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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Article
Author(s)
Mwansa Kamukwamba
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DOI:10.17265/1537-1514/2017.01.003
Affiliation(s)
Mulungushi University, Kabwe, Zambia
ABSTRACT
This study explores sources
of conflict in Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority: a bi-national organization jointly owned and managed
by two contracting states of the Republic of Tanzania and the Republic of
Zambia—countries with
different historical, political, economic, and social backgrounds. Tanzania Zambia Railway was
constructed and funded by interest
free loan from the People’s Republic of China. The importance of this study comes
from recent economic and
political developments signaling the advent of globalization where countries
are forming regional,
political, and economic
groupings. Such countries in
Europe have formed a regional, political, and economic grouping called European Union (EU); countries in Africa have
also formed their political and economic grouping called African Union (AU); so have countries in Asia.
African countries have also formed economic communities such as Southern Africa
Development Community (SADC), East African Community (EAC), and Economic
Community for West African States (ECOWAS), while the United States of America
(USA) and South American countries have signed an economic agreement called North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation
(APEC) in Asia. All
these economic communities and agreement are intended to eliminate economic
barriers between them. It is envisaged that these developments will lead to
adopting bi-national organizations as common forms of business organization (such as Euro Tunnel between
France and the United Kingdom), hence the need to identify sources of conflict in
such organizations. The
study is intended to answer such questions—What is a conflict? What would be the sources of conflict in a
bi-national organization? How would conflicts be resolved in a bi-national
organization? How does conflict affect actors in the organization? Does
conflict affect organization performance?
Conflict is defined as a total range of behavior and
attitude that express opposition and divergent orientations perceived as both
rational and inevitable. It results from organizational and industrial factors
(structurally determined) and defined rolls of actors.
The study was guided by phenomenological paradigm
focusing on sources of conflict in a bi-national organization. Phenomenological
paradigm was appropriate due to the nature of inquiry. Sources of conflict are concerned with the
relationships of the three actors: employee, employer, and the government.
This paradigm provides the opportunity to explore
sources of conflict as an academic discipline.
TAZARA as an organization, the government as both an
institution and employer, and employees as both individuals and groups. The paper was
designed as a case study deeply rooted in phenomenological paradigm where the
researcher explores the case (in this case) of
conflict and Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority as the
institution. Primary data were collected from focus
groups discussions and structured interviews, both of which were taped to facilitate data analysis and
questionnaires while secondary data were
collected from organization records, reports, books,
news papers, and consultant
reports. Data were analyzed using
triangulation and qualitative techniques.
Sample size comprised of eight Government and Board of Directors officials, 35 Management
officials, 16 Trade union officials, and 64 Focus group members from eight discussions groups,
brings the total to 123. The study revealed
that conflict is generated by many sources which are grouped into two groups: those generated by
differences of national economies and those generated by differences of legal
systems. These differences are as a result of the two countries’ differences in
cultural, social, political, and economic
backgrounds of the two contracting states. The study further revealed that so
far the organization has put in place conflict resolution systems and therefore
has been able to settle conflict harmoniously. This is a clear indication that
actors in a bi-national organization should be sensitive to each other’s
concerns only then will they be able to identify sources of conflict and put in
place effective conflict resolution systems.
KEYWORDS
bi-national organization, conflict, phenomenological paradigm, case study, triangulation
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