Assessing Conflict Management Mechanisms Used in Organizations: A Case Study of Banks in Lusaka City

The study aimed at assessing conflict management mechanisms used in organizations, the research design adopted was a descriptive case study. The study revealed that there are a number of causes of conflicts in organizations, a number of conflicts and their causes were outlined by participants and these were: Unclear job descriptions cause conflicts among employees, lack of communication causes conflicts, competition for limited resources cause conflicts, having different opinions on key issues and differences in status or power. Others are competition for power causes conflicts, job related stress, change of system and sexual harassment among others. The study sought to find out the types of methods or strategies used to resolve conflict and how effective the strategies are. The methods used include: Conciliation, mediation, negotiation and arbitration and the findings reveal that the strategies and methods used were found to be effective. Conflicts affect an organization in various ways and according to the study their effects include: Decline in performance, hostility among working mates, lead to employee turnover, promote sabotage among employees, lead to violence, promote hostility. Others include isolation, frustration among employees, causes depression and division or fragmentation within an organization. And all these factors stated above affect the performance of an organization negatively. Finally, the study recommended that Organizations should improve communication within a team or organization by strategically employing informational and problem-solving meetings, and by utilizing a diverse range of organizational communication tools.