Proceedings of the Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference (SPARC) 2011

These proceedings bring together a selection of papers from the 2011 Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference(SPARC). It includes papers from PhD students in the arts and social sciences, business, computing, science and engineering, education, environment, built environment and health sciences. Contributions from Salford researchers are published here alongside papers from students at the Universities of Anglia Ruskin, Birmingham City, Chester,De Montfort, Exeter, Leeds, Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores and Manchester

The causal factors of interpersonal conflict in the Libyan cement industry

Organisations are becoming more complex and diverse in responding to globalisation and to internal and external changes, and this complexity makes them more vulnerable to different types of organisational conflict. One study stated that Libyan Cement Companies have suffered and are still suffering from the phenomenon of conflict either between individuals, groups, departments, or organisations and needed to be studied in depth. Therefore, this study aims to develop a framework for the causal factors of interpersonal conflict (IPC) in the Libyan Cement Industry (LCI), in order to improve the interpersonal conflict management in this industry, by providing recommendations to the LCI administration for their reduction. The scope of the research lies in the field of social sciences; the reality (results) of the study is constructed differently by participants as they hold different beliefs, behaviours and attitudes. Consequently, interpretivism is the most appropriate research philosophy. The logic of this research is theory building rather than theory testing; therefore the study falls under inductive logic and adopts a qualitative approach. The main research strategy is multiple embedded case studies of the two organisations of the Libyan Cement Industry. The findings were obtained from 48 semi-structured interviews that were conducted with the managers and the employees in different manufactories of the LCI, and then triangulation with other sources such as documentation and direct observation to enhance the validity and reliability of the research results. The data is analysed by using thematic analysis via coding the data, categorising the codes into themes and summarising the findings at various stages. The results of the study show that IPC is at a high level in the LCI and the causal factors of this kind of conflict were found to be due to: individual differences factors; behavioural factors; organisational factors; financial factors; and external environmental factors. Through comparing the results of the field study with what is found in the literature of the factors causing IPC, some factors that cause IPC in the Libyan environment have not yet been mentioned in previous studies; such as: contradictions between the organisation’s policy and the state’s laws; mismanagement; and tribal fanaticism. These unique factors that appeared in the Libyan environment are represented as the main contributions to knowledge for the study.In addition, the findings of this research strengthen the existing literature on IPC and its causal factors and reduce the gap in knowledge applying to Libyan studies, and will help the Libyan Cement Industry to manage IPC in an appropriate way. The findings would also be helpful for many managers, and could be used in many empirical studies on IPC and its management