Managing Industrial Disputes in the Nigeria Teaching Hospitals: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

Disputes will always exist in any system whether they are family, friends, organization, or government.  The only critical element is how to manage dispute to a reasonable extent, such that either parties or any will not feel cheated or undermined in any way.  Industrial dispute follow the same pattern. In Nigeria, specifically, industrial dispute has taken an unprecedented proportion since independence and a geometric level in the 1990s and 2000s.  The general principle surrounding this paper is give Management of Teaching hospitals some key skills that will enable them handle Industrial Dispute in other not to allow the negative predicament of industrial dispute.  Using the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) as a case, we distributed questionnaires to Management staff, Non-management staff, and Resident Doctors.  After analysis, the results showed that several factors are responsible for the incessant strikes in the hospital, chief of which is management inability to honour promises made during negotiation, poor infrastructure and working facilities, and poor remuneration.  Hence, the paper recommends that a well designed conflict management system/structure must be put in place in Teaching Hospitals among others.  The paper adopted the tabular method in presenting data, while Chi-square was used to test the hypothesis stated.

Keywords: Dispute, Conflict, Industrial Dispute, Resolution, Collective Bargaining.