ABSTRACT
The broad objective of this work is to Appraise Industrial
conflict in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions with a particular reference to
Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu. The study investigated the
causes and management of Industrial conflict in the institution and how such
conflicts are managed by labour and management. The study employed the survey
research method, which was adopted in eliciting information through
questionnaire. The population used for the study comprised academic and
non-academic staff of the institute totaling four hundred and sixty-eight
(468). The sample size was two hundred and sixteen (216) staff out of 468,
which was drawn using Yaro Yamani’s formular for determining sample size.
Questionnaire and interview were the main research techniques adopted for data
collection. Three hypothesis were formulated to guide the study. Data were also
collected from both primary and secondary sources. The data collected were
analysed using percentage distribution and chi-square at 0.05 level of
significance were used to test the hypotheses. The major findings of the study
revealed that the causes of industrial conflicts are mostly as a result of poor
remunerative structure, poor communication network between the labour and the
management, denial of promotions, poor working conditions and management
interference in the union activities. Others are dispute arising from
non-payment of salary and fringe benefits. It was concluded that conflicts of
interest are inevitable between management and labour. Thus, there is need to
pay serious attention to the causes of industrial conflicts to prevent the
occurrence. Based on the findings, the study recommends that both the
management and labour unions should be partners in progress for better understanding
and smooth administration of the institution. Thus, there should be improvement
of communication network between labour and management. Staff welfare and other
necessary staff demands should be unanimously tackled by the management and
labour unions and dialogue should be adopted while resolving conflict in the
institution. Finally, management is advised not to involve themselves in the
activities of the labour union in the Institute of Management and Technology,
Enugu.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND
OF THE STUDY
An organisation can
achieve its objectives only if its members cooperate and coordinate their
efforts toward a common goal. For this to occur, everyone must subordinate a
degree of individual and personal freedom to the organisation. Such behaviour
is not achieved, however without a struggle and therefore the possibility of
conflict and conflict situations.
Life generally is full of
conflict. Conflict cannot be ruled out in people’s life. Conflicts are found in
families, organistions, nations, market places and even along the streets.
Conflict is widely seen as one
of the persistent problems in organisational life. The fact of its centrality
is indicated by the fact that even in organisations where it appears to have
been eliminated like Japanese firms and ‘high tech’ companies, there still
exists high level of work pressure and a tendency for conflict and tensions to
be internalized within employees, rather than being expressed as open disputes
between management/leadership and the worker (Eze, 1997). Thus, people who
claim that conflict can be eliminated misunderstand how organisations work.
A conflict arises within an
organisation when one or more of its members (individuals, groups or network of
groups) covertly or overtly oppose another member or group. Their goals, desire
and interests are not only unharmonious; they may also be incompatible (Akpala,
1990).
The history of the colonial
state and industrial conflicts and industrial relations dates back to the
period of the European rivalries before and during the 1884/85 Berlin West
African Conference, which consequently led to the well known scramble for
African territories. Thus in 1860 and 1910 Lagos was cease by Britain, by 1862
most of Africa and Nigeria were in military occupation following the
pacification exercise (Otobo, 1992). As a result of this, indigenous political
authorities lost their sovereignties and were subjected to colonial
administration. This occupation greatly accelerated the creation of Nigeria
Wage Labour Force and Conflicts. Thereafter as a result of the conscription of
workers to be engaged in the construction of infrastructural facilities mostly
in the building of houses, construction of roads, bridges, ports, railways and
other works of public importance (Ejiofor and Aniagbo, 1984).
The colonial
Industrial Relations policies in Nigeria implied the attempt by the colonial
administration to regulate employment and establish control over work processes.
The creation of Wage Labour Force was to meet the commercial needs of both
local and European interest. The creation of Labour Force and the creation of
various indigenous communities to official policies along with the activities
of the private employers and also the pressure from the White Hall in London
instigated the colonial government to promulgate colonial labour policies for
dealing with employers operating in various communities in the colonies, and
hence the development of industries relations and conflicts management
techniques in the colonial territories.
The basis of the colonial state
labour policies was laid after Lagos became a colony in 1900. Labour became a
reserved problem to the colonial office in several ways. As a result of
widespread slave trading which made it difficult to create a labour market and
to develop a stable labour force to secure a ready market for imported consumer
goods and wares to generate conditions favourable for colonial trade and other
commercial activities of increasing importance to both the metropolitan
business circle and the European national rivalries.
Military approach
was adopted for the conscription of people into labour gangs, army platoons and
battalions (Akpala, 1990). The immediate objective was for the construction of
roads and rail lines. This class of labour was officially regarded as casual,
temporary with no wage paid; accommodation was not provided, work was regarded
as a duty despite element of compulsion in the recruitment of labourers, such
labourers were expected to return to their houses at the end of the day. Such a
system could not cope with laying of lines across the country, and other
activities for the colonial government across the far uninhabited land. This
tendency produced mass desertions, agitation and often open revolt which forced
the colonial government into the introduction of wages, such wages were too low
but upsetting to the colonial officials who had grown used to utilizing forced
indigenous labour without pay. This was the genesis of labour conflict in the
colonial labour circle Halimatu (2002) also stated that little was known about
specific policies of consultation or negotiation inside and outside the public
administration at the time of such processes as existed seemed to have been related with European affairs whose condition
of service and terms were settled by the council office in London.
This condition contrasted
sharply with those of the indigenous African public servants. Ubeku (1975)
accounts that the procedures adopted surprisingly sophisticated in the colonial
territory suited the colonial officials as it was intensively administered, was
the beginning source of labour conflict in the colony.
Other factors that
promoted labour conflict are the issues of how the general population of
Africans lived in slums, including the few African civil servants, thus
differentials in housing policy, fringe benefits that provide strong grounds
for agitation by the press, professional classes and the nationalist of every
kind between the colonial officials, government, Africans and nationalist.
The most celebrated case was
the 1891 strike by the staff of the Public Works Department (PWD) whose salary
was unceremoniously slashed over night by the Governor who considered the low
wage still high (Ubeku, 1975). This low wages were systematically rationalized
in respect of labourers and forced labour, when mass desertions, compelled
private and state authorities to pay token wages.
Labour conflict began as
communal protests by temporary stoppages of work embarked upon by identified
group of workers, such as the labourers.
Fajana (1995) noted
that these strikes escalated and generalized into African protest against
colonial administration and European private employers; for instance, the
eminent strikes of 1897 and 1947 by employees of United African
Company in Burutu. In 1945 local coal miners’ protests in Enugu were good
examples. Another type of conflict resulted from the nature of work and manner
of recruitment of labour to the highhandedness of physical supervision, which
was induced by the forced labour policy all over the colony.
Labour conflict moved from 30
cases in 1956/57 to 49 cases in 1957/58 and further to 53 in 1958/59 with
corresponding increase in loss of resources (Imaga, 1990). Demachi (1989)
contends that disputes between 1955/56 and 1958/59 led to the loss of a total
of 974, 095 man-days to strike in Nigeria.
In 1982, a total of
8,221, 761man days were lost to strikes involving 756,394 workers.
Respectively, Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) went on strike for four
and six months in 1993 and 1994 to push government to implement the 1992 ASUU
Federal Government Agreement (Egbokhare, 2001).
Industrial conflict in Nigerian
tertiary institutions are not peculiar to Institute of Management and
Technology, Enugu but such that bedeviled the management and administrative set
up of other tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
These problems were envisaged
at University of Nigeria Nsukka between the management and students over
increase in school fees from 2009-2010, Federal Polytechnic, Nekede 2001-2002
between the Student Union Government and Management on the welfare of students
and Federal Polytechnic, Idah 2002-2004 over the issue of staff welfare and so
on.
In
the Institute of Management and Technology Enugu, we discovered
during the pilot study that some of the problems of industrial conflicts,
which was discussed verbally by the staff of the institution were
as follows:
*
State interference in education
*
Overbearing influence of government
in the appointment of Rector and Council Chairman and management interference
in union activities.
These and other
allied factors culminated into investigating the above problems.
1.2 STATEMENT
OF THE PROBLEM
Tertiary
institutions are formal organizations with special goals of channeling and
shaping the destiny of mankind. Through teaching, research and public service
(Obani, 1995), they produce individuals who through their intellectual
contributions to society better the lots of mankind (Federal Government of
Nigeria, 2000). These goals are accomplished through human cooperative action
(Onah, 2005), between management and staff (academic and non-academic). Some
shared and opposed interests are found when workers and management work
together. Those shared enhance industrial harmony and peace, while those opposed generate industrial conflict (Crouch, 1977).
Differences between workers and management in terms of goals, needs, talents,
skills, status, competencies, perception, aggressiveness and other diverse
features of members of organization makes conflict inevitable (Umoren, 2001, Jaja
and Umezuruike, 2004).
The failure in management is
attributable to poor management of industrial conflicts within the
organization. We are in ever-changing economic, technology, social and
political era in which conflict has become inevitable in a dynamic
organization.
Change and economic growth
bring opportunity but they also bring risk particularly in an era of world wide
rivalry for market resources and influence.
In Institute of
Management and Technology, Enugu, the causes of industrial conflict is as a
result of non-payment of salaries and fringe benefits as and when due, strikes,
lay-offs, denial of promotion, dispute settlement procedures and so on. It is
therefore the task of management and labour to minimize risk involved in
conflicts while taking advantage of the opportunities they provide.
The central questions that
will, therefore forms, the basis of this study are:
1.
What are the immediate causes of
poor management approach on industrial conflict between the workers (labour)
and management (organisation) in Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu?
2.
How were the conflicts managed by
the labour on one hand and the management on the other hand?
3.
To what extent has the management of
these conflicts affected the morale
of workers needed in enhancing their performances. Attempts to provide answers
to these questions and suggest measures for possible solutions
for any future conflicts constitute the basic research problems of the study.
1.3 OBJECTIVES
OF THE STUDY
The general
objective of this study is to find out how industrial conflicts are managed in
Nigerian tertiary institutions with emphasis on Institute of Management and
Technology, Enugu.
The
specific objectives of the study are, therefore:
1.
To examine the causes of industrial
conflict between the workers and management in the Institute of Management and
Technology, Enugu.
2.
To appraise the management of
conflict as it affect the morale of workers.
3.
To investigate how conflicts are
managed between the two bodies-labour and management;
4.
To suggest remedies to the problems
emanating from the research findings and make appropriate recommendations.
1.4 HYPOTHESES
This research work was directed
toward testing of the following hypotheses. Therefore, the following hypotheses
were formulated to guide the study;
Hypothesis
I
Ho: The management of labour conflicts in the
Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu is not as a result of the
management’s refusal to meet up with the workers welfare needs.
Hi: The management of labour conflicts in the
Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu is as a result of the
management’s refusal to meet up with the workers welfare needs.
Hypothesis
II
Ho: The labour leaders and top management’s
handling of the labour-management conflicts do not reduce conflicts.
Hi: The labour leaders and top management’s
handling of the labour-management conflicts reduces conflicts.
Hypothesis
III
Ho: Improper management of conflicts does not
result to low morale of the workers.
Hi: Improper management of conflicts result
to low morale of the workers.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE STUDY
With the rising wave of
industrial conflicts in the country in recent times and its attendant negative
effects, an in-dept study of the problems becomes necessary. It is
therefore hoped that the results of the study will have the potentiality of
redirecting management’s attention to some of its rigid features with a view to
correcting some of its inherent deficiencies in them, which contributed to and
constituted the labour/management conflicts in the study area.
The evaluation of
the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in relation to its employers will in essence
be useful, as it will reveal areas of weaknesses that should be improved as
well as areas of power or strength that should be encouraged for effective and
efficient management of an impending danger that may result to conflicts in the
areas of work.
The findings and
recommendations of the study will also be significant as they will contribute
and generate further research interest in the areas of labour/management
conflicts and conflicts as a whole.
Finally, an effective research
into this area of work and consequent prescriptions for the problems that may
be made in the research findings will not only improve the proper handling of
industrial conflicts in the federation, but will also help to reduce the
numerous problems which create the gap between labour and the management in
carrying out their responsibilities. It will also stimulate further researches
into conflict and its management not only in tertiary institutions but also in
other government and non-governmental organizations.
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Item Type: Project Material | Size: 123 pages | Chapters: 1-5
Format: MS Word | Delivery: Within 30Mins.
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