Managing cultural conflicts for effective humanitarian aid

Rodón, Juan; Serrano, Josep F. Mària; Giménez, Cristina Mallor

doi:10.1016/j.ijpe.2011.08.029

Cited by 29 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Expatriates also earn more than their local colleagues and receive a range of benefits (e.g., paid leave, accommodation, health insurance, and school fees for their children) for which locals with the same job title are often not eligible (Global Development 2017). Moreover, mutual interaction remains limited outside the office because expatriates hang out in bars that locals either cannot afford or do not consider culturally appropriate to join (Rodon et al 2012). Taken together, these differences often encourage expatriates to look down on their local colleagues and, as such, perceive their cooperation as unnecessary (e.g., see field reports in Shevchenko and Fox 2008).…”

Section: Cooperation Between Local and Expatriate Humanitarian Aid Sumentioning

confidence: 99%

Intergroup Leadership: How Leaders Can Enhance Performance of Humanitarian Operations

Salem

Quaquebeke

Besiou

et al. 2019

Production and Operations Management

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International humanitarian organizations (IHOs) always strive to improve their operational performance in the field. While anecdotes from practice suggest that IHO field office leadership plays a crucial role in this regard, these claims have not been deeply substantiated by primary data. In response, we collected survey data from 125 humanitarian workers, concentrated in disaster response and development programs, on the issues of field office leadership and operational performance. Building on the operations management and organizational behavior literature, we find that leaders who adopt an intergroup leadership style can significantly improve operational performance via enhancing cooperation between local and expatriate subgroups inside a field office. Notably, we find that the intergroup leadership style becomes more effective as humanitarian workers become more entrenched within cohesive subgroups. These results should help IHOs to better select and train their field office leaders and achieve higher operational performance.

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Section: Cooperation Between Local and Expatriate Humanitarian Aid Sumentioning

confidence: 99%

Intergroup Leadership: How Leaders Can Enhance Performance of Humanitarian Operations

Salem

Quaquebeke

Besiou

et al. 2019

Production and Operations Management

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“…Concerning OM execution, Rodon, Serrano, and Giménez (2012) found cultural differences to be a source of conflict between the providers and beneficiaries of humanitarian aid, which reduced operational effectiveness. The authors analysed potential actions to resolve such conflicts and found that providers should change their cultural assumptions and behaviours to enable success.…”

Section: Action: What Actions Can Organisations Take To Manage Culturmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, it is worth noting that four out of these seven studies (Rodon, Serrano, and Giménez 2012;Jia and Lamming 2013;Boscari, Danese, and Romano 2016;Han, Huang, and Macbeth 2017) used qualitative methods. This is in contrast with studies investigating the relevance and impact of culture, with the vast majority of reviewed articles using surveys (see Appendices).…”

Section: Action: What Actions Can Organisations Take To Manage Culturmentioning

confidence: 99%

National culture and operations management: a structured literature review

Boscari

Bortolotti

Netland

et al. 2018

International Journal of Production Research

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National culture has received a substantial amount of interest in the operations management literature. We present the first structured review of articles studying national culture in operations management. Our search returned 51 papers published in ten leading journals between 2000 and 2017. We sort and analyse the papers according to three focus areas of operations management (strategy, execution and improvement). We also analyse the papers according to whether they address the relevance of national culture, the impact of national culture or the actions managers can use to manage or mitigate the effects of national culture. We find that national culture appears as a relevant variable in all focus areas of operations management research but that the direction and strength of its impact remain undetermined. Only a handful of papers address how managers can actively deal with challenges related to national culture. We propose a research agenda and a guiding framework for future research.

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“…To assist in the distribution of information, transparency needs to permeate across all organisations military and humanitarian which will provide answers rather than obscuring questions due to institutional resistance. Furthermore, as language and communication has proven to be a barrier (Rondon et al, 2012) it may prove beneficial to use neutral language when describing coordination meetings. This gesture would avoid misperceptions and mistrust (Tatham and Kov acs, 2010).…”

Section: Communicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using the military in disaster relief: systemising challenges and opportunities

Heaslip

Barber

2014

Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a greater understanding of the challenges of civil military logistical cooperation, coordination and collaboration in humanitarian relief logistics. Design/methodology/approach – Systematic literature review of academic journals. Findings – This paper has four main findings. First, a categorisation of humanitarian logistics literature is achieved through a systematic review. Second, a classification of military involvement in humanitarian relief logistics is presented. Third, the research substantiated systematic differences in the kinds of military cooperation not only due to stage of operations but also depending upon whether the disaster is “natural” or “manmade”. Fourth, the research identifies the challenges of civil military logistical cooperation, coordination and collaboration and posits recommendations to overcome the identified challenges. Research limitations/implications – This paper represents an exploratory study and provides the basis for further research on cooperation, coordination and collaboration between military and civilian agencies in humanitarian operations. The paper sets a research agenda for academics. Practical implications – This paper is the first to offer practical guidance to military commanders and managers of humanitarian agencies on solutions and recommendations to overcome the challenges to civil military logistical cooperation/coordination in humanitarian operations. Originality/value – The area of civil military logistical cooperation/coordination has received limited consideration within the humanitarian aid logistics literature to date. This paper is designed to redress this shortfall. As a result, it is hoped that it will act as a catalyst for further research and to widen and deepen the resultant debate with a view to improving the outcome for those affected by current and future disasters.

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Managing cultural conflicts for effective humanitarian aid

Cited by 29 publications

References 34 publications

Intergroup Leadership: How Leaders Can Enhance Performance of Humanitarian Operations

Intergroup Leadership: How Leaders Can Enhance Performance of Humanitarian Operations

National culture and operations management: a structured literature review

Using the military in disaster relief: systemising challenges and opportunities

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