CONFLICT RESOLUTION STRATEGIES AND EMPLOYEE MANAGEMENT OUTCOMES IN PUBLIC ENTERPRISES IN OWERRI

ABSTRACT The research examines conflict resolution strategies and employee management outcomes in public enterprises in Owerri. The objectives of the study are to examine the level of correlation between collaboration strategy and employee satisfaction in public enterprises; investigate the relationship between collaboration strategy and employee retention in public enterprises; assess the extent to which compromise strategy correlates with employee retention in public enterprises. The study uses the survey research method and obtains data from primary and secondary sources. It adopts the probability sampling technique. The research uses the Cronbach Alpha statistic to obtain the value of 0.76 as the instrument reliability ratio. Data analysis was committed to descriptive statistics. It adopts correlation analysis for testing of hypotheses. The analysis was done with the aid of the SPSS software. The findings include that there is a significant level of correlation between collaboration strategy and employee satisfaction in public enterprises; there is a significant relationship between collaboration strategy and employee retention in public enterprises; there is a significant extent to which compromise strategy correlates employee satisfaction in public enterprises. The study concludes conflict resolution strategies positively and significantly influenced employee management outcomes in public enterprises in Owerri. The study recommends that public enterprises should always use collaboration strategy to resolve conflicts so as to consistently achieve favourable employee management outcomes. Management of public enterprises should train and retrain workers on the use of compromise strategy for effective conflict resolution and for evasion of employee turnover. Employees in public enterprises should not work at cross-purposes with their management over the use of sound conflict resolution strategies so as to enjoy sustainable employee management outcomes.