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Diversity and inclusion under pressure: building relational resilience into humanitarian operations
In this essay, our analysis takes important insights on diversity and inclusion from the behavioral literature but critically contextualizes them against the reality of humanitarian operations. Humanitarian operations are characterized by system immanent diversity, particularly between local and expatriate aid workers, who not only bring valuable different perspectives to the table but also differ along multiple dimensions of diversity into a so-called diversity faultline. Such a faultline, however, provides fertile ground for continued conflict resulting in relational fractures and, ultimately, inefficient collaboration. While, in theory, inclusion could help overcome the negative effects of faultlines, in practice, the time pressure for humanitarian organizations to quickly respond to disasters makes it effectively impossible to engage in it. Against this background, we argue, humanitarian organizations should take preemptive action before disaster strikes. Specifically, we posit that the pre-disaster phase presents an opportunity to engage in inclusion in order to cultivate relational resilience between local and expatriate aid workers. Such resilience would enable them to not only better weather the inevitable relational fractures during a disaster response (and thus stay more functional throughout), but also quickly realign with each other in the post-disaster phase. We conclude with a set of concrete recommendations for practicing inclusion in the pre-disaster phase.
Uploaded by: Hassan MontazeriAuthor: Besiou, Maria | ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6401-2738
Co-author: Gazdag, Brooke A | ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0701-0423
Co-author: Van Quaquebeke, Niels | ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6141-4659
Institution: Kühne Logistics University | Centre: Sustainable Operations for Resource Management and Food Supply (SCO)
Type: Journal article | English | Peer Reviewed
Subjects: Logistics
Published in: Production and Operations Management, ISSN 1059-1478, EISSN 1937-5956 | Volume 34, Issue 4
Publisher of document: [Thousand Oaks, California]: SAGE Publications
Date: April 2025 | Pages: Pages 627-635
https://doi.org/10.1177/10591478241234993
Copyright: © The Author(s) | License: Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0
