IOSR Journal of Research & Method in Education (IOSR-JRME) e-ISSN: 2320–1959.p- ISSN: 2320–1940 Volume 10, Issue 2 Ser. IV (Mar. - Apr. 2020), PP 41-50 www.iosrjournals.org DOI: 10.9790/7388-1002044150 www.iosrjournals.org 41 | Page Conflict Manifestations and Management in Secondary Schools in Nigeria Nwite Onuma 1 ,Nwofia, Boniface 2 , Eze-Anyim Elizabeth 3 , Oko Ndubuisi 4 &Nnamdi Sunday E. 5 1,2,3,&4. Department of Educational Foundations, Faculty of Education, Ebonyi State University (EBSU) Abakaliki, Nigeria. 5(Dept of Educational Foundations, Federal University of Dustinma, Katsina State, Nigeria. Corresponding Author: NwiteOnuma Abstract: The study investigated conflict manifestations in secondary schools in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Three research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted descriptive research design to gather detailed information from the field. The target population comprised 221 principals and 3290 teachers totaling 3511 in public secondary school in Ebonyi State. A stratified random sampling technique was used to draw a sample of 550 respondents from the three education zones of the State. An instrument titled: Conflict Manifestation in Secondary Schools (CMSS) questionnaire was developed by the researchers for data collection. The data collected were analyzed using mean (x)score statistics and standard deviation to answer the three research questions while t-test statistics were used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance using the statistical package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20. The findings revealed great manifestations of psychological, philosophical and socio-cultural related conflicts in secondary schools as a disturbing encounter to school administration and management. There was no significant difference in the mean ratingsof principals’ use of conflict manifestation styles with regard to gender and school location. The study concluded thatprincipals timely application of reconciliation, compromise and mediation strategies might stem the tide of frequent conflict manifestations in schools. Keywords: Conflict, Management, Psychological, Philosophical and Socio-Cultural manifestations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date of Submission: 20-03-2020 Date of Acceptance: 06-04-2020 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Introduction 1.1 Background to the Study In school organization, the task of providing effective leadership and peaceful set environment is dependent on personality traits and disposition of the school principal. This often comes into play through the leader’s general attitude, behavior and character and the way he reacts to issues and situation in the school. School principals are often confronted with some challenges and difficulties which often and sometimes lead to conflicts which invariably affect school administration and programme either adversely or otherwise. Conflict in this context is an opposition or competition between two or more forces arising either from the pursuit of incompatible goals or clash of rival opinion (Chaturved, 2006).Conflict is also seen as a process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another (Wall and Robert, 2011). Conflict in this direction is a social problem that may result in disagreement, controversy, opposition and resistance between one person and another or group of persons in an organization as it affects the will or goals of each party. For Griffin, (1997) conflict is more observable and potentially noticed in formal bureaucratic setting than the less formal bureaucracy. Griffin (1990) reported that conflict consist of level of potentialities, dispositions and manifestations. As a manifestation, it means that conflict has the capability of appearing in different dimensions and situations. Conflict manifestations are the different ways in which disagreements and disputes appear in an organization. Conflict shows up in many ways such as disputes, competitions, low morale, sabotage, and withholding of information (Nwite, 2007). The manifestation in school system may be psychological, philosophical and socio-cultural which by extension may be inter-personal, intra-personal, ethnocentric and group types among others (Griffin, 1997). According to Rummel(1997), psychological conflict manifestation is concerned with a person’s mind and thought. Psychologically induced conflicts are manifested through acts of aggression, temperament and needs. It may occur due to administrator’s decision making which may spark off induced psychological conf lict emanating from behaviour dispositions not well managed by the school administrator. Philosophically; conflicts relate to nature of existence, knowledge and thought, or how people should live. Philosophically manifested