JONAED

This study ascertained the principals’ application of conflict management strategies for effective administration of secondary schools in Anambra State. Three research questions guided the study and three null hypotheses were tested. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised all the 257 principals in public secondary schools in Anambra State. All the 257 principals were used for the study due to small and manageable size of the population of the study. The researchers-developed instrument titled ‘‘Principals’ Application of Conflict Management Strategies Questionnaire (PACMSQ)’’ was used for data collection. The reliability of the instrument was ascertained using Cronbach alpha and it yielded reliability co-efficients of 0.81, 0.86 and 0.84 for clusters I, II and III respectively and the overall coefficient of the entire instrument was 0.84. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while z-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed among others that the compromizing strategies applied by principals for effective administration of secondary schools in Anambra State included organisng meeting for opposing parties to negotiate and reach an agreement, rendering counseling services to conflicting parties on the need to reach an agreement, allowing opposing parties to make inputs in resolving conflicts and encouraging conflicting parties to be satisfied with the final decision irrespective of who wins or losses in the conflict. It also found out that, there is no significant difference in the mean ratings of male and female principals on their integrating strategies for effective administration of secondary schools in Anambra State. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that the state government through the Post Primary School Service Commission (PPSSC) should organize regular conference, workshops and seminars to update secondary school principals’ skills and knowledge in applying various conflict management strategies.