Issues of leadership in humanitarian aid operations

Maria Besiou

Practitioner reports suggest that aid organizations continue to face many problems during their operations despite available financial and human resources. While the field of humanitarian aid has traditionally been looked at from an operational angle to address the respective challenges this research project seeks to advance behavioral insights in the respective dynamics of the execution by leaders. As such, the research focuses on leaders and the role they play for 1) effective collaboration between local and expatriate humanitarian staff, 2) effective use of local knowledge, skills, and abilities, and 3) effective trust-building between field offices and headquarters. To this end, three empirical study areas examine categories of mediation and moderation factors that can tie well-established organizational leadership theories to central humanitarian operation outcomes.The project seeks to draw actionable recommendations for humanitarian practice but also help the respective research mature beyond the immediate focus on finances and logistics.