Conflict Management and Resolution in Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Anambra State

Abstract

This study looked at the extent to which conflict management and resolution affect productivity in small and medium scale enterprises in Anambra state. The objectives of the study include to identify the causes of conflict in small and medium scale enterprises, to highlight the positive and negative causes of conflicts, to evaluate the strategies for managing them and to assess to which worker’s productivity are affected by conflicts.This study utilized data from primary and secondary sources, the primary sources was gathered from questionnaire and personal interview while the secondary sources was from the use of textbooks, journals, magazines, newspapers etc. The study was aimed at finding the best methods of managing conflicts in small and medium scale enterprise in Anambra state. The researcher introduced the research topic by studying the background of the topic, formulating the research questions and hypothesis. The study also led the researcher to review some work done by other researchers on the topic, also, the study discussed the research methodology used for the topic which was the survey method and the methods used for the analysis of the data collected. Subsequently, the study discussed the data collected also the tests of hypotheses was carried out using such instruments as the T- test statistical tools and Pearson Correlation Coefficient. The result of the analysis revealed that there really exists conflicts in small and medium scale enterprises and there are consequences of such conflicts in the organizations studied and the strategies used by management in resolving conflicts in their organizations did not yield positive results. The study at the end of the work discussed the summary of the major findings of the research which revealed that that workers’ productivity is affected by conflicts, to this end, the study recommended among others that better strategies should be adopted by management in resolving conflicts in their organizations, such strategies include in-house resolution, dialogue etc, this will ensure that everyone is carried along and it will make for optimal performance of staff in the organization.