Reason,emotion, compassion: can altruism survive professionalisation in the humanitarian sector?

The humanitarian sector has grown enormously over the past two decades. Some fear that professionalisation comes at the expense of altruistic volunteering. This may be a valid concern if altruism is the product of organisational culture and individual experiences rather than an innate trait. This paper examines advances in evolutionary biology and neurology that provide evidence in support of both the nature and nurture arguments, echoing earlier insights from social sciences. It then questions to what extent humanitarian principles build on altruistic impulses or instead seek to constrain them, and reviews recruitment profiles of selected humanitarian organisations and applicants' letters accordingly. This initial investigation warrants further research to identify how altruism as a personal trait and an organisational principle has influenced diverse humanitarian actors and traditions. This paper outlines how training curricula and organisational reward systems can build on—rather than stifle—natural altruism to nurture critical, reflexive practitioners.     

Managing Indirect Environmental Impact within Local Authorities' Standardized Environmental Management Systems

Abstract

Many local authorities use standardized environmental management systems (EMSs) to improve their environmental management. These authorities often find it difficult to manage environmental impact caused by their exercise of authority i.e. indirect environmental impact (IEI) within their EMSs. Since this is connected to their core activities, it is important to understand how IEI could be more efficiently managed with respect to EMS work. The purpose for this paper is to study if and how IEI could be managed within the framework of EMS. In this study we have identified two different approaches to managing IEI. Because managing IEI is complex, it is often ignored when initiating EMSs or managed by explicitly avoid mentioning the concept. Managing IEI is seen as a matter of maturity within the organization. The paper concludes with a discussion regarding a developed definition of IEI and how management of IEI could be facilitated.     

The Student Volunteer Army: a ‘repeat emergent’ emergency response organisation

This paper seeks to contribute to understanding of the factors associated with an effective emergent emergency response organisation and to provide new insights into this understudied area. It examines, through an analysis of a range of textual resources, the emergence and re‐emergence of the Student Volunteer Army (SVA) during the devastating earthquakes in Canterbury, New Zealand, in 2010–11. This evaluation is conducted in relation to the four key features of an effective emergency response organisation: adaptability; direction; leadership; and communication. In addition, the paper aims to further understanding of ‘emergency entrepreneurship’ and thus of the values and strategies that underpin social entrepreneur organisations in times of normalcy. The paper concludes that the unique position of the SVA as a ‘repeat emergent’ emergency response organisation enabled it to innovate continually and to improve repeatedly its systems, relationships, and image, such that it exhibited features common to emergent and established emergency response organisations.     

The Picturescue Movement: restoring photographs following the 2011 tsunami in Japan

After the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, volunteers participated in the recovery of lost photographs. This effort—which we call the Picturescue Movement—subsequently began to organise photograph restoration gatherings. We conducted field research during the gatherings in Noda, one of the tsunami-stricken areas. We have also carried out research on restoration gatherings in the city of Rikuzentakata. A comparison of findings across these two localities identifies two approaches to photograph restoration gatherings: ‘aiming’ and ‘staying'. The aiming approach, employed in Rikuzentakata, emphasises returning photographs to their owners quickly, whereas the latter approach, used in Noda, is one in which volunteers stay with survivors for some time and encourage them to recall the past at their own pace. We conclude that the staying approach is more likely than the aiming approach to promote disaster recovery among survivors.     

Factors predicting proclivity and intensity to volunteer for the environment in the US and South Korea

This research compares environmental volunteering among students in South Korea and the US (n = 3612). Given differing environmental histories of these countries, we explore whether and to what extent volunteer proclivity and intensity varies, and potential factors that explain existing variation. Findings suggest that American students are more likely to volunteer for, and devote time to, environmental causes, while South Korean students differ on socio-economic correlates of such behaviour. In a global society, understanding determinants of environmental volunteer participation is critical to the management of environmental NGOs that are involved in broad-based and participatory planning, educating stakeholders and legitimising environmental advocacy.