Emotional Intelligence and Conflict Management in Selected Universities in South East Zone of Nigeria

This study was necessitated due to the conflicts in Nigerian university system such as the universities’ management and ASUU as it has been a threat to Nigerian educational and social development. This is unwholesome for the university community and Nigeria educational system as a whole. It was for this reason that this research titled emotional intelligence and conflict management in selected Federal universities in South East Zone of Nigeria. This study was anchored on Personality Trait Theory. The population of the study was 2271 and it was obtained from respective selected federal universities in South East Zone of Nigeria. Purposive or judgmental sampling technique was adopted in selecting two universities from a total of six (6) universities in the zone. Taro Yamane’s formula was used to determine a sample size of 340 and Bowley’s proportional allocation formula was used to allocate copies of questionnaire to each of the universities. The study employed survey research design using structured questionnaire to elicit data. The questionnaire developed for this study was subjected to content validity and the reliability obtained was 0.83. The study adopted the use of multiple regression analysis to test the hypothesis at 0.05 significant level. The findings revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between empathy (emotional awareness, self-evaluation) and obliging style of handling conflict in south east zone of Nigeria. The study concluded that empathy helps the school managements and lecturers to be aware of others emotions and react politely to them; and it helps in emotional awareness of one’s limitations and strengths so as to avert and handle conflict in Universities in South East Zone of Nigeria. The researcher recommended that the management of the universities in South East Zone of Nigeria should adopt empathy through emotional awareness, self-evaluation with obliging style of handling conflict so as to enable adequate and effective management of conflict within the university system