Conflict resolution management to support sustainable palm oil production

Abstract

Palm oil is one of the major plantation commodities and contributes significantly to the GDP of Indonesia. One of the areas known for palm oil production is Jambi, where smallholder plantation dominates. The literature shows that the plantation sector is often characterized by conflicts, including small-scale farmers and big companies. Therefore, appropriate conflict management strategies should be put to mitigate these conflicts’ potential adverse impacts. This paper aims to review the existing literature on conflict management strategies and examine these strategies’ factors. It highlights the different conflict management styles: integrating, obliging, dominating, avoiding, and compromising. For example, the literature shows the relevance of Big Five personality, where positive relationships are documented between integrating style with conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness, and extraversion Therefore, this paper argues the importance of incorporating psychological factors in determining appropriate conflict resolution management due to this possibility of strategy implementation among actors with different psychological factors.