ebook img

Strengthening Family Resilience during Accompanied Humanitarian Assignments PDF

350 Pages·2014·5.95 MB·English
by  
Save to my drive
Quick download
Download
Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.

Preview Strengthening Family Resilience during Accompanied Humanitarian Assignments

Centre for International Health Strengthening Family Resilience during Accompanied Humanitarian Assignments Elisa C Pepall This thesis is presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Curtin University September 2014 Declaration To the best of my knowledge and belief this thesis contains no material previously published by any other person except where due acknowledgement has been made. This thesis contains no material that has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university. Elisa Pepall 13/9/2014 i Acknowledgements A number of parties have greatly assisted in the completion of this thesis. I am extremely grateful, firstly, for the guidance and support provided by my primary supervisor, Dr Jaya Earnest, Associate Professor at the Centre for International Health, Curtin University. I also appreciate the feedback and direction provided by the other member of my thesis committee, Dr Pamela O’Connor. I wish to acknowledge the work of Maureen Storey for her meticulous and timely interview transcriptions, and Dr Ross James, who provided professional editorial advice. To Michelle Lewis Sandall, Ingrid Watts, Lisa McKay and Renee Martyna: thank you for your belief in the significance of this research study and your time and effort in reviewing many draft documents and proposed strategies and plans. Importantly, I would like to thank each of the accompanying partners who participated in this study. Without your trust, honesty and openness, this research would not have been possible. I hope that I have adequately represented your experiences and thoughts. I also want to acknowledge those senior INGO staff who were willing to be interviewed. Your perspective added greater depth to the findings and your endorsement of the need for greater organisational family supports and responsiveness was a significant validation of the importance of this research. I acknowledge the Australian Postgraduate Award and Curtin University Postgraduate Scholarship, without which I would have struggled to conduct this study. Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to my immediate family, my husband Josh and our two children, for their enduring support and patience. Thank you Josh for consistently appreciating my need to find time and space to focus and for always believing in both my research ability and the importance of this enquiry. I am grateful also to my mother, Christine Kirby, who provided many hours of editing support, reviewing both this thesis and various articles for publication. To my friends who have “cheered me on,” thank you for the encouragement you have provided over the past few years. ii Abstract Today, many international humanitarian employees are skilled professionals seeking a long-term career within the industry. Such individuals often have family responsibilities in addition to demanding work duties. While appreciation of the psychological consequences of humanitarian work has seen an increase in staff care services provided to employees, scant attention has been given to the accompanying families of expatriate staff. Given acknowledgement of the important role families play in helping buffer worker stress this shortcoming is intriguing. Additionally, research on missionary or corporate globally-mobile families, has consistently emphasised the significant role family adjustment (especially that of the partner or spouse) has on worker performance, organisational commitment and retention. Given high levels of burnout and staff turnover within the humanitarian sector, and demands for greater fiscal accountability, the need for greater consideration of the experiences and support needs of expatriate families is compelling. Underpinned by constructivist grounded theory methodology, this qualitative study explored the experiences of accompanying families in the humanitarian international non-governmental organisational (INGO) sector. In particular, it focussed on understanding the stressors faced by such families and the resilience processes used to manage these challenges. Multiple data collection methods, including in-depth partner and key informant interviews and a systematic scoping review were undertaken for this study. Between December 2010 and October 2012, 23 interviews were conducted with accompanying partners of humanitarian INGO workers in addition to eight key informant interviews with senior human resources (HR) and staff care professionals from humanitarian INGOs. Accompanying partners were recruited for the study from Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe, including partners in remote postings and high- risk conflict settings (e.g. Afghanistan). Aged between 29 and 50 years, most were living abroad, while three had recently repatriated to their home countries. As families (usually with accompanying children) they had lived abroad from one to 22 years. Key informants who included HR and staff care professionals represented a iii variety of humanitarian organisations. Their average length of tenure was 10 years, and the majority of key informants had lived as expatriates themselves. Accompanying partner interview feedback identified eight dominant types of challenges impacting families, highlighting in particular the significant cost accompanied assignments can have on relationships and the careers of accompanying partners. One in four partners also experienced at least one (self-defined) crisis during their time abroad. In addition to highlighting the beneficial aspects of expatriate living, interviews also depicted accompanying families as demonstrating resilience. Specific coping strategies and growth were repeatedly reported at both the individual-level (i.e. accompanying partners) and family-level (i.e. between couples or between parents and children). Family-level strategies closely reflected F. Walsh’s (2006) family resilience framework and included beliefs like positive thinking and putting the family first, and behaviours such as seeking social, professional, occupational and economic supports. Both accompanying partners and key informants identified desired organisational family supports at each stage of the deployment cycle. Recommendations included greater pre-deployment communication with families (especially accompanying partners), improved responsiveness and social networking while abroad, and partner debriefing at assignment completion. This PhD study is among the first of its kind, focusing on resilience within expatriate families and seeking specifically to give voice to accompanying spouses and partners of humanitarian workers. As an understudied topic, the research offers new insights in regards to expatriate family resilience and the mechanisms families use to thrive. More specifically, the research highlights the resilience processes in expatriate humanitarian families. Whilst not exclusive to expatriate humanitarian families alone, the research findings found this population to be particularly vulnerable to unfavorable impacts associated with frequent employee travel, short employment contracts, vicarious trauma and ethical and moral dilemmas. This study also confirmed that the expectations of the humanitarian worker, the accompanying partner and the hiring organisation each significantly influence the success or outcome of an international assignment. Research findings contributed to the development of a new and expanded model of expatriate humanitarian family iv adjustment and proposed practical recommendations for expatriate families seeking to pursue resilience and thriving, despite the many risks encountered in the humanitarian sector. This model and separate recommendations for humanitarian organisations were also offered, thereby providing important guidance for agencies desiring to better support expatriate staff and accompanying dependants. Underpinning these recommendations is the assertion that greater acknowledgement and support of accompanying families will ultimately improve employee performance and retention and contribute to better outcomes for the communities the humanitarian worker serves. It is also hoped that the model will help enhance partner and spouse relationships amongst humanitarian workers. v Table of Contents Declaration ............................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ................................................................................................... ii Abstract ................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents .................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ......................................................................................................... xi List of Tables .......................................................................................................... xii List of Appendices ................................................................................................. xiii List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................. xiv List of Key Terms .................................................................................................. xvi List of Presentations and Publications .................................................................. xx Chapter One: Introduction and Overview ........................................... 1 1.0 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Researcher’s Motivation and Interest .............................................................. 1 1.2 Background and Rationale for the Study ......................................................... 2 1.2.1 Humanitarian Action and INGOs .................................................................................... 3 1.2.2 Expatriate INGO Workers ............................................................................................... 5 1.2.3 Individual Stress and Humanitarian Work ....................................................................... 5 1.2.4 Stress and Humanitarian Organisations ........................................................................... 8 1.2.5 Managing Stress ............................................................................................................... 9 1.2.6 The Families of Humanitarian Workers ......................................................................... 10 1.3 Aims and Objectives ....................................................................................... 11 1.4 Methods .......................................................................................................... 12 1.5 Overview of Key Findings .............................................................................. 13 1.5.1 Lack of Knowledge ........................................................................................................ 13 1.5.2 The Impact of Humanitarian Work upon Families ........................................................ 13 1.5.3 Expatriate Family Resilience ......................................................................................... 14 1.5.4 Organisational Family Supports ..................................................................................... 14 1.6 Significance .................................................................................................... 15 1.7 Thesis Overview ............................................................................................. 16 Chapter Two: Expatriate Families and Family Resilience ............... 18 2.0 Introduction .................................................................................................... 18 2.1 Part One: Expatriate Families ....................................................................... 18 vi 2.1.1 Expatriate Family Roles and Norms .............................................................................. 19 2.1.2 Expatriate Families in the For-Profit Sector .................................................................. 24 2.1.3 Missionary Families ....................................................................................................... 30 2.2 Part Two: Theoretical Constructs Related to Expatriate Adjustment ............ 33 2.2.1 Theoretical Models Related to Expatriate Family Adjustment ...................................... 38 2.3 Part Three: Family Resilience ....................................................................... 40 2.3.1 Resilience ....................................................................................................................... 41 2.3.2 Family Resilience: An Emerging Construct................................................................... 43 2.4 Part Four: Theoretical Constructs relating to Family Resilience ................. 45 2.4.1 Theoretical Models Related to Family Resilience ......................................................... 46 2.4.2 Reflections on Resilience and Family Resilience .......................................................... 50 2.5 Family Resilience within Expatriate Families and the Humanitarian Sector .............................................................................................................. 53 2.6 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................... 55 Chapter Three: Methodology .............................................................. 56 3.0 Introduction .................................................................................................... 56 3.1 Aims and Objectives ....................................................................................... 56 3.2 Research Design ............................................................................................. 57 3.2.1 Rationale for use of Qualitative Research ...................................................................... 57 3.2.2 Grounded Theory ........................................................................................................... 58 3.2.3 Reflexivity and Reducing Researcher Bias .................................................................... 63 3.3 Research Methods .......................................................................................... 65 3.4 Scoping Study Methodology ........................................................................... 67 3.5 Intensive In-depth Interviews with Accompanying Partners .......................... 68 3.5.1 Accompanying Partner Recruitment .............................................................................. 68 3.5.2 Accompanying Partner Data Collection Tools............................................................... 72 3.6 Key Informant Interviews ............................................................................... 73 3.6.1 Key Informant Recruitment ........................................................................................... 73 3.6.2 Key Informant Data Collection Tools ............................................................................ 74 3.7 Data Analysis ................................................................................................. 75 3.8 Research Rigour / Trustworthiness ................................................................ 78 3.8.1 Reference Group ............................................................................................................ 81 3.9 Ethical Considerations ................................................................................... 83 3.9.1 Informed Consent........................................................................................................... 83 3.9.2 Confidentiality ............................................................................................................... 83 3.10 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................... 83 vii Chapter Four: Scoping Review ............................................................ 84 4.0 Introduction .................................................................................................... 84 4.1 Method ............................................................................................................ 84 4.1.1 Development of a Research Question ............................................................................ 84 4.1.2 Stakeholder Consultation ............................................................................................... 85 4.1.3 Search Strategy .............................................................................................................. 85 4.1.4 Study Selection .............................................................................................................. 89 4.1.5 Charting the Data ........................................................................................................... 89 4.1.6 Summation, Collation and Synthesis ............................................................................. 90 4.2 Results: Families and International Humanitarian Work .............................. 90 4.2.1 Search Strategy, Study Selection and Data Extraction................................................... 90 4.2.2 The Scope of the Literature ............................................................................................ 92 4.3 Results: Resilience and Expatriate Families .................................................. 96 4.3.1 Search Strategy, Study Selection and Data Extraction................................................... 96 4.3.2 The Scope of the Literature ............................................................................................ 96 4.4 Discussion ...................................................................................................... 99 4.4.1 Challenges and Limitations ............................................................................................ 99 4.4.2 Key Findings ................................................................................................................ 102 4.5 Blogs and Social Networking Sites: What do They Reveal? ........................ 107 4.6 Chapter Summary ......................................................................................... 110 Chapter Five: Partner Interviews – The Challenges and Rewards of Expatriate Family Life ................................................................... 111 5.0 Introduction .................................................................................................. 111 5.1 The Participants and Their International Experience ................................. 111 5.1.1 Demographic Profile of Participants ............................................................................ 111 5.1.2 The International Experience of Participants ............................................................... 113 5.2 Challenges and Crises: Expatriate Families within Humanitarian INGOs ........................................................................................................... 116 5.2.1 Relationship Concerns ................................................................................................. 116 5.2.2 Personal and Professional Concerns of the Accompanying Partner ............................ 120 5.2.3 Transition and Relocation Concerns ............................................................................ 123 5.2.4 Parenting Concerns ...................................................................................................... 125 5.2.5 Adverse Impacts of Humanitarian Work Upon the Family ......................................... 126 5.2.6 Health Concerns ........................................................................................................... 129 5.2.7 Safety and Security Concerns ...................................................................................... 131 5.2.8 Environmental, Contextual and Cultural Concerns ...................................................... 134 5.2.9 Specific Crises or Challenging Experiences ................................................................ 136 viii 5.2.10 Unique Challenges or Features of Expatriate Humanitarian INGO Families .............. 137 5.3 Benefits: Expatriate Families within Humanitarian INGOs ........................ 138 5.3.1 Exposure to Travel and Alternate Ways of Living ...................................................... 138 5.3.2 Lifestyle Benefits ......................................................................................................... 139 5.3.3 Family Time ................................................................................................................. 140 5.3.4 Social Networks ........................................................................................................... 141 5.3.5 Meaningful Work and Volunteer Opportunities .......................................................... 142 5.4 Growth by Participants and their Families .................................................. 142 5.4.1 Antecedents for Growth: Adversity, Cross-cultural Engagement and Experience ...... 143 5.4.2 Stories of Growth: Individuals and Families................................................................ 143 5.5 Chapter Summary ......................................................................................... 145 Chapter Six: Partner Interviews – Coping Skills, Advice and Agency Supports.................................................................................. 146 6.0 Introduction .................................................................................................. 146 6.1 Coping Strategies Employed by Participants and their Families ................ 146 6.1.1 Accompanying Partners’ Individual Coping Strategies ............................................... 147 6.1.2 Family Coping Strategies ............................................................................................. 152 6.1.3 Coping Strategies: Pulling it All Together ................................................................... 162 6.2 Advice for Others ......................................................................................... 165 6.2.1 Advice for Others: Pulling it All Together................................................................... 168 6.3 Humanitarian INGOs and Families ............................................................. 168 6.3.1 Effective Family Support Strategies ............................................................................ 169 6.3.2 Why Family Issues Matter ........................................................................................... 177 6.4 Chapter Summary ......................................................................................... 179 Chapter Seven: Key Informant Interviews – Expatriate Families and Family Supports ........................................................................... 180 7.0 Introduction .................................................................................................. 180 7.1 The Key Informant Sample ........................................................................... 180 7.1.1 Demographic Profile of Key Informants ...................................................................... 180 7.1.2 The Expatriate Experience of Key Informants ............................................................. 182 7.2 Perceptions of Expatriate Families in the Humanitarian INGO Sector ...... 182 7.2.1. Needs of Accompanying Expatriate Families .............................................................. 182 7.2.2. Risks and Benefits for Accompanying Expatriate Families ......................................... 184 7.2.3 Advice for Accompanying Partners and Recommended Family Strengths ................. 185 7.3. INGOs and Family Support .......................................................................... 187 7.3.1 Why Family Support Matters ....................................................................................... 187 ix

Description:
Strengthening Family Resilience during Accompanied. Humanitarian Assignments. Elisa C Pepall. This thesis is presented for the Degree of Thank you Josh for consistently appreciating my need to find time and space to focus and for always believing in both my research ability and the importance of
See more

The list of books you might like

Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.