Local Government System and Conflict Management in Nigeria
Chapter One
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The Main Objective of the study is to proffer an appraisal of the local government system and conflict management in Nigeria; The specific objectives include
- To determine the nature and effect of conflict.
- To determine the role of the local government system in conflict management in Nigeria.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
This chapter presents a review of literature about conflict management strategies. The first section focuses on the concept of conflict, its nature, different views about conflict, conflict process, levels, types, causes, effects of conflict on performance and styles for managing conflict. Section two is theoretical review, section three is empirical review of the literature, section four is the synthesis, section five is the conceptual framework and the last section is knowledge gap.
The concept of conflict
Babyegeya (2002: 219) defines conflict as a breakdown of communication between members of an institution or situation where decision are not well understood, hence causing difficulty in selecting an alternative action. Shmidt and Kochan (1972:357) define conflict as a struggle between two parties and characterized by overt expression of hostility and or intentional interference in the goal attainment of the opposing party.
Lippit (1982:68) contends that conflict is a complex phenomenon that occurs in an institution and in work relationship. Lippit further defines conflict as the process which begins when one party perceives that the other has frustrated or is about to frustrate some concern of his/hers. Hence, conflict is caused by unlike points of view.
Darling and Walker (2001:230) viewed conflict as a situation in which it becomes impossible for two or more individuals operating within a unit to exist together. As a situation, conflict is an unpleasant fact in any organization as long as people compete for jobs, resources, power, recognition and security. Organizational conflict can be regarded as a dispute that occurs when interests, goals or values of different individuals or groups are incompatible with each other. This results in a situation whereby they frustrate each other in an attempt to achieve their objectives.
Therefore, conflict is a disagreement of ideas, interests, values and beliefs that occurs between one individual and another or one group or department and another or one organization and another or one country and another. Perceptions, attitudes and styles play an important role in determining whether a conflict leads to beneficial or destructive outcomes.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Area of the Study
The study was conducted in Ojo LGA of Lagos state. The area was chosen because of accessibility of information and materials on the strategies and mechanisms of managing conflict in local government services.
Research design
This study employed a case study design. The design which basically gives explanation of the phenomenon in depth and is a method that was used to narrow down a very broad area of research to make it small so as to manage the resources available to the researcher. As the requirement of this study the case study design was used to fulfil the requirement. The researcher used the case study design because it answered the research questions and objectives of the study.
Study Population
Population refers to an entire group of individuals, events or objectives having common observable characteristics (Mugenda & Mugenda, 2003:9) the target population of the study comprised 100 employees from different departments of Ojo LGA composed of different cadres of 82 employees and 18 Councillors. The study units included 18 Councillors, 1 DED, 13 HODs, 5 HOs, 40 senior officers and other 23 employees from the Council.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
Introduction
This chapter presents the findings, analysis and discussion of the findings obtained from respondents during the study through questionnaires and interviews. The aim of the study was to investigate the conflict management practices in LGAs particularly in Ojo LGA. The findings are based on the objectives of the study.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS
Overview
The aim of any research was to make an investigation into conflict management in Local Government Services in Nigeria. This chapter presents the summary, conclusion and policy implications based on objectives of the study. Different recommendations are addressed to Local Government Authorities and for later researchers.
Summary
The study was conducted with the main objective of examining the conflict management practices in Local Government Authorities particularly in Ojo LGA Council by looking into the types, areas, causes, effects and strategies of conflict management. The study adopted a descriptive research design, with one hundred respondents. Purposive and simple random techniques were used to select respondents where Councilors, District Executive Director, HODs, HOs and other employees were involved in the study. Questionnaire, interview, and documentary review were used as data collection methods.
The research questionnaire was divided into two parts. Part A comprised demographic information while Part B comprised closed and open ended questions like what types of conflicts, areas and causes of conflict, impact of conflicts and strategies or styles used to manage conflict and was done to get perceptions from study participants. The data was analysed based on the computation of various percentages and coefficients using statistical package for social scientists (SPSS). Based on the objectives, the study came out with the following results:
Types of conflict existing in Ojo LGA Council
The findings revealed that the types of conflict existing in Ojo LGA Council are goal conflict, procedural conflict, scarce resource conflict and authority conflict whereby scarce resource conflict ranked first with the frequency of 46% of all respondents and the second is procedural conflict which ranked 39% of the all respondents, authority conflict is the third occupying 11% and goal conflict is the least frequent since as it occupied 4%. From the analysis provided in Table 4.3, in the light of the study, conflicts of all kinds most frequently arise in any institution; likewise, in Ojo LGA Council they cannot be avoided because of differences in interests, goals, perceptions, viewpoints, values and experiences.
Areas of Conflict found in Ojo LGA Council
The areas where conflict existed most frequently in Ojo LGA council according to the sample of respondents of the study are implementation of projects ranked (33%), opportunity for promotion (28%), and availability of training (26%), and employees‟ allowances with the frequency of (1%) The results of the study show that in these areas conflict cannot be avoided because they touch every department and employees are involved directly in their implementation as shown clearly in Figure4.3
Causes of conflict in Ojo LGA Council
The major cause of conflict in Ojo LGA council was lack of teamwork (45%), scarce of resources to meet employees and Council needs which account for 33%, poor communication ranked 16% while differences in attitudes, values and perception ranked lowest with the frequency of 6%). Since conflict is seemingly unavoidable, it is obviously necessary to the management in the Council to be able to recognize the causes or sources of conflict, view its constructive as well as destructive potential, learn how to manage conflict successfully, and implement conflict management techniques effectively.
Effects of conflict in Ojo LGA Council
Conflict within an organization can affect productivity and profitability. When management does not offer conflict resolution, there could be many negative effects in Local Government Authorities. Understanding the negative effects of conflict in the organization could help to emphasize the importance of conflict management. Positive and negative effects were identified by respondents in this study. The negative effects that were identified include lack of essential information on conflict ranked highest (33%), followed by poor productivity ranked (25%), downfall of teamwork ranked (23%) increased labour turnover (2%) while poor cooperation ranked lowest (1%) Therefore, conflict in Ojo LGA Council has both positive and negative effects; the management should handle conflict properly in order to ensure that positive effects are maintained rather than negative effects
The styles or strategies of conflict management in Ojo LGA Council
Conflict management involves implementing strategies to limit the negative aspects and increase the positive aspects. Findings showed that there are various styles, methods or strategies that are mainly used for managing conflict in Local Government Authorities particularly in Ojo LGA council where the study was conducted, these are; bargaining mechanism which ranked first with the frequency of (38%) and the second mechanism used to manage conflict is through meeting (35%) while compromising (21%) ranked the third, avoidance style (6%) ranked lowest. The intention of the study was to achieve its long-term goals of solving and managing conflict in LGAs between top management and employees.
Data Presentation
In the study the researcher analysed data by using group patterns, however the researcher grouped the patterns in categories of findings of interview, questionnaires and written documents in the form of literature review. Two methods were employed to present data after analysis. These statistical techniques used in presenting data analysed were frequency distribution, measure of central tendency and measure of dispersion. While in graphical presentation the researcher presented grouped data by histogram, graph and pie chart. Data analysis and organization procedures involved statistical procedures in the form of frequencies and percentages in such a way that simple comparison among variables was made. These variables included whether employees have been involved in conflict, causes of conflict, types of conflict, effects and strategies to resolve conflicts and ways to reduce conflict in LGAs.
Conclusion
The aim of this study was to achieve its objectives. Based on the objectives of study, the following conclusion is made;
Conflict in LGAs is inevitable as it was seen in Ojo LGA Council. Conflicts arise when people work together and if not solved, they can hinder employees‟ performance, productivity, profitability and prosperity of the Councils in LGAs. From the research findings, it was found that, when there is scarcity of resources, differences in attitudes, poor communications, lack of teamwork, delay in promotion, unequal opportunities of training, poor implementation of projects, inadequacy of allowances, lack of clarity in roles and responsibility, rules and regulations, vision and mission of the Council, conflict may arise. Collective bargaining, meetings, compromising and avoiding are styles or strategies used to solve conflict. The success or failure in solving any particular conflict is determined by the style used and the success of conflict management style is determined much by the types and causes of conflict. Therefore, there is no particular style that can be used to handle every conflict. The Council should facilitate and support a culture of healthy response to conflict.
Policy implications
There is a need for the LGAs to review the budget ceilings, allocation and releasing of funds for employee’s capacity building and development projects timely in Councils so that Council plans including development projects can be accomplished on time. The LGAs should encourage Councils to find other sources of funds that may be used to finance various employees‟ training rather than depending much on funds released by Central Government that cannot meet the Council requirements. Councils should be capacitated on how to conduct sound training needs assessment (TNA) and prepare comprehensive training programmes to reduce conflicts associated with opportunities for training. Furthermore, Councils should have promotion policies that are disclosed to all employees, and employees should be promoted and receive new salaries timely.
Recommendations for improvement
Based on the findings from this study, Conflict Management in Local Government Services in Nigeria should facilitate and support a culture of a healthy response to workplace conflict by considering the following recommendations;
- The Council should conduct regular meetings between the management and employees, this will help the management to know the problems facing their employees as a result occurrence of conflict can be minimized. The integrity and disciplinary committee should be known to all employees and meet regularly so as to handle conflict when it arises.
- Conducting training needs assessment and preparing training programme. The Management should conduct TNA for all employees and prepare Council training programme. This will allow equal opportunities for training employees through long and short course training and this will reduce complaints. Discussions with individual staff and team can encourage reflection on strengths and difficulties experienced when working in the team. This will allow identification of relevant training courses for individuals and groups from different departments.
- Fairness in promoting employees. There should be openness and well known strategies on how to promote employees. For the promoted employees, the management should ensure that changes of employees‟ salaries on payroll are done on time through the system of Lawson (HCMIS) and given their salary arrears claims on time. Also, the management should reduce bureaucracy in handling promotions, salaries and employees‟ deductions in the system of Lawson.
- Clear rules, regulations and well known vision and mission of the Council. There should be clear and well known vision and mission of the Council, clear rules and regulations, roles and responsibilities of employees in order to avoid the possibilities of rising of conflicts. Important public service statutes and other circulars should be disclosed such as the Standing Orders for Public service, Public Service Act, 2002 and its amendments of 2007 and its regulations of 2003, recruitment and employment circulars, promotion, training circulars and others. These will help employees to know their rights and increase performance.
- Good communication is an essential ingredient to leading and building a better understanding with staff, and most importantly it establishes trust, cooperation and teamwork. The most critical communication skill is the capacity to listen. The willingness to listen and understand issues and concerns raised by staff (while not necessarily agreeing with their views or positions) can lead to increased insight, changed outlooks and the generation of solutions to problems. The simple act of bringing people together to talk makes a big difference in the course of conflict. Management of LGA Councils in LGAs should encourage Councilors as well as staff to meet and talk with each other to resolve differences. The DEDs and HODs has a role in encouraging this, and can facilitate positive outcomes by providing staff with guidance on how to approach such difficult conversations.
- Strongest of the mechanisms dealing with employees complaints. The management and mechanisms for dealing with employees‟ complaints in the Council should be strong. The management should have the ability to manage conflict, to deal with situations of conflict effectively when they arise and to create an environment where individuals are skilled and empowered to handle differences with co-workers in a positive and productive.
- Develop strong employee’s management skills. Management should develop strong employees management skills such as motivating staff, sharing information, providing constructive feedback etc. Management should provide clear conflict guidelines to staff and discuss on how conflict is to be managed in the workplace. Staff will have greater commitment to healthy conflict management if the management set time for group discussion on the effects of conflict on performance and positive benefits of well managed conflict.
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