AN ASSESSMENT OF ORGANISATIONAL CONFLICTS ON WORK PERFORMANCE WITHIN SINAPI ABA SAVINGS AND LOANS LTD

Abstract

Conflict management is a key factor in organizational success, and yet most leaders and their senior managers seem unaware of the negative impact that interpersonal conflict in the workplace can have on their businesses. Maintaining a good working environment devoid of interpersonal conflicts is critical for the survival of a company in a competitive environment as in the banking and finance sector as it can greatly influence the performance of an organization. Further, limited literature and studies related to interpersonal conflict exist in the banking sector in Ghana, hence the need for this study. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of interpersonal conflict on organizational performance of Sinapi aba Savings and Loans Company in Kumasi. This was carried out by investigating the types of interpersonal conflict, outcomes of interpersonal conflict and strategies for managing interpersonal conflict. The study employed both descriptive survey design and explanatory research design. The target population was three hundred and fifty four employees while the sample size was one hundred. Stratified random sampling was used to select the respondents and the criteria for stratification was according to the department worked in and the rank. Data was obtained from primary and secondary sources. Instruments for collecting primary data included self-administered questionnaires. A pilot test was conducted to test the content validity of the data collection instruments while reliability was measured using the Cronbach’s Alpha. Both descriptive and inferential analysis was performed to test the hypotheses. Results showed that interpersonal conflict strategies, relationship conflict and task conflict significantly affects organizational performance respectively. To improve the organizational performance of Sinapi Aba Savings and Loans, more emphasis should be vi placed on improving strategies to cope with conflicts, followed by alleviation of task conflicts, relationship conflicts and finally outcomes of conflicts. The recommendation from the study is the organization should prioritize training on conflict competencies and strategies particularly for supervisors, while employees should be trained on how to select and use the appropriate styles of handling interpersonal conflict so that various situations can be effectively dealt with.