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1 – 10 of over 4000Cécile L'Hermitte, Peter Tatham, Ben Brooks and Marcus Bowles
The purpose of this paper is to extend the concept of agility in humanitarian logistics beyond emergency operations. Since the humanitarian logistics literature focuses primarily…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to extend the concept of agility in humanitarian logistics beyond emergency operations. Since the humanitarian logistics literature focuses primarily on emergencies and sees longer term and regular operations as being conducted in relatively stable and predictable environments, agile practices are usually not associated with humanitarian protracted operations. Therefore, this paper explores the logistics and supply chain environment in such operations in order to identify their basic features and determine if agility is an important requirement.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a case study of the United Nations World Food Programme, the authors collected and analysed qualitative and quantitative data on the characteristics of protracted operations, the risks and uncertainties most frequently encountered, their impact, and the ways that field logisticians manage contingencies.
Findings
The research demonstrates that unpredictability and disruptions exist in protracted operations. Therefore, short-term operational adjustments and agile practices are needed in order to support the continuity of humanitarian deliveries.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should focus on a wider range of humanitarian organisations and move from a descriptive to a prescriptive approach in order to inform practice. Notwithstanding these limitations, the study highlights the need for academics to broaden the scope of their research beyond emergencies and to address the specific needs of humanitarian organisations involved in longer term operations.
Originality/value
This paper is the first empirical research focusing exclusively on the logistics features of humanitarian protracted operations. It provides a more concrete and complete understanding of these operations.
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Taro Komatsu, Kaoru Ghalawinji-Yamamoto, Yukari Iwama and Sayo Hattori
The purpose of this paper is to explore how vulnerable refugee children's education can be supported in the first asylum country during a long-term, complex crisis. More…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how vulnerable refugee children's education can be supported in the first asylum country during a long-term, complex crisis. More specifically, the authors examine the impact of a remedial education (RE) program on academically challenged Syrian refugees' sustained learning and well-being in Jordan during a protracted emergency.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the 2012 United Nations human security framework, the authors analyze the quantitative results of program evaluation, supplemented by qualitative surveys and stakeholder interviews that asked about the aspirations of refugee children and their guardians, their school experience and the refugee–host community relationship.
Findings
The authors' data suggest that the program enhanced targeted Syrians' protection and empowerment. Their increased sense of safety and improved academic performance and learning motivation were likely owing to child-friendly classroom management and pedagogies that facilitated interactive and differentiated learning. Their human security was further strengthened when they learned with Jordanian children who experienced similar academic challenges and with teachers sympathetic to their plight. Meanwhile, a human security framework calls for humanitarian agencies' strategic engagement with local partners to ensure refugees' learning continuity.
Originality/value
Refugee education studies in first asylum countries are rare. Even rarer are studies focusing on academically low-achieving refugees with full consideration of the protracted and complex nature of a crisis. This study suggests effective measures to increase their human security while calling for humanitarian aid organizations to use long-term thinking.
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Ibrahim Khatib, Daphna Canetti and Aviad Rubin
The current work aims to introduce the concept of conflict perception and construct a scale that measures individual differences in perceptions about conflicts along religious…
Abstract
Purpose
The current work aims to introduce the concept of conflict perception and construct a scale that measures individual differences in perceptions about conflicts along religious, national and material dimensions. The concept and the measure are developed in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
Design/methodology/approach
The research design combines three methodological elements: 14 focus groups in Israel and the West Bank, which represent diversity in place of residence, religion, age and political background; an expert panel review; and a survey of 411 student respondents that was conducted between September 29 and October 9, 2013, among university students in Israel and Palestine.
Findings
The findings show that conflict perception is an individual’s subjective view regarding the essence of the conflict and its central issues, the identities of the parties involved and their motivations, which may include material, ideological or symbolic motives, or any combination thereof. A novel scale consisting of five statements that can measure conflict perception that was developed, validated and implemented via a survey sample showed that Palestinians in the West Bank and in Israel have a religious perception of the conflict, whereas Jews have a national perception of the conflict.
Originality/value
First, the paper introduces a new concept that sheds additional light on the micro foundations of peoples’ attitudes in conflict situations. Second, it develops and validates a measurement tool for conflict perception that may be usable, with necessary adjustments, in other conflicts. Third, it demonstrates that parties to the conflict do not necessarily share similar perceptions about the conflict, a finding with far-reaching consequences for conflict resolution at both the scholarly and policy levels.
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Helena Desivilya and Michal Raz
The purpose of this paper is to discern the legacies of social divisions, notably protracted social conflict on team members’ relations, collaborative interactions and ways of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discern the legacies of social divisions, notably protracted social conflict on team members’ relations, collaborative interactions and ways of coping with such work-life reality.
Design/methodology/approach
This study constitutes a pilot phase of a research on nationally and ethnically diverse nurses’ teams operating in medical centers. It used qualitative methodology: a semi-structured individual interviews with 12 nurses.
Findings
The findings underscore the challenge of engaging diversity in mixed work teams operating in the shadow of protracted conflict. The results indicated inter-group biases, implicit discrimination and tensions due to the salience of social categorization and the faultline phenomenon. These tensions mount in crisis situations, such as violent incidents associated with the national conflict. The major coping pattern was directing the disagreements to a hidden sphere. The findings showed paucity of organizational level efforts to engage diversity and social divisions-related issues. In spite of the complexities associated with diverse workplaces, the nurses revealed high capability of maintaining cooperative interactions and effectively performing their healthcare tasks.
Research limitations/implications
The current study represents a pilot phase of a larger research project. Subsequent stages will extend the sample size and use additional research instruments for data collection.
Practical implications
Human resources managers need to address the organizational issues related to diversity and social divisions, including policy and training activities.
Social implications
Engaging “otherness” remains a considerable challenge in diverse work setting, especially when team work constitutes the main work pattern. It should be faced by work organizations and social institutions.
Originality/value
The study involves an innovative element as it attempts to elucidate the ramifications of diversity and inter-group tensions in “real-life” circumstances; namely, work setting in the context of a divided society. Most of the previous research examined such phenomena in the laboratory and/or on ad hoc groups.
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SRI LANKA: Protracted struggle on bailout lies ahead
COLOMBIA: Scandal poses protracted challenge for Petro
Details
DOI: 10.1108/OXAN-ES281065
ISSN: 2633-304X
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Topical
Prince Chiagozie Ekoh, Uzoma O. Okoye, Patricia Uju Agbawodikeizu, Elizabeth Onyedikachi George and Chukwuemeka Ejimkaraonye
This study aimed at exploring support for older people in protracted displacement in Nigeria, emphasising the available support and the gap in the support provided to them.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed at exploring support for older people in protracted displacement in Nigeria, emphasising the available support and the gap in the support provided to them.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative interviews were used to collect data from ten displaced older people in New-Kuchingoro internally displaced persons (IDP) camp Abuja, Nigeria. The collected data were analysed thematically with NVivo 12.
Findings
Results show that older people received material, emotional and psychological supports from their families, neighbours, friends, religious organisations and non-governmental organisations. Several gaps were identified in the support provided to displaced older people. For example, their special nutritional or medical needs were neglected, and their support was primarily material, sporadic and spontaneous, as there is no existing framework guiding the care and support of older people in displacement.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides a foundation for further research on older people in displacement, an area that has received minimal scholarly attention.
Practical implications
The paper recommends that researchers and displaced persons’ care providers should pay more attention to the peculiar support needs of this less visible vulnerable group and adopt the internal displacement policy for the long-term protection of older people in displacement.
Originality/value
Older people in displacement remain less visible as humanitarian aid programmes and research focus more on women and children. This lack of attention may put older people in displacement at more risk as their peculiar needs may not be met. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the gap in support for older people in displacement in Nigeria.
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SRI LANKA: Key talks on debt will be protracted
QATAR: Normalisation with Syria will be protracted
INDIA: Protracted fight over labour reform will ensue