Conflict Management Styles Influencing Organizational Commitment among Kenya Seed Company Employees, Kenya

This study aimed at studying conflict management styles influencing employees’ organizational commitment at Kenya Seed Company, Kenya. The objectives of the study were to investigate whether accommodating, avoiding, collaborating, compromising and competing styles influence organizational commitment. This study was anchored on the Dual Concern Model for determining the conflict management styles of disputants in conflict situations. The organizational commitment was studied as it has been discovered that institutions benefit most from this paradigm because it mainly improves productivity, organizational climate and enhance team cohesiveness. Case study research design was used and the target population comprised of 82 Seed companies registered in Kenya. Organizational Conflict Inventory–II (ROCI–II) was applied to assess the conflict handling styles, and adopted Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ), developed by Mowday, Steers, and Porter (1979) to measure employees’ commitment. Data was analyzed using descriptive techniques. The findings were presented in frequency distribution tables and bar graphs. The results of the study reveal that integrating, compromising and accommodating styles enhance commitment towards the organization. On the other hand, employees perceived dominating and avoiding styles as lowering the sense of employee organizational commitment. The study recommends the need to institutionalize conflict management policies in employment contracts that guide employee participation.