Work Place Conflict Management Practice in Private Commercial Banks of Ethiopia
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Date
2021-07
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A.A.U
Abstract
Currently in the banking business environment employees face multiple challenges and obstacles in their daily activities. These threats offer unique challenges for the management to manage their organizations well. The challenges raised in banking organization will impact the employees in one way or another. As such, employees might be faced with interpersonal conflict due to challenges such as differing needs, scarce resources, values and goals among colleagues in the organization. The purpose of this study is to examine the work place interpersonal conflict management strategies practice by private commercial banks in Ethiopia through the application of Thomas-Kilmann’s conflict handling model. Conflict is a common incidence in organizations. Conflict occurs for different reasons in banking sector. The managers must be able to understand why and when conflict arises and how it managed or resolved. Employees have different view point for choosing different conflict management strategies. Descriptive research design was used in the study. Data were collected from 110 respondents from 10 private commercial banks in Ethiopia. Questionnaire was used as main data collection instruments. The data collected from the field were analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques such as percentages and frequencies. The findings of the study suggested that private commercial banks in Ethiopia use all five conflict management strategies of Thomas-Kilmann model such as compromising, collaborating, avoiding, competing and accommodating. But the strategy that was most frequently used is collaborating strategy. Collaborating in conflict management means trying to find the best solution for all parties involved. Parties involved resolving a conflict openly express their concerns and work to find a mutually useful solution. Collaboration leads to creative problem-solving and respect among colleagues in an organization. This style finds the root of a problem, such as personal conflicts, and attends to the situation in the least hostile manner of any conflict-management style. But on the other hand collaborative efforts tend to take more time compared to other conflict resolution strategies. Accommodating, compromising, competing and avoiding strategies were the second, third, fourth and fifth preferred and practiced strategies by employees of private banks respectively. As banking sector in Ethiopia is highly competitive, the employees may focus on long term relationship while resolving conflict. Recommendation also made focusing on management and employee’s role for effective conflict handling. Collaborative workplace culture and responsive management can play very crucial role in this regard.
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Keywords
Conflict management, Accommodating and avoiding