ABSTRACT
This study examined the perceived impact of industrial conflict in University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Ituku Ozalla, Enugu. The study employed the cross sectional survey method and simple random sampling technique. The quantitative data gathered were analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 20). The study hypotheses were tested using Chi-Square (X2) statistic, while the qualitative data gathered were analyzed using thematic content analysis to complement the quantitative data. The findings show that people perceive industrial conflict as destructive. However, strike, lockout and sit-down are the major forms of industrial conflict people embark on in the study area. Also it found among other things that breach of collective agreement by government, irregular or non-payment of salaries, wages and incentives, and autocratic management are the causes of industrial conflict. Again, the study found that industrial conflict occurs frequently and have impacts on the workers, organization and on the patients. The study found that collective bargaining is the most effective approach to conflict management. Three hypotheses were tested and two results show that there is statistically significant relationship between impacts of industrial conflict and gender, timely payment of salaries and how frequent industrial conflict occurs in the study area. However, staff negative perception was found not to be statistically significant with how frequent industrial conflict occurs in the study area. For the Nigeria health sector to carry out its function of providing health-care services and improve people’s well- being, there is need to reduce the occurrence as well as resolving the spate of industrial conflicts in the health sector. The study also emphasized the enhancement of management-worker relationship at workplace.
