RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS’ CONFLICT RESOLUTION STRATEGIES AND TEACHERS’ JOB SATISFACTION IN ANAMBRA STATE PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS
ABSTRACT
The study determined the relationship between school administrators’ conflict resolution strategies and teachers’ job satisfaction in Anambra State public secondary schools. Correlational research design was adopted in the conduct of the study. Five research questions and five hypotheses were structured to guide the study. Population of the study consists of 6185 secondary school teachers in Anambra State. A sample of 720 teachers was selected for the study through stratified, purposive and simple random sampling technique. A researcher developed instruments titled “School Administrators’ Conflict Resolution Strategies Questionnaire (SACRSQ) and Teachers’ Job Satisfaction Questionnaire (TJSQ)” were used for data collection. The instruments underwent both face and content validity by experts. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha analysis which gave a coefficient value of 0.81 which was reliable for the study. The instrument was administered on the respondents with the aid of two research assistants who were duly trained. Data collected were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation for research questions and hypotheses at .05 level of significance. Findings of the study showed that school administrators’ use of accommodative, compromising and confrontation strategy in conflict resolution predicts teachers’ job satisfaction to a moderate extent while coercion and avoidance strategy in conflict resolution predicts teachers’ job satisfaction to a low extent. The study also revealed that school administrators’ use of accommodative, compromising, coercion and confrontation strategy in conflict resolution significantly predicts teachers’ job satisfaction while avoidance strategy in conflict resolution negatively predicts teachers’ job satisfaction in Anambra State public secondary schools. The findings imply that if conflict is to be resolved in secondary schools in Anambra state, principals/school administrators should use accommodative and compromising strategy so as to enhance job satisfaction among teachers in Anambra State public secondary schools. Based on the findings, the researcher recommends that principals should make use of accommodative, compromising and confrontation strategy in resolving school conflicts and also avoid use of coercion and avoidance strategy in conflict resolution in Anambra State public secondary schools.
