LEADERSHIP STYLE AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT BETWEEN THE EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYEES

ABSTRACT

The study examines leadership style and conflict management between the employer and employees in Nigeria public sector: a case study of Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC).  Dealing with conflicts is a great challenge to management. Conflicts commonly arise when employees interact in organizations and compete for scarce resources. Conflicts have both negative and positive outcomes to the individual employees and the organization at large. At all levels of management, there is conflict. Leaders are the most considered source of conflict in many organizations. In social life, conflicts do occur but family members, friends and relatives manage them. The same case applies to organizations, when conflicts arise; it needs to be resolved by management for the sake of the organizational growth, survival and enhance performance. The sample size for this study is One Hundred and Seventy (170) drawn purposively from the population. A Sample size of one hundred and fifty (150) questionnaires was drawn randomly from the population. Based on the findings, the study therefore made the following conclusion that leadership style and Conflict management between employer and employees has effect on the organizational performance. Also, it shows that conflict in an organization between employer and employees will lead to low organization performance. The impact of leadership style on conflict management influence the employee performance of staff of BEDC. Also, properly managed conflict can improve group outcomes, that leadership can better predict the success or failure of an organization. it was revealed that leaders who perform a multiple leadership role will enjoy a high level of organizational effectiveness. The study therefore made the following recommendations that there is need for the organization to invest massively on employees as the employee is the one of the most important factor to organizational growth and survival as this will help attract employees’ attention and capture their interest. Also, board of internal revenue management should both be proactive to employees’ needs and wants, as organization that does not put the welfare of its employee first such organization is endangering its performance and militating against its productivity. Finally, Benin Electricity Distribution Company management should continue to engage their employees in training and retraining programmes.