An empirical analysis of effects of workplace conflict management on performance of nurses in public hospitals in Kenya: A case of Thika Level 5 hHospital in Kiambu County

Abstract

Hospital managers and nurses are partners in the delivery of optimal health care; they share the
responsibility of creating a healthy workplace for all members of the health care team. However, the
issue of conflict management tends to be overlooked in many organizations and government hospitals
in Kenya are not an exception. The study used a descriptive research design. The target population of
this study consisted of the 210 nurses working at Thika Level 5 Hospital. The study had a sample size
of 63 nurses. The study used stratified random sampling procedure to select the study sample. Primary
data was collected using questionnaire. The reliability of the instrument was high at a Cronbach’s
Alpha Coefficient of 0.75. Content and constructed validity of the research instrument were tested. The
data was analyzed using descriptive, inferential statistics and content analysis. The study established
that personality conflicts, intergroup conflicts and cross-cultural conflicts were the main types of
conflicts experienced in Thika Level 5 Hospital; majority of the hospital’s nurses lacked adequate
conflict management skills. The workplace conflict management significantly affected the performance
of nurses in Thika Level 5 Hospital. The study recommends that the management of Thika Level 5
Hospital implement frequent staff training programmes tailored towards enhancing their workplace
conflict management skills and also adopt more effective conflict handling styles such as
cooperativeness, compromise and collaborative conflict management styles Similar studies should be
done in other public hospitals in the Kenya for comparison purposes and to allow for the generalization
of findings.