Evaluating the effectiveness of workplace conflict resolution mechanisms in the public sector of Malawi

The study evaluates the effectiveness of workplace conflict resolution mechanisms in the Malawi public sector in terms of procedures, challenges and their efficacy. In doing so, three government ministries namely; Education, Health and Justice were investigated using a qualitative case study approach to better understand the effectiveness of conflict resolution mechanisms in the public sector.The study findings indicate that all the conflict resolution mechanisms, that is, written grievance handling procedures, collective bargaining, Industrial Relations Court and labour office were not effective for various challenges. For instance, in the case of collective bargaining and grievance handling procedure lack of trust between management and employees was identified. For Industrial Relations Court and Labour Office, lack of adequate resources to run the institutions and corruption practices were also identified. The study then recommends, among other things, the provision of continuous training on labour related issues to both employers and employees, and strengthening the capacity of labour office in Malawi and the Industrial Relations Court if the efficacy of conflict resolution mechanisms in Malawi public service are to be realized.