CHSCM 3.0 - Unit 1 - SCM in the Humanitarian World

Balancing the needs of a wide range of stakeholders can be difficult. In particular, many
organizations struggle to satisfy the financial needs of their backers, while also fulfilling the needs of
other stakeholders. A key role of management is to find a way to strike a balance.
There are different theories as to how best to achieve this balance. Some argue that efforts should
be concentrated on looking after the beneficiaries’ needs, and that others will be satisfied as a
consequence. Others advocate that the best way of achieving the balance is to enhance the
organization’s overall health and capability, and if this is done consistently, the needs of stakeholders
will automatically be fulfilled.
It is clear that failure to address the requirements of any stakeholder group could lead to serious
issues. There are examples of stakeholders pursuing legal actions against organizations that they
believe have infringed on their rights.
The way this dilemma is often tackled is reflected in the strategic documents of an organization. If
done well, such documents can provide guidance to managers about how to act when potentially
adverse events occur. In other words, these documents provide rules for how people should
behave and act.
Let’s turn our attention now to how an organization works to generate stakeholder satisfaction.
In order to satisfy stakeholder requirements, humanitarian organizations must define:
• Products and services they will offer
• Geographical locations they will serve
Sometimes products and locations are linked, and referred to as programs. At other times,
products and services might be segmented into groups representing particular technical skills, such
as protection or water sanitation.
At a senior level, consideration will be given to the overall purpose and scope of the organization.
This will include the structure of programs and technical units to represent the geographical
coverage and the range of products/services. Additionally, decisions will be made as to how
resources will be allocated between different units.
Within each unit, consideration will be given to how best to operate. Each unit must contribute to
the overall purpose of the entire organization, but in a way that differs from other units.
Each unit exists to produce two types of output: the first is to deliver products and services for
beneficiaries, while the second is to provide accountability and transparency to other stakeholders.
Failure to satisfy the beneficiary requirement will quickly lead to a failure to satisfy the other
stakeholders.
The way in which an organization produces these outputs depends upon the operational strategies
it employs. Operational strategies are concerned with how the components of an organization
effectively deliver the organization-level, program-level, and unit-level strategies in terms of