Strategic relational communication in crisis : the humanitarian example

Abstract

The discourse on Haiti is both vast and varied with public attention soaring when an earthquake hit the island in January 2010. Many questions have since been raised by global stakeholders as to how the situation was handled. The primary purpose of this work is to investigate communication cycles between aid organizations and the Haitian community, and to compare the effects on the execution of projects during and after the crisis. The objective is to gain entry into the psyche of both the helpless and the helper, and to show that sociocultural immersion makes for better trust building which as a direct derivative, smoothes the communication exchange between aid organization teams and the host community. Information was gathered in the narrative style, with story-telling as the major tool for collecting vital cues on thoughts, feelings, and expectations of respondents. This technique is particularly appropriate in Haiti's cultural context where stories are an integral part of social record-keeping. From the narrations, insightful answers are found to the research questions guiding this work: What communication gaps existed? What communication mistakes were made? What can be done to avoid such pitfalls in future situations? Building on these, results are presented within each chapter showing the problem or communication mistake, and how the application of my Strategy-Planning-Immersion-Communication-Execution (SPICE) theory addresses these shortfalls and makes for smoother project executions. In conclusion, this work shows that for aid work to have full effect (physical and psychological) on the receivers, team leadership must be immersed into the culture of the host community. The SPICE theory is therefore advanced as a process guide to integrating immersion as a key ingredient in the strategy-to-execution process.