Socio-demographic variables and conflict management among library staff in federal universities in South-South, Nigeria

The purpose of this research was to determine the influence of socio-demographic variables on conflict management among library staff in federal universities in South-South, Nigeria. Arising from the four specific objectives achieved, four research questions were raised and four null hypotheses formulated. Literature review was based on the variable stated in the work. Ex-post facto design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised of 695 library staff in federal universities in South-South, Nigeria. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to select the universities and the library staff for the study. A total of 400 library staff were selected using Yamane (1964) sample determination formula. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire entitled “Sociodemographic Variables and Conflict Management Questionnaire (SDVCMQ)”. 10 items were constructed in line with the dependent variable of the study. Out of 405 questionnaires given, 400 were collected and used. To establish the reliability of the instrument, the instrument was administered to twenty (20) library staff in University of Cross River State (UNICROSS), in Calabar, Nigeria; using Cronbach’s Alpha reliability method with a coefficient of .95. Oneway analysis of variance, independent t-test and multiple regression analyses were used for testing the hypotheses at .05 level of significance. The results of the study revealed that there is significant influence of age, marital status, and income level on conflict management among library staff. The results also showed that gender do not significantly influence conflict management among library staff. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that: the age of those to be engaged as library staff should be taken into consideration to enhance effective conflict management; administrators should not be biased or use gender as yardstick for employment or handling sensitive positions for effective conflict management.