Who's in charge here?: A literature review of approaches to leadership in humanitarian operations

Author(s)
Knox Clarke, Paul
Publication language
English
Pages
92pp
Date published
01 Jan 2013
Publisher
ALNAP
Type
Research, reports and studies
Keywords
Coordination, Cluster coordination, Leadership and Decisionmaking, Organisational, Response and recovery
Organisations
ALNAP

This paper is the result of an extensive literature review, which considered documentation from international humanitarian organisations and from other fields, such as civil defence, the military, and emergency medicine (see Annex A for methodology). It considers some of the assumptions that we commonly make around operational leadership, and investigates the potential relevance of alternative approaches to leadership, and how they might be implemented in the international humanitarian system. In so doing, the paper creates some broad hypotheses, which we intend to test ‘in the field’, and in collaboration with members of the ALNAP network. As such, this paper is part of a process that aims to ensure that investments in improving the effectiveness of humanitarian leadership achieve the greatest possible impact.