This study examined the effect of school administrators’ conflict management strategies on academic staff job performance in state owned tertiary institutions in Adamawa state. The purpose of the study was to examine the causes of conflict, conflict management strategies and the effect of conflict on academic staff job performance in the Adamawa state owned tertiary institutions using descriptive survey research design. The target population of the study was 1,301 consisting of 1,237 academic and 64 management staff. Three research questions was answered using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation statistics and z-test was used to test three null hypotheses. Based on the analysis of data presented, the study revealed that violation of school rules, breakdown in communication, failure to provide basic instructional materials are the major causes of conflict in Adamawa State owned tertiary institutions among others and to resolve such crisis school administrators often use collective bargaining, silence and give and take strategies. The study revealed no significant difference in the mean opinion of the respondents on the causes of conflict, conflict managing strategies and conflict have no significant effect on the academic staff job performance in Adamawa State owned tertiary institutions. Based on these findings, the study recommended that the states’ tertiary institutions should adopt adequate conflict resolution strategies capable of resolving grievances that can trigger employees not to give their best in the work process and they should organize workshops and seminars for their staff on collaborative working relationship.

Keywords: School administrators, Conflict Management Strategies, Collective bargaining, Job performance