Intergroup Leadership: How Leaders Can Enhance Performance of Humanitarian Operations

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Salem, Mojtaba; Van Quaquebeke, Niels; Besiou, Maria; Meyer, Louisa
• 署名单位: Kuhne Logistics University
• 刊物名称: PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1059-1478
• DOI: 10.1111/poms.13085
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 2877-2897
• 关键词: MODERATING ROLE; self-sacrifice; Supply chains; METHOD BIAS; management; ENTITATIVITY; CONFLICT; identification; ORGANIZATIONS; collaboration

摘要

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.