Rlchard Pettlnger

CONCLUSIONS

These lessons apply to all multinational and transnational companies and large, complex, and sophisticated organizations whatever their country of origin. The keys to removing stress and resolving the problems that it causes are in recognizing potential problem areas, and in setting enduring standards of culture, attitude, shared valued, behavior, and performance to which everyone can aspire, and which accommodate and transcend local, cultural, and social pressures.

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BEST PRACTICE CASESTUDY: OXFAM

Oxfam is a charitable organization dedicated to alleviating hunger and deprivation wherever these conditions exist. To this end, it sends staff, volunteers, and aid resources to the poorest, most disaster ridden and war-torn parts of the world where it works to:

» alleviate the immediate problems of starvation and disease;

» teach and direct those involved how to rebuild their lives during, and following, war, disaster, and famine; and

» provide expertise in teaching, engineering, agriculture, and construction so that a positive start or restart is made in as many situations as possible.

The organization works in a highly volatile overall environment. It sends staff and volunteers into extremely stressful situations. The specific problems that it has to address include the following.

» Isolation: initial isolation of staff and volunteers from their culture, civilization, comforts, and resources. There is also continued physical isolation due to the fact that many Oxfam projects are in remote parts of Africa, Asia, and South America. Physical contact is often only possible by air or as the result of hazardous overland journeys. Isolation also means that food aid, other resources, and additional staff expertise and volunteers invariably do not arrive when scheduled.

» Threats of violence: it used to be understood and perceived at least that religious and charity workers would not be harmed during periods of strife and warfare. In reality this is no longer the case. Staff and volunteers from Oxfam and all the large charities, and from Christian and other religious foundations also, now risk their lives should they find themselves in war zones, or caught up in rebellions and insurrections.

» Feelings of helplessness and powerlessness: these prevail at times of major crises. Oxfam and the other main charities put in as many resources, staff, and volunteers as possible. However,

52 STRESS MANAGEMENT
those placed in huge refugee camps and famine relief centers express feelings of being overwhelmed by the sheer scale of what they have to face and deal with – and the fact that they are going to fail to a greater or lesser extent.

Accordingly, the organization takes both strategic and opera- tional views of stress management. It runs an extensive induction program for staff and volunteers at the home base, upon arrival in the country of location, and at the particular field site. Volun- teers are located initially for periods of no more than three to six months, and whether these are extended or not is a matter of volunteer choice. The organization provides laptop computers and mobile phones as far as it is able, and fresh clothing and some luxuries are brought in on relief and supply flights (even if much of this is actually used as part of the relief effort).

Oxfam bargains, negotiates, and establishes friendly, cooper- ative, and positive relations with all the political and public authorities in whose domain it is to work. This means, on the organization’s own admission, dealing with some of the greed- iest, most violent and repulsive regimes in the world in order to establish conditions in which its own people are able to work effectively to some extent, and to protect them as far as possible from threats of physical violence. The organization pays bribes to those regimes and officials that demand them. It has carried arms on its relief flights as a condition of being able to fly in the food aid and other relief required. It maintains regular links with local authorities, Western governments, and intelligence sources, and is now much more readily agreeable to remove its staff and volunteers from areas in which they otherwise face physical and increasing mortal danger.




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