Defense Valeska Korff - February 9, 2012

On Thursday, February 9, 2012, at 16.15 hours, in the Academiegebouw in Groningen, Valeska Korff (ICS / Sociology, year group 2007) will defend her dissertation Between Cause and Control: Management in a Humanitarian Organization.

Humanitarian aid refers to the effort to relief the suffering of people affect by armed conflict and natural or man-made disasters. Since the mid-1990s, this altruistic motivation has been supplemented by a focus on the effectiveness of aid provision. Central to this development is the effort to professionalize humanitarian organizations’ management and workforce. Focusing on the management of one humanitarian organization, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), this dissertation examines diverse aspects of organizational life and how these reflect professionalization efforts. Focal areas of analysis are human resource management, socialization of new recruits, staff turnover and retention, as well as legitimation strategies. Research involves the quantitative and qualitative analysis of various data sources, including MSF’s personnel database, interviews, employees’ performance evaluations, and organizational documents covering 18 years of MSF’s history. This detailed case study offers a comprehensive examination of an internationally distinguished humanitarian organization and its efforts to consolidate professionalization processes with the moral cause of humanitarianism.