ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS AND WORKPLACE CONFLICT IN SELECTED TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN EDO STATE, NIGERIA

The increasing rate of organisational politics and workplace conflict has been a great challenge to tertiary institutions in Edo State. This study examined how organisational politics affects workplace conflict among tertiary institutions in Edo State. The objective of this study is to examine the relationship that exists between self-interest and communication breakdown of selected tertiary institutions in Edo State. A total number of 369 copies of questionnaire was administered to the respondents domiciled in the six selected tertiary institutions under study (University of Benin, Benin city, Institute of Technology and Management, Usen, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, College of Education, Igueben, Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi, Institute of Physical and Health Education, Afuze) using purposing sampling techniques and 343 copies of questionnaires were retrieved from the respondents. The study was guided by one research question and one hypothesis, correlational design was adopted. The data used was primary data collected through a structured questionnaire. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics and the hypothesis was tested using Pearson product moment correlation with the aid of statistical package for social science (SPSS version 21). The findings revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between self-interest and communication breakdown among the selected tertiary institutions in Edo State and the researcher concluded that organisational politics will definitely lead to workplace conflict if not properly managed. The researcher recommended that the management of tertiary institution should put more effort in the supervision of staff so as to reduce the rate of organisational politics which measure is expected to increase employee performance, effective communication and employee output in the long run.