CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES OF SECONDARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS IN EBONYI STATE, NIGERIA.

The study was conducted to determine the conflict management strategies of secondary school principals in Ebonyi state, Nigeria. Four research questions and two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population of the study is comprises of all the public secondary school principals and teachers in Ebonyi State. The sample for the study is 350 respondents drown from 20 secondary schools in two education zones of the area of the study. The instrument for data collection was a structured question titled conflict management strategies instrument. The instrument was validated by three experts and the suggestions of the experts were duly incorporated into the final draft of the instrument for data collection. The reliability coefficient of the instrument was computed using Cronbach Alpha reliability technique and a reliability coefficient of 0.74, 0.73, 0.80 and 0.81 for the four clusters 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively was obtained. The data for the study was collected with the help of four research assistants. The data generated for the study was analyzed using mean and standard deviation for answering the research questions while t-test statistics was used for testing the research hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. It was discovered from the findings that conflicts in schools are caused by misunderstanding, not taking instructions, poor communication, and lack of commitment, poor management and differences in opinion. It was recommended that Government should look into the issue of workers’ welfare to avert the incessant industrial actions, and provide adequate facilities in schools, evaluation standards should be designed for promotions and awards to deserving personnel to promote job satisfaction for schools personnel and that principals should design proper plans and follow correct procedures in managing conflict in their schools.