Conflict and Conflict Management: It’s Role in Work Environment

Abstract

This paper examines the role of conflict and conflict management in work environment. We say that in every work environment there is always the tendency for conflict to arise as long as people of different background interact. Conflict was found to be a universal phenomenon and so it is inevitable. What happens during the interaction of these people informed the need to investigate conflict and conflict management in work environment and its consequences. The epistemological bases of the discourse derive from the conceptual framework. The paper discusses the meaning of conflict, conflict management as well as possible causes of conflicts in work environment. It also looked at the dark side of conflict explaining the individual behavior under conflict situation. It was found that when we are in conflict, we tend to say things we do not mean and mean things we do not say, and that conflict arises when individual's expectation is negatively affected. We found that conflict is neither bad nor good depending on how it is handled. The paper peeped into available means of managing conflict in work environment which some involved statutory provisions of the Trade Union Dispute Decree 7 of 1976 in the case of Nigeria. It is not healthy not to experience conflict in work environment because it can be beneficial to the organization. The paper concludes that every forms of disaffection which leads to conflict in work environment should be eliminated.

Keywords: conflict, conflict management, work environmremt, parties to dispute, settlement.