CAUSES OF CONFLICT IN NIGERIA PUBLIC SERVICE

Introduction

Conflict according to Thomas (1977:56), involves direct confrontations between groups or individuals, usually arising in situations where each side perceives that the other is about to frustrate or has already frustrated its major interests”. Rahim (1990), defines conflict as “the opposition arising from disagreements due to incompatible objectives, thoughts or emotions within or among individuals, teams, departments or organization”. This definition exposes three bases of conflict in the Nigeria public service:

Goal conflict: A situation in which desired objectives and preferred outcomes appear to be incompatible among individuals.

Cognitive conflict: A situation in which ideas or thoughts are perceived as incompatible

Effective conflict: A situation in which feelings or emotions are incompatible, that is, people become angry with one another. Another interesting definition of conflict is that given by: Robert and Angelo (2002:361). According to them conflict is “a process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party”. The word perceives in this definition reminds us that sources of conflict and issues can be real or imagined.

CAUSES OF CONFLICT IN NIGERIA PUBLIC SERVICE

It is difficult to state the precise causes of conflict largely because, conflict differ from each other in terms of the combination of factors that give rise to them, and also because conflict is a social phenomena involving human beings and are not given to rigid scientific explanations (Oche, 2001:81).

According to Kreitner, Kinicki and Buelens, (2002:362-363), and Baron (1986:378-379):conflict in Nigerian Public Service can be seen to revolve around the following issues,

• Incompatible personalities or value system.
• Overlapping or unclear job boundaries.
• Competition for limited resources.
• Interdepartmental/intergroup competition.
• Inadequate communication.
• Interdependent tasks (e.g. one person cannot complete his or her assignment until others have completed their work).
• Organizational complexity (conflict tends to increase as the number of hierarchical layers and specialized tasks increase).
• Unreasonable or unclear policies, standards, rules or programme • Unreasonable deadline or extreme time pressure.
• Collective decision making (the greater the number of people participating in a decision, the greater the potential for conflict).

Summarily the following are the major causes to conflict in Nigeria public services

1. Resistance to Change: People get stuck in their habits because they are familiar and easy to follow. With change comes fear of the unknown that not everyone is ready to embrace. Change can be stressful and often results in conflict between a team member and management.It’s helpful to remember that some employees will naturally go through denial, anger, and confusion on their way to embracing change. It’s a common human reaction to resist the unknown and it’s not uncommon for this resistance to turn to hostility.
2. Unclear Job Expectations: A job description with an overview of responsibilities always comes with a new position. But it’s extremely difficult for team members to become top performer without training and coaching. Every position has a learning curve that plays a big role in the future success of the employee.Some people stay at their jobs for years trying to guess what their manager’s expectations are. Others quit and move on. If someone is unsure of how they need to perform, they might lose confidence and get defensive.
3. Poor Communication: Communicating is involved in almost every activity that we do in the workplace. Everyone thinks they’re a great communicator, yet so many conflicts happen because of poor communication.
4. Toxic Work Environment: The way people feel about themselves and others in the workplace greatly affects their productivity. Loving your job doesn’t just mean enjoying your everyday tasks, but also involves being a part of a happy work community. Some companies go the extra mile and design their offices to have ping pong tables, bowling alleys, dog friendly areas, libraries, beer stations, etc. to ensure that their employees feel at home and can perform at their best.
5. Differences in Personality:Any workplace unites people with different backgrounds, temperaments, experiences, and preferences. We don’t become friends with everyone we meet – so we should not expect all team members to get along perfectly either. Although it’s not necessary for all coworkers to be friends, a level of mutual respect is crucial for a healthy workplace culture.
6. Poor Work Habits:Many habits that people demonstrate at work are harmless and even helpful for their personal work performance. Even seemingly unusual ones like getting up few times a day to do sit ups or drinking 3 cups of coffee before lunch can hardly be disruptive to others.

 2b. With a good diagram, explain the various stages of a conflict life cycle.

Robinson (1978) identified the now widely recognized Conflict Cycle – the stages that most organizational of community conflicts go through. While it is worth noting that real life is not as discrete or as linear as the this graph might suggest, and that different stakeholders may reach each point at different times, the value of this cycle lies in using it as a diagnostic tool for determining what’s going on and how you might best intervene.

 

1.     Tension development: Parties begin taking sides. Tension development may appear immediately or over time.

2.     Role dilemma: People involved start asking questions: what is happening, who is right, what should be done? Based on this information they may try to take sides. This may happen at the same time as tension development.

3.     Injustice collecting: Each side seeks to gather support. Each itemizes the problem, justifies their position, and thinks of either revenge or strategies to ‘win’.

4.     Confrontation: The parties meet head-on. If each party holds fast to its side the showdown may cause permanent barriers.

5.     Adjustments: Confrontation may be lessened or avoided by one or both parties making adjustments.

6.     Intervention opportunity:similar to above, gathering and providing objective information, listening to all sides, reframing the challenge, leading a discussion to help all sides see the complexity, values, and perceptions around the issue, brainstorming causes, alternatives and consequences. This stage of the conflict cycle may be the last chance to build trust and establish sense of common ground with respect to either the issue, a solution, or desired outcome.

REFERENCES

Hellriegel, D. Slocum (Jnr), and Woodman, R.W. (1995), Organizational Behaviour (7th Ed), Minneapolis St. Paul: West Publishing.

Ogunna, A.E.C. (1999).Public Administration in Nigeria: Theory and Practice.Owerri: Great Versatile Publishers. Onyenwigwe, P.I. (2006).Elements and Practice of Public Administration in Nigeria.Owerri: Joe Mankpa Publishers.

Rahim, M.A. (Ed), (1979).Theory and Research in Conflict Management, Westport, Conn: Praeger Publishers.