Workplace Conflict Management Styles: Comparative Study of Indian and Nigerian Employees

Abstract

Conflict is all pervasive in nature and organizations around the world are not untouched with it. Present study deals with interpersonal conflict in corporate and academic organizations of India and Nigeria on a comparative basis. The study has a non-experimental, descriptive, and quantitative research design, in which a sample size of 103 Indian and 88 Nigerian employees was analyzed through stratified random sampling. Statistical measures like Cronbach’s alpha, One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and associated Games Howell procedure for multiple comparisons, bivariate correlation and chi square tests were employed to analyze the data. Examination of various independent variables and findings of the research reveal that there is a significant difference in how employees of both the countries differ in their approach to conflict handling. Interpersonal conflict understanding is crucial for smooth functioning of globalized organizations. Managers today are devising innovative handling techniques as conflict poses a great challenge for them. The present study can facilitate the management practitioners in understanding the concept and its implications in Indian and Nigerian context, the two countries which share a very warm, solid and seasoned socio-economic relationship.

Keywords: Organizations, Conflict, Handling Style, Employees, India, Nigeria