Abstract

Higher education conflict, like other organizational conflicts is unavoidable. However, an interesting theoretical and practical question is whether the determinants of conflict identified in various research done in the business sectors are the same for conflicts in higher education sector which is mainly not-for-profit. This study aims to test some basic assumptions of determinants of organizational conflicts in the context of higher education among the public universities based on employee perception of frequent conflicts in public universities in Pakistan. A structured questionnaire survey and interviews were undertaken in four selected well-established public universities in Pakistan to get the perception on conflict of the employees of the universities. Both random and convenience sampling techniques were used to obtain relevant data and information. The sample size of the respondents is 371. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, and regression analysis, by using SPSS 11.5 version. Based on the empirical results, it is found that centralization of decision, lack of resources, lack of communication and leadership are the main determinants of higher education conflicts in Pakistan.