Conflict Management: A Tool in Optimizing Effectiveness and Efficiency in Organizational Management

Conflict is inevitable in the interaction of human beings with one another in any organization around the world. It has come to stay as long as the relationship exists between different personalities. To avoid conflict as a leader may be practically impossible especially if such an organization would be successful in achieving its goals and objectives. What should be paramount in the mind of the leader is how to adequately manage the conflict so that it would not adversely affect the performance of the organization. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to establish the importance of conflict management as a tool in optimizing effectiveness and efficiency in organizational management. The paper takes a look at the major causes of conflicts in organizations; delves into understanding emotional intelligence and its importance in conflict resolutions. Because emotions play a big role in human life, the relationship between emotions and human behavior was also identified. Conflict management is the independent variable while organizational effectiveness and efficiency is the dependent variable. The organization investigated is one of the faith-based schools in southwest Nigeria. Data collected was analyzed using multiple regression. The paper affirmed that conflict management is an indispensable tool for organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Hence, strategies such as emotional intelligence among others were recommended to be fully implemented, in the quest to optimize effectiveness and efficiency in organizational performance.