that ‘the end justifies the means.’

Nowadays, there is incessant conflict between the worker (trade union) and the management of business organizations. This is so because either the workers are not putting their best to enable the organization make profit and achieve stated objectives or the management is not reciprocating the workers efforts by motivating them adequately.

Resolving conflict is a highly fatiguing and process which most managers in some business organizations lack the skills of conflict management. This in most cases crates more conflict from the management of the previous ones.

  • PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose or objective of this study is to

  • Identify the root causes of conflict in an organization.
  • Ascertain ways of resolving conflict in a business organization.
  • Identify the various outcomes of conflict in a business organization
  • Suggest ways of avoiding conflict.
  • Convince conflicting parties to compromise.
    • SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Considering the importance of conflict management in an organization, it is without doubt that a lot of people and groups have much to gain from this study, especially; this study is significant to the following:

  1. Management and staff of an organization will develop adequate skills in tackling conflict in their departments.
  2. This study will be a good guide to many future researchers who would wish to improve on what the present researcher has written.
  • Student of Business Administration and management, public Administration, labour leader and many others have a lot to gain from this work, being future managers. They will learn how to manage conflict.
  1. More significantly, this study will unveil to the government, the need to improve conflict management in organization, especially as it affect N.U.T, NULG,ASUU, NME and others in order to ensure good ‘labour’ relationship.
    • RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
  1. What are the main causes of conflict in an organization?
  2. Why is it important for managers to try reducing manifest conflict and creating good conflict after?
  3. What are the main conflict resolution strategies?
  4. Arbitration of conflicting parties to a compromise in an organization was no significant relationship with the workers union involvement in settlement of conflict.
  • SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study is concerned with the conflict management in organization. A case study of PZ industries plc Aba. Within this scope various aspect of conflicts management are reviewed.

  • LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

In the process of carrying out this study, the researcher encountered a lot of problems, some of the difficulties encountered include:

  1. TIME CONSTRAINTS: The time for this research work to be completed and submitted was limited. The research was also entrapped in other related academic works like writing term parts, attending lectures, and preparing for examinations. These made the time for the research very short. It was not an easy exercise.
  2. FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS: the finance in hand during the time of this research was merger and inadequate to carryout exhaustive research.
  • LACK OF MATERIALS: Another problem encountered was the difficulty of obtaining relevant data. The school library is not properly equipped in the relevant books for the study, so the researcher could not make mush use of the library. As a result of the problem stated above, attempts to get relevant data and materials could not be possible.
  1. UNCOMPROMISING ATTITUDES OF SOME RESPONDENTS: Some of the respondents unnecessarily delayed returning the questionnaires while some waited until I came before they completed the questionnaires were not adequately and correctly filled.

 

  • DEFINITION OF TERMS

CONFLICT:       A process that beings when one party perceives that another party have negatively affected or is about to negatively affect something that the first party cares about.

N.U.T:                 Nigeria union of Teachers.

NULGE:              Nigeria union of local government Employees

ASUU:                Academic staff union of universities.

TRADE UNION: Any combination of workers or employers, whether temporary or permanent, the purpose of which is to regulate the terms and condition of employment.

STAFF:               The collection of clerical, secretarial, technical and perhaps managerial personnel in an organization as district from the wage earning and manual workers.

EMPLOYER:      This refers to person or organization that employs others.

EMPLOYEES:    One who earns his income by working for someone else?

EMPLOYMENT: The use of labour by an organization as a means of providing services or as a factor of productions.

  • BRIEF HISTORY OF PZ INDUSTY PLC ABA.

Peterson-Zochonis popularly called PZ industries plc was incorporated on 4th December, 1948 under the name of PB N Nicholas and company limited to take over the soap making activities of Mr. Nicholas who has some years prior to that date established a factory for that purpose Paterson Zochonis and companies limited of Manchester subscribed 75.5 percent of the company’s issued share capital and has since directly or through companies subsidiary retained the controlling interest. PZ, itself incorporated in England in 1884 because a public company quoted on the London and Northern stock Exchange in 1952. its principle activity is that of general merchants in west African and it has been established in this capacity in Nigeria since 1899. in 1951, the company achieve its first indigenous Nigeria equity participation and by the end of 1972, it had sold 40percent of its share capital to indigenous Nigeria.

In accordance with the federal government directives (indigenization), it sold another 20 percent of its share to Nigeria in 1976 making it 60 percent for Nigeria. Following the merger of PZ and co. (nig) ltd and Association industries ltd in 1976, the company changed its name to Paterson-Zochonis industries limited. After incorporation in 1948, new factory buildings were installed at Aba thereby cresting one of the major earlier industrial manufacturing unit in Nigeria. The company’s manufacturing facilities were further developed during the 1960’s both by addition to the soap making capacity and by the introduction of a wide range of perfumery cosmetics and medicinal products. The original soap factory premises at Aba are no longer used for manufacturing purpose both extensive factory and administrative premises have been built up there over the years. The company is well known through its products such as Duck, Premier and Joy soap ,Robb ointment, Mintas super mints, Jet hair cream, Pomades, Venus de Milo, Dan fulan, Elephant detergent to mention but a few.

In addition, the company has significant export of glycerin and oil cake, by products of the soap making process which utilizes substantial tonnages of palm oil and other vegetable oil purchased locally. The increasing popularity of detergents indicated by market surveys and close end – use association between the company’s existing soap products and detergents gave raise to a decision to extend the Range of products to include detergent factory complex was constructed at ikorodu and was completed by 1983 and had a production capacity of over 50,000 tons per annum. In 2003 PZ cussions plc enter in to a joint venture (Nutricima) with Glanbia plc to supply evaporated milk and milk powdered in Nigeria in 2007, then change its name to PZ cussions Nigeria plc in the same year.

In 2010 PZ cussions plc enters into a joint venture (PZ Wilmar ltd) with wilmar international to build a palm oil refinery in Nigeria and build up an association food ingredients business.

 

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