Conflict Management and Organisation Performance in Nigerian Tertiary Institution

Background: Tertiary institutions in Nigeria operate in a turbulent environment that truncates their academic performance. Tertiary institutions are faced with numerous challenges in which conflict is essential to it. This prompts a need for appropriate strategies that would help them to build a healthy and uninterrupted working environment that would improve their performance. The question is now whether conflict management strategies adopted by the Federal Government of Nigeria as the employer (Management) to make a truce with the academic staff union of universities are jointly working to resolve the conflict between them that degenerated into industrial action. This study investigates how tertiary institutions in Nigerian strategically managed conflict to influence performance in their organisation. Materials and Methods: It explored quantitative technique, the questionnaire was distributed to 357respondents using a convenience sampling technique. Data collected were analysed with multiple regressions. Results: The results statistically indicated that conflict management determinants (i.e. compromising and accommodation strategies) has a positive significant association with the organisation performance. The finding revealed that strategic management of conflict has a positive significant impact on the performance of organisation in Nigerian tertiary institutions. Conclusion: The study implication showed that failure to utilise conflict management strategy effectively can impede organisational performance. The study suggested that the Federal Government of Nigeria need to make a critical change for the better strategies and focus on accommodation strategy, compromising strategyas well as alternative dispute resolution (ADR) to create a sense of belonging and avoid industrial action