Strategic Outsourcing For Effective Conflict And Peace Management In Oil And Gas Producing Communities In Nigeria

Abstract

The challenge of managing organizational conflicts in operational areas in order to achieve an atmosphere of industrial peace and harmony has persistently occupied the front-burner in industrial and corporate discourse in recent times; especially in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria. While a lot of strategies and programmes have been formulated and highlighted; a detailed research study of the causes, trends and consequences of conflicts in operational areas has revealed that the adoption of the practice of strategic outsourcing by organizations will not only go a long way, but will drastically eliminate the problem of industrial conflict in operational areas and restore peace and harmony that would enhance the attainment of set goals in the industry. The Needs theory observes that organizations and all human beings have needs which border on social, economic, psychological, security and distributive justice; which they desire to be met, and which, when not met, drive them towards aggression and conflict in order to get what they want. A critical examination of the characteristics of this theory in the light of the research questions which investigated conflict situations in operational areas of operational areas of organizations; leads to the conclusion that outsourcing undoubtedly offers the way out of the chaos for industrial and corporate bodies in the oil and gas industry and communities in Nigeria. The methodology employed included  using simple random sampling of persons in the operational areas and the corporate bodies operating in them to obtained the data for analysis which employed simple percentages to reach conclusions to arrive at the decisions and recommendations made.

Key words: Strategic outsourcing; conflict; peace management.