Abstract

The Anglophone conflict which started in 2016 is an on-going conflict in Cameroon which has had significant impacts on the country’s political, social, economic, and cultural and the society at large.

The conflict later escalated in 2017 with reports of violence, human rights abuses, and the displacement of thousands of people. Despite efforts at dialogue and peace talks, the conflict remains unresolved, and tensions continue to simmer in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon. One of the key areas affected by the conflict is the oil industry which plays a crucial role in the country’s economy.

The main objective of this research was to examine the effects of the Anglophone conflict on human resource strategy in oil companies: a case study the national oil refinery in Limbe, Cameroon. Karl Max conflict and Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs would be used in this research.

This research objective gives rise to the research methodology which is qualitative research and the primary data was collected through questionnaires with a sample size of 50 and was done through random sampling.

The study finds that the Anglophone conflict has had a significant impact on the national oil refinery’s human resource strategy. The conflict has led to shortage of skilled labour, difficulty to recruit and retain qualified workers and more.

Overall, the study concludes that the Anglophone conflict has greatly affected the national oil refinery’s human resource strategy but the challenges have been addressed by implementing training programs. In as much as these strategies have been implemented, it is not effective to an extent.

They are not sufficient to address the long-term impact of the conflict. Suggestions such as diversity recruitment, enhance employee engagement would ensure the long-term sustainability of the company’s operations.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to Study

Conflicts are objective and widespread within the enterprise. Today the changing conditions governing organizations, increasing the competition and the need of its effectiveness in such conditions indicate their requirement of a valuable generation of the employees, a generation which can be called as the organizations soldiers. Undoubtedly, these employees are the point which meansthe organizations are effective.

Considering the changes within the organization, Sarawegi(2008) introduced eighth challenges of change in the employees’ expectations, globalization,balance between work and life, increasing the moral aspect of the activities of human resources, organizational restructuring, management of variety in the work force and developing group attitude which the human resources facing with,(sarawagi,2008); and also in his book of management human resources (2007) and with a look at both the changes within and out of the organization, Robert Mathis referred to four major challenges related to distribution and contrasts in human force, accessibility and the human force and the necessity of improving quality, economic and technological changes and the structural changes of the organization (Robert Mathis,2007).

What the different researchers are about it is that the human resources cannot cope with the challenges it faces just through having traditional and conventional roles and it requires playing newer roles and value creation in other areas. Ulrich (1997) mentioned four tasks of strategic partner, administration affair employees, supporter and change agency as the future roles of human resources.

The strategic partner is about the compatibility of activities and practises of human resources with the general business strategy. The administration affairs expert is about the provisions of routine tasks and administrative tasks and administrative tasks of the human resources such as employment, training, services, compensation, etc.

With a better quality and lower cost. As the employee’s’ supporter, the human resources must be aware of the employees’ needs, care about their interests and support them against organizational changes. The role of change agency is about supporting the changes and effects of the business change in the human resources (Ulrich, 1997).

Lawler and Mohrman (2003) have considered three roles of administrative, strategic partner and business partner and business partner for the modern human resources (Lawler and Mohrman, 2003). The characteristics of today’s’ organization is dynamicity, complexity, ambiguity and tradition ascendance and dealing with crisis. In the path of crisis, the organizations are consistently under the influence of the surrounding environment and they have accepted change as an unavoidable necessity (Rashisi, 2014).

With understanding the fact that the crisis has become inseparable and essential part of the organization of the third millennium, it is necessary to have the power of being compatible with the recent changes in various social and economic fields. In order to overcome the uncertain, complex and dynamic conditions, the only way the managers have is to empower the organization and the employees through obtaining the knowledge and skill which quickly becomes obsolete.

Hence, having capable and efficient human resources which are considered the base of national wealth and the vital properties of the organization will be followed by a major amount of advantages for companies, organizations and economic enterprises (BazazJazayeri 2002), in the current era, one of the factors causing crisis in the organizations is inefficient use of the intellectual resources, mental capability and potential capacities of the human resources. Most of the organizations do not use the employees’ capabilities in and optimized way and the managers are not able to utilize their capabilities.

The scholars of change management and optimization of the organization have introduced the necessity of empowerment of the human resources as an influencing strategy for organizational performance and optimization and they believe that the human resources empowerment is one of the attitudes of the modern era which used by the organizations right now and in fact, it is a respond to the critical need of the contemporary era’s management (Kinela and Denis, 2004).

In order words, one of the conditions of success of any organization for coping with crisis and environmental changes and appropriately reacting to them is to have strategic look at the human resource. In the same regard, the concept of development of human resources and a long time look at providing the human resources for accessing the organization’s success has been posed and its role and importance increasingly become more obvious and clearer. The significant point of this matter is that the human resources development requires paying attention to the crisis, environmental changes and consistent examining of needs and necessities providence for responding them.

In order word, any social system must consistently search and examine its surrounding environment in order to survive and be alive and be able to cope with threats, manage the crisis and benefit from the opportunities through identifying the needs, opportunities, and environmental threats. Hence it is necessary for any organization to identify the facing challenges and determine the strategies of dealing with crisis and manage the different aspects of crisis.Therefore, this study will investigate the impact of crisis on human resource strategy in the National Oil Refinery (SONARA) Limbe, Cameroon.

1.2 Statement of Problem

In a situation of crisis, it could be important to create organizational structures and processes that build organizational reliance potential. Rather than viewing plans as an outcome of a process to be utilized in a step by step fashion during a crisis, perhaps it is best to consider whether certain elements of planning activities can lead to effective response through building of organizational resilience potential that, when realized, enables adaptive behaviours and takes advantage of improvisation and creativity.

When mentioning the importance of stimulating resilience potential that, it is importance to refer that the employees could benefit from it too. When concerning the dilemma that organizations face between structure and flexibility, “minimal structures” are an appropriate template for striking a balance both (Bastien and Hostager, 1988; Brown and Eisenhardt, 1997; Kamoche and Cunha, 2001).

According to this literature such a balance ensures that, while certain key process is more or less maintained as given, other complementary ones are allowed to fluctuate in order to facilitate change and innovativeness. Maybe paying attention to some factors will make a difference in the organization in terms of the measures they are forced to apply in turbulence environments such as in a crisis scenario.

1.3 Research Questions

1. What are the effects of the Anglophone conflict on human resource strategy in SONARA?
2. What are the challenges faced by SONARA in providing safety to workers amidst the Anglophone Conflict?

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