SCHOOL PRINCIPALS’ CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES AS A DETERMINANT OF TEACHERS’ JOB EFFECTIVENESS IN CATHOLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THE WOURI DIVISION, LITTORAL REGION OF CAMEROON

Abstract

This study, examined school principals’ conflict management strategies as a determinant of teachers’ job effectiveness in Catholic Secondary Schools in the Wouri Division, Littoral Region of Cameroon. It adopted the exploratory sequential mixed method research design/ approach. The targeted population of the study comprised the 744 teachers and 13 school principals in 13 Catholic secondary schools in the Wouri Division. Eight (08) principals were purposefully sampled andthree hundred (300) teachers were randomly sampled from eight (08) Catholic Secondary Schools. An interview guide and questionnaires were the tolls adopted for the study administered to school principals and teachers/principals .The overall reliability analysis of the tolls was 0.757. Generally, when the Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient value is above 0.5 especially in a context where the test items to some extent are directly related to one another as it was the case in the context of this study, the instrument is considered to be valid and reliable for analysis. Findings showed, in aggregate, that most school principals used preferred strategies in managing conflicts that affect teachers’ job effectiveness in Catholic secondary schools such as confrontation (52.1%), awareness raising (47.9%), recollection/moral instructions/mass (41.7%) and dialogue (35.4%). On the part of teachers’ the most common strategy that principals use in managing conflicts that affect teachers’ job effectiveness in Catholic secondary schools is the organization of recollections/masses with a proportion of 41.3%, followed by confrontation at 40.1%, awareness raising 38,0% and dialogue 32.9%. Statistically, findings revealed that there is a significant effect of school principals’ conflict management strategies on teachers’ job effectiveness (calculated r-value=0.339**, P-value =0.000, < 0.05). Based on the findings, it was recommended among other things that conflict management should be introduced in the citizenship syllables for secondary and higher learning institutions to educate learners about the adverse effect of conflicts and how conflicts can be positively managed.