ABSTRACT

Most businesses want to get their workers to perform at their best. Job performance measures an employee’s productivity with his or her colleagues across a range of work-related actions and results. This study looked at how dispute resolution affected the performance of service companies in Cameroon. The study used questionnaires to gather information from 35 BICEC bank employees and clients. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were used to analyse the data. according to the findings of this investigation. As demonstrated by the strong positive association between them, credit risk management has a beneficial impact on BICEC’s performance, and it is therefore advised that many businesses or organisations in Cameroon struggle with conflict management system concerns.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

Conflict is when two parties have divergent interests. The word conflict comes from the Greek word “agon,” which means “the act of struggle.” It is also known as “conxious” in Latin, which refers to the inability to maintain proper affiliation with others.

Employee conflict in an organisation is not just inescapable; rather, it is inherent to complex organisations (Putnam & Krone, 2006). However, it can improve performance and employee happiness if it is effectively handled (Dana, 2000). According to research, management executives now spend twice as much time resolving employee conflicts as they did ten years ago (Accountemps, 2006).

The organisation can improve its performance in terms of using limited resources and attaining the organisational goals if disputes are adequately managed by employing the appropriate course of action. 2015 (Awan & Anjum). On the other hand, unresolved disagreement has a detrimental influence on both performance and employee happiness. Conflict resolution quickly has the potential to increase worker happiness and productivity (Awan & Anjum 2015). Therefore, management should settle disputes to improve organisational performance (Song, 2000).

The late 1940s saw the emergence of the human relations view, which dominated society until the 1970s. It makes the case that conflict is normal, inevitable, and may have either a beneficial or bad impact on an organisation, depending on how it is managed. Conflict can boost performance, but only to a point. If it’s allowed to fester or isn’t resolved, performance will start to degrade. This strategy encourages embracing conflict and

justifies its existence of it. Project managers should concentrate on handling conflict successfully rather than stifling or eradicating it due to the possible benefits from it. Man against man, man against nature, man against self, and man against society are the four main categories of fiction.

Man versus Man explores the character flaws that frequently lead to conflict. Since most people think that nature has no free will and cannot make decisions for itself, the idea that man is at odds with nature is not widely accepted.

Even still, some academics maintain that there is a conflict between man and nature since it frequently interferes with human activity. Man versus society in this context refers to immoral actions typically committed by men that have an impact on society, such as the slave trade.

Man versus self refers to the pressure people experience when attempting to make a sane decision. For an organisation to be established and continue to exist while achieving its aims and objectives, its material input must always function continuously and effectively, with the human component being necessary. However, the human components necessary to make goal attainment possible frequently disagree and diverge over things like interest, opinions, and management style, among other things.

Conflict is a term used to describe perceived incompatibility brought on by various types of intervention or opposition. According to Azamosa’s (2004) observations, disputes cover the entire spectrum of attitudes and behaviours that exist between owners/managers and employees. It is a condition of conflict over substantive or emotional antagonism that might develop as a result of rage, mistrust, or personality conflicts. Given that the objectives of various stakeholders, including managers and employees, are frequently at odds, conflict is an unavoidable component of organisational life (Jones et al 2003).

Furthermore, it is argued that conflict is a constant process in interpersonal interactions. Because of this, several businesses have modified their strategies to efficiently manage their organisations and prevent conflicts at all costs. As long as people strive for jobs, resources, power, recognition, and security, the conflict will exist in all organisations. Additionally, managing disagreements presents a significant issue (Adomi and Anie, 2005).

Conflicts frequently start when coworkers interact and vie for limited resources. Because employees in different organisations are put into manageable groups to work toward a shared goal, there is a very high likelihood that conflicts may emerge.

The most significant disputes these days make the news, which could harm the company’s reputation. Employee requests for a larger share of organisational benefits, such as position, recognition, appreciation, monetary compensation, and independence, typically lead to conflicts inside most businesses. Even management must contend with a variety of external factors, including the government, labour unions, and other coercive groups that may put limitations on managerial activity.

There are two types of conflict in organisations: dispute over rights and conflict over interests. Conflict over rights typically involves the employee-employer relationship and can be resolved through collective bargaining and grievance management. Conflict over interests, on the other hand, involves how different people perceive things and have different perspectives and attitudes.

Conflicts can affect both the individual employees and the organisation as a whole in positive and bad ways. Conflicts do arise in social interactions, but family, friends, and relatives manage them. Organizations are subject to the same situation. Regardless of the causes of a dispute, it has been found that industrial conflicts have a significant impact on organisations and should be managed carefully to the greatest extent possible.

Because they play such a crucial role in the production process, employees have a particularly vital position inside a firm. They play an extremely undefined function in the accomplishment of the economic agenda of the government as well as the goals and objectives of numerous organisations. However, there needs to be a solid, cordial relationship between the employer and employee in these organisations for workers to perform their vital functions effectively and efficiently.

Although conflict may inevitably arise in an organisation, it is important to remember that friction between the employer and the employee must be addressed through an active collective bargaining process to maintain efficient organization-wide operations.

Every organisation will inevitably experience conflicts. Employers and employees will occasionally argue and have disagreements about wages or the general working conditions of the employees. Conflict in Cameroon’s sectors has become so pervasive and upsetting that it has impeded some organisations’ expansion. Internal (intrapersonal) and interpersonal conflicts in many Cameroonian firms today are absorbing so much time and attention that organisations are beginning to appear as though conflict is their main business (Ojielo, 2003).

This development is large because of Nigerian organisational leaders’ unwillingness to approach conflict management in the same systematic manner that they approach information, human resource, and financial management systems. Instead, conflict is treated as a local issue and is evaluated and managed piecemeal. The conflict has thus become dysfunctional in some businesses due to the incapacity to view and manage workplace issues systematically.

This is demonstrated by several workplace behaviours, including the high frequency of strikes, unhealthy rivalry between and among sub-units and individuals within an organisation, sabotage at work, labour turnover, absenteeism, lack of productivity, general inefficiency, high rate of industrial accidents, low morale, withholding of critical information, and a host of others.

Cooperation is necessary to ensure task completion and personal stability and is necessary for people to advance in their careers and other facets of life. It would be incorrect to conclude that conflict is bad and collaboration is desirable because these two ideas do coexist in our daily lives. Therefore, given the diverse range of aims for the various stakeholders in the business, conflict could be described as inevitable.

It’s important to remember that disagreement has an impact on people as well as the business. This is believed to be the case since people frequently experience stress-related symptoms like headaches and loss of appetite following a disagreement.

As long as the human element is one of its resources, BICEC is a company that is not immune to conflict situations. They may disagree on workplace issues, which can lead to conflict that needs to be addressed to optimise efficiency and effectiveness in the firm. In light of this, this study aims to clarify further and pinpoint the issues related to the industrial conflict in Cameroonian businesses, particularly BICEC.

1.2 Problem statement

There has been a growing interest in conflict management in recent years. First, research has stimulated interest in strategies and approaches to handling conflict which in the past may have involved litigation through the courts, Second, there is increased legalization of the workplace, particularly in the areas of occupational health and safety, discrimination, and harassment, Third, there has been heightened interest in the need for organizations to move to high-performance work systems (Awan & Anjum 2015). 

Traditional workplace practices and systems with their hierarchical structures, tight divisions of labour, narrowly defined jobs, detailed rules, limited employee involvement, and managerial decision-making, authority, and control are no longer adequate since they foster conflict (Dreu, 2006). The high-performance workplace emphasizes conflict management as a cornerstone of an effective high-performance workplace.  Due to frequent organizational conflict, performance in most organizations has taken a comparatively nosedive sequence (Babin & Boles, 2000). The frequent agitation by workers for improved working conditions and other interests has led to a down toll which eventually affects Corporate performance (Babin & Boles, 2000). Key indicators such as sales return on investment and profit margins have been reduced due to poor conflict management. This shows that organizational performance is enhanced through effective conflict management (Perez et al 2007)

A few studies have been done on the same topic of conflict management in the Kenyan context. Mwangi (2010), carried out a study on the effects of workplace conflicts on the performance of teachers in secondary schools in Kenya and concluded that conflicts had an impact on performance. Similarly, a report on the findings of a survey done on the educational institutions in Kenya (2011) revealed that most educational institutions have been less successful in the management of conflicts despite the Government policies put in place including arbitration, communication, third party intervention and negotiation (Ministry of Education report, 2008). Many of the unmanaged conflicts were characterized by teacher’s strikes characterized by violence and wanton destruction of property. This had a trickle-down effect on institutional academic performance. This study sought to establish the effect of conflict management on corporate performance with a specific focus on BICEC

Research questions

1. What is the relationship between conflict and corporate performance?
2. To what extent does the conflict management system influence employee commitment in an organization?

1.3 Objectives of the study

The main objective of the study is to find the effects of conflict management on the performance of BICEC. The following specific objectives will be invested.

1. To assess the conflict management strategies used by BICEC
2. To determine the challenges faced in managing conflict
3. To assess the effect of organizational conflict on the performance of BICEC.

FURTHER READING:

The Effects of Conflict Management on the Performance of Micro Finance Institutions in the Bamenda Municipality