Authors: AKOMA Evaristus Kanayochi, Ph. D
ABSTRACT: Institutional conflict between university administrations and staff unions remains a persistent challenge to effective governance and industrial relations in Nigerian public universities, despite the existence of formal mechanisms for dialogue and dispute resolution. Existing scholarship has largely examined strikes, collective bargaining and industrial disputes, with comparatively limited attention to the institutional conditions that determine whether dialogue produces durable conflict management or merely temporary settlement. This study therefore examined the dynamics of union–administration conflict and the conditions under which dialogue contributes to sustainable conflict management in selected public universities in Southwestern Nigeria. Adopting Rahim’s Conflict Management Theory, with a qualitative multiple-case study design, the study drew on key informant and in-depth interviews with university administrators and union officials, supported by documentary evidence. Data were analysed thematically to identify patterns of conflict emergence, escalation, dialogue, negotiation and settlement. The findings demonstrate that institutional pressures, perceived injustice, communication failures and declining trust interact to generate conflict escalation. Dialogue was effective only when supported by meaningful participation, reciprocal recognition, procedural fairness, trust, substantive negotiation and credible implementation of agreements. Where implementation was weak, dialogue frequently produced temporary settlement followed by renewed grievances and conflict recurrence. The study consequently advances the proposition that dialogue is a conditional rather than automatic conflict-management mechanism. Its principal contribution is to shift analytical attention from the achievement of negotiated settlement to the institutional conditions required for sustaining it, providing a basis for strengthening preventive dialogue, participatory governance and agreement-monitoring mechanisms in Nigerian universities.
Keywords: University Governance; Union–Administration Relations; Institutional Conflict; Social Dialogue; Conflict management; Nigerian Public Universities.