CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
This chapter gives a brief discussion of the general description of the study, problem statement, purpose of study, research questions and hypotheses, definitions of terms, scope and limitation of the study, as well as the significance of it.
1.1GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY
Most earn their living as employees, employers or self-employed workers. The employees in the proper meaning of the term are people who work for compensation in cash and/or kind under the direction of employers.
The employers, whether acting collectively or individually, are interested in production and distribution, trade practice, efficiency, cost, prices, buying, selling and maximization of profit while the employee’s scope and character of collectivism centre on the quest, not only for economic benefits of increasing salaries and wages and other fringe benefits but also for psychological and social motives so as to be able to participate actively in making decisions that vitally affect them in their work and community life and hence, seek to advance the cultural and social status along with occupation and economic status of their members and the interest of the labour group.
At this point, it is imperative to know that for there to be a labour group, there must have been a Trade Union. A Trade Union is a combination of employees who share common statutory objective in relation to regulations between employers and employees as to the benefits and welfare of their members (Ola, 1987). The activities of employers and employees in an organization centre on not only how to produce goods and services but also how to form Unions to protect and promote collectively their respective interests and to regulate, in particular, management-labour relations.
In an attempt to achieve this common objective by both the employees (workers) and the employers (the management), Unions respectively base on the identified differences in their interest thus necessitate the need for both parties to reach an agreement through a collective bargaining process.
A modern view of collective bargaining is that it must be recognized as an institution for regulating labour-management as well as the labour market. Dunlop identified one of the major activities of collective bargaining as involving the determination of priorities with each side in the bargaining process, it involves the process of compromise and assessment of priorities with each side, the rejection of some claims and the assessment of priorities to others within the Union and the bargaining across the table, it involves the processes of administration and application of the agreement.
The success of any organization depends not only on the ability to effectively and efficiently coordinate and control the available resources or profitability but largely on its ability to enhance good relation within or among individuals and groups in the work environment. As a result, the inability of the management to ensure peace and harmony in the working environment may lead to misunderstanding which if unresolved will eventually lead to industrial conflict.
Conflict is defined as the disagreement of organization members of groups over means or ends and an attempt to establish their views in preference to others. In other words, it means dissatisfaction arising from the interaction between labour and management in the work place as against the cordial industrial relations of the organization.
Three major factors have been identified in Nigerian organization as the cause of industrial conflict in the working environment. Among others are the inadequacy of agreement, that is, where certain issues are left unresolved during the cause of agreement, relation of agreement which may be deliberate and interpretation problem i.e. a situation where agreement has been signed but the two parties give different interpretation to it which eventually led to industrial actions.
