International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 10, Issue 7, July 2020 126 ISSN 2250-3153 This publication is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY. http://dx.doi.org/10.29322/IJSRP.10.07.2020.p10316 www.ijsrp.org Conflict and conflict management in Social work in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia Abdulhadi Sharhan Alotaibi 1, 2 , Mohd Suhaimi Mohamad 1 , *Nor Jana Saim1 & Ezarina Zakaria 1 1 Centre for Research in Psychology and Human Well-being, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia 2 Al Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University *Correspondence author: almughyiria@gmail.com DOI: 10.29322/IJSRP.10.07.2020.p10316 http://dx.doi.org/10.29322/IJSRP.10.07.2020.p10316 Abstract: Conflict is inevitable between top management and workers in working environment. Conflict in school social work in the KSA has remain one of the challenging phenomena to policy makers. The conflict normally occurred between social workers and other professionals like the teachers and top administrative staffs due to unclear role by the ministry on the social work as a profession. The Social work in schools has been considered as one of the professions that has emerged as a response to a range of pressing concerns such as rising behavioral problems and existence of other cultures. Though, most of literature regarding conflict and conflict management in social work are Eurocentric or American based, signifying that there was a limited study done on this issue in the KSA. This research intends to examine conflict and conflict management strategy in social work in the KSA and contributes to the limited available literatures. The study is fulfilled through the utilization of content analysis. Form the literatures the study understands that social worker in KSA faces a series of conflict in discharging their duties which includes conflict in role, conflict resulting from the negative perception, interpersonal conflict among the social workers and stress, and role ambiguity. In order to manage the conflict effectively, the study recommends that the policy makers should design a clear role, duty and responsibility for the social workers in the designated place of work and the school managements should also avoid mixing social work with teachings thereby recognizing and respecting the social workers at the work place (school). Keywords; social work, conflict, management, role, work place. Introduction In educational institutions conflict between professionals, both co-workers and beneficiaries are inevitable especially in social work. (Goian, et.al, 2018). Conflict can never be ignored as it is an indispensable feature of working as a team. Conflict can be described as a struggle or a dispute between people with conflicting needs, ideas , beliefs , values or objectives. Team conflict is inevitable; however, conflict outcomes aren't clearly defined. Conflict could increase and contribute to unproductive results, or conflict can be resolved in a beneficial way and lead to quality end products. Conflict is a result of behaviours. It constitutes an integral part of human life. Conflict always occurs when there is interaction. Conflict means an expression of hostility, negative attitudes, antagonism, aggression, rivalry and incomprehension. It is also linked to situations involving a conflicting interest between two rival groups. It can be defined as a discrepancy between two or more people or groups with each person or group trying to gain acquiescence of their views over others (Thakore, 2013). Conflict management on the other hand refers to the acquisition of conflict resolution skills, self-awareness about conflict modes, communication skills and the establishment of a conflict management structure in an organizational environment (Thakore, 2013). Therefore, conflict in social work in the KSA is inevitable as it results to series of problems between the social workers and their top administrative and this is occurred as a consequence of undefine role and clear or specification of duties and responsibilities between the social worker and the working environment by the ministry of education. This issue has created a conflict in social work leading to stress, because social work is not recognized and downgraded. Systematic reviews of stress among social workers show that they typically encounter more stressors and experience relatively high levels of stress reactions when compared with normative populations (Coyle et al., 2005). Although there is evidence that social workers may experience higher levels of stress and resulting burnout than comparable occupational groups, the quantity and quality of empirical research of this problem is still weak, mostly supported only by anecdotal evidence, and without enough comparison with other occupational groups (Lloyd et al., 2002). Though, the education system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), a country in Western Asia constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, was founded in 1925 by the establishment of the Directorate of Education. A year later, with an official order of law, the Directorate led the establishment of a central national government project. In 1927, the establishment was made to form the Knowledge Council. The principal aim of the establishment was to institute an educational system to supervise