Dimensionality of intra-organizational conflict and the challenges for human resource management in small and medium scale enterprises in Nigeria

Anotace: There is a reasonable level of acceptance amongst policy makers, academia and international development agencies of the criticality of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) as important agents of development particularly in employment and income generation and the provision of goods and services. Successive governments in Nigeria continue to promote policies and agendas targeted to raise the competitiveness of the sector as part of the diversification of the economy and promote foreign direct investment (FDI). These efforts are yet to manifest in any significant reduction in importation of basic goods as well as double-digit unemployment rate. Several studies have focused on aspects of SME’s performance with a sparse attention to the criticality of the impacts of conflict in the performance of the organisations leading to a wide gap in knowledge as to whether a conflict situation actually occurs in the SMEs, and if they do, how do they manifest? What are the impacts on performance and how effective are the administrative tools for managing them? This study attempts to bridge this gap. We adopt a survey method using a sample of 224 employees across a spectrum of industries located in Lagos, Ogun and Kwara States of the Federation of the Republic of Nigeria. While the prevalence of conflict was established in the study amongst the employees, compensation, reward and performance rating issues are most frequent sources of the conflict with behavioural manifestation including productivity scale down, battering the reputation and image of the employers as well as discouraging potential applicants. The study also found that most of the administrative tools to manage conflict are not considered very effective while a variation in the gender awareness to conflict was observed at the level of statistical significance. The study recommends conflict minimization strategies through a proper goal definition, conflict management skill upgrades with training, open communication, fair reward and compensation system. The risk of of the error occurrence is examined from the accountants’ perspective. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey was used for data collection focusing on areas that are considered to be the most important by the accountants and the areas which are the most problematic.