ABSTRACT
This study was embarked upon to investigate the management of organizational
politics and conflicts in Ajaokuta Steel Company. The research sought to find out
the perception of the Junior and Senior staff of Ajaokuta Iron and Steel Company
on the Management of politics and conflicts in the organization, impact of politics
and conflict on the growth and operation of the organization, extent to which
politics and conflicts affect human and societal development, approaches to
conflicts management and resolution in the organization and the category of
work force that is mostly involved in politics and conflicts. The Taro Yamane
formula was used to determine the sample size of one thousand and forty six
(1046) out of a total population of one thousand eight hundred (1800)
employees of Ajaokuta Iron and Steel Company. Five hypotheses were
formulated for the study; the z-test which is a statistical variable of sample size
greater than thirty (30) was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of
significance. The result showed that the problem in the management of politics
and conflicts in Ajaokuta is as a result of ineffective communication between
management and employees of the organization, the heterogeneity of the
organization, ethnic interest and religious discrimination of the staff. The politics
and conflicts have impacted on the growth and operation of the organization. The
politics and conflicts affect human and societal development of the organization.
Negotiation, arbitration and multi-disciplinary approaches are used for conflict
management and resolution and that the senior staff of the organization are
responsible for the politics and conflict in Ajaokuta Steel Company. We
recommended that the management of the organization should therefore reduce
the incidence of communication gap in their management, organize seminars and
workshops to make those involved in the politics and conflicts understand the
negative impact of their actions on the organization and also to train them on the
way forward for the actualization of the goals and objectives of the organization.
