CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE IN SELECTED PUBLIC TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN NASARAWA STATE, NIGERIA

Institutions evaluate different opposing views, conducts, and debates in decisions making. Tertiary institutions are characterized by bureaucracy and hierarchical structure of command, and therefore conflict exists in different aspects. This study investigates the effect of conflict management strategies on the organizational performance of selected public tertiary institutions in Nasarawa State, Nigeria (Isa Mustapha Agwai I Polytechnic Lafia, College of Education Akwanga and Nasarawa State University Keffi) using competing/dominating, accommodating and collaborating conflict management strategies. The study was anchored on human relation theory. A sample size of 348 academic staff were selected across the three tertiary institutions in Nasarawa State using Taro Yamane sample size determination. The responses of the respondents were placed on a five-point Likert scale. The study employed the recent Partial Least Square -Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) in the analysis of the data. The study revealed that all the conflict management strategies studied namely dominating, accommodating and collaborating were found to have significant positive relationship with organizational performance. The study concludes that conflict management has significant positive relationship with organizational performance in selected public tertiary institution in Nasarawa State, Nigeria. The study recommends that management of tertiary institutions in Nigeria, Nasarawa state in particular should be more accommodating, competing and collaborating in decision-making so as to enhance stakeholder participation in conflict management.