THE INFLUENCE OF CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN IMPROVING ORGANISATION PERFORMANCE IN TANZANIA LOCAL GOVERNMNER AUTHORITIES

Abstract

The study intends to assess the influence of conflict management in improving organization performance in Tanzanian local government authorities. The following specific objectives were used in I. study, such as to identify the main areas of conflict between top management and staffs at Arusha city council, to reveal the types of conflict existing at Arusha city council, to find out the effects of conflict on organization performance in Arusha city council and to identify the strategies or mechanisms used most to solve conflict between Top management and staff at Arusha city council. In this study, a population consists of LGA employees and government officials. The study used a mixed research approach where by both quantitative and qualitative were employ.. The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 descriptively. Quantitative data were analyzed using descnptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviation. Quantitative data were entered and coded on SPSS version 20. Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. Data were grouped into themes and analysed into categories accordingly. Direct quotations from respondents were used as justifications to their answers. It can be concluded that goal conflict, procedural conflict and authority conflict were the main areas of conflict between top management and staff. In the second objective, the study concluded that reduction of morale of working, downfall of the team work, Increase of labour turn over and Poor productivity and Poor cooperation were the types of conflicts existing in the study area as the types of conflicts existing in the study area. In the third objective they agreed that unfair feedback. Inadequate of allowance was the area of conflict between top management and staff in the study area These results show that there were many areas of conflict between top management and staff. In the .t objective, the study concluded that, in managing conflict, leaders must use different styles or strategies in order to manage those conflicts. this was evidenced through avoidance conflict style, accommodating conflict styles. cooperation conflict style and conciliation or compromising" conflict style. It is recommended that, management should make sure that good relationships are the fits! priority, management should devise effective conflict management policies to smoothen the conflict resolution management, Trade unions such as CWT, TUGHE and TALGWU should be strong and knowledgeable enough in settling employee's conflict, council should conduct regular meetings between the management and employees, this will help the management to know the problems facing their employees as a result occurrence of conflict can be minimized.