Determinants of Conflicts in Workplace : a Case of Teachers in Public Secondary Schools in Khwisero Sub - County Kakamega County -kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to establish Determinants of conflicts in the workplace-a case of teachers in public secondary schools in Khwisero sub-County, Kakamega county- Kenya. In public secondary schools conflict occurs among teachers and their colleagues, teachers and principals and teachers and students. The study was based on four objectives of school Management, school external environment, conflict resolution mechanism and resources distribution. The study used descriptive research design in order to gather detailed information from the field. The instrument used was questionnaire and interviews with selected respondents. The target population was 28 public secondary schools in Khwisero Sub - County, Kakamega County. The sample size was 9 secondary schools out of 28 Public secondary schools were sampled purposively from the four wards in Khwisero Sub-County to ensure all the wards were captured in the study. The respondents were school principals, teachers, and directors of studies, school bursars and board members. The data was collected using questionnaires with structured and unstructured questions. The SPSS-version 21 was used and analysis presented using descriptive statistics of percentages and frequencies. Pearson correlation was used to test relationships between and among determinants of conflicts. The study had a return rate of 83% with majority of the respondents’ female at 59%. The findings also indicated only 35.6% of the respondents had experience of 2 years or below in their respective schools. The majority of schools did not have conflict resolution policies. Majority of respondents with 93% indicated that there was not policy effective for conflict resolution. Among the recommendations was that the school management should involve all stakeholders more in conflict identification and management in public secondary schools to allow for creation of positive relationships among teachers and between teachers and the external stakeholders such parents, teachers unions and the teachers employer. Further research should be done to cover all public and private secondary schools as determinants of conflicts tend to vary from situation to situation and may need in depth analysis in order to get more information.