Abstract

This Study Focused On ‘Resilient Leadership In Crisis Zones: A Performance View In Selected Humanitarian Organisations In Mezam Division-Cameroon’. The Objective Of This Study Was To Assess The Impact Of Resilient Leadership On The Performance Of Some Selected Humanitarian Organizations Based Mezam Division, North West Region Bamenda Within The Ongoing Socio-Political Crisis. Primary Data Was Collected From The Field Using 156 Structured Questionnaires Through The Purposive Sampling Technique.

Data Were Analysed Using The Descriptive Method While The Verification Of The Hypotheses Was Done Using Inferential Statistics With The Help Of Pairwise Correlation And Multiple Regression Analysis With The Use Of Stata 12. Findings From The Study Indicated That All The Variables Capturing Resilient Leadership Have A Positive Effect On The Organisational Performance Of The Selected Humanitarian Organizations During The Socio-Political Crisis In The Mezam Division Of The North West Region Of Cameroon.

The Results, Therefore, Concluded That Resilient Leadership Had An Impact On The Performance Of The Selected Humanitarian Organizations In The Mezam Division During The Ongoing Socio-Political Crisis. The Study Further Recommends That During The Crisis, Leaders Should Be Optimistic, Should Be Flexible To Be Able To Adapt To The Prevailing Condition And Leaders Should Also Foster Their Relationship With Their Stakeholders.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION   

1.1 Background of the Study

Every organization will face a crisis at some point in its history be it internal or external. How well an organization handles the preparation, response and recovery from a crisis are highly dependent on the strength of its leadership. Leadership is one of the world’s oldest preoccupations. Although many scholars have conducted numerous studies on leadership, it remains a scholarly paradox due to the lack of definitional clarity (Blass and Ferris, 2007; Sinclair, 2011). Bennis (1989) has mentioned that “leadership is like beauty: it is hard to define, but you know it when you see it” (1989: 45).

Leadership has been studied in different ways, depending on the researcher’s conception of leadership and the method of the research (Yukl,1989), Leadership starts with leading oneself before leading others. ”Leading others through a crisis has become a frequent challenge in recent years” (Dubrin, 2010, p.133)

A crisis is a good determinant to test and prove the strength and flexibility of every leader. Successful leadership during a crisis has always been a challenge to leaders in organizations. The increasing complexity, unrelenting and accelerating changes, workforce globalization, global pandemics and socio-political crisis are all-powerful forces that challenge even the most seasoned and skilled leader. Besides the above pressures, leaders are expected to lead, address disruptive shifts and increase performance in their organizations keeping costs down. In the face of a crisis, the resource most needed is resilience (Allison, 2012)

Resilience is the capacity of individuals to “utilize resources to continually adapt and flourish even when faced with challenging circumstances” (Kuntz et al., 2016). This capacity brings about effectiveness at multiple levels for individuals, groups, organizations and systems (Kozlowski & Klein, 2012). It enables people, organizations, and systems to engage in ongoing learning and development to improve their responses to challenging stimuli.

Resilience itself is dynamic. It changes in response to environments, and people can get better at it (Luthans, 2002). For organizations wanting to be resilient, having resilient leadership is a building block in their readiness and ability to adapt during times of change and uncertainty. Interest in research on Resilient leadership has been on an increase in recent years.

Amid varied uncertainties and global pandemics, resilience is more relevant than ever as organizations continue to experience unprecedented levels of uncertainties and anxiety. Organizations during such periods need a leadership system that allows leaders to cultivate a more thoughtful, less reactive workplace and sustain their effort over time. (Theurer,2020)

The ability to lead people during periods of turbulence and uncertainties has always been the challenge of leadership. The real test of a leader is not how they perform during the good times but rather how they demonstrate emotional strength, audacity, and professionalism during the most trying times (Joy, 2017).  Human history has always known crisis.

A crisis occurs at any time and any place. It can either be natural or humanly caused. Nature sometimes causes crisis while showing its power in the form of natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, hurricanes.

Human beings also bring about crisis while performing social, economic, political and technological activities which results in wars, genocides, economic crisis, political instability, health pandemics, side effects of globalization (price fluctuations and drowning of local industries) and socio-political crisis.

Whatever the reason or cause of the crisis, crisis put individuals under huge pressure and provoke their emotional reactions (Reynolds and Seeger, 2012). like individuals, organizations are vulnerable to crisis. Crisis disrupt the stability, functioning and goals of an organization (Klann,2003). The world has experienced and emerged through numerous crises ranging from world wars, recession, great economic depression outbreaks of the Ebola virus among others to the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Some organizations and leaders could not cope with these adversities while others were much more resilient and navigated through the crisis towards a better future.

Resilient performance is characterized by the effective use of collective resources that enable employees and organizations to not only cope under but thrive, following setbacks or periods of adversity (Lengnick-Hall et al., 2011). Leaders frequently encounter obstacles, setbacks, and challenges while dealing with the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous changes that occur in business (Harland et al., 2005).

Resistance to change, rather than embracing and preparing for change, can result in an organization paying for both the efforts to maintain the status quo and the costs of reacting to unanticipated situations and challenges (Werther, 2003). Whether leaders encounter challenges and setbacks personally or professionally, organizations as a whole face challenging times and the way individuals, organizations, and leaders react to change is a feature of resiliency (Seeger et al., 2005).

Resilience is one attribute that allows an individual and an organization to maintain its original purpose, structure, and identity regardless of the constant chaos taking place in the business environment (Chaharbaghi et al., 2005). In a sense, resilience allows adaptability and elasticity when responding to change, the ability to bounce back or spring forward to harness new opportunities.

As a result, resilience can be thought of as a building block for leaders, and organizational performance (Chaharbaghi et al., 2005). This capacity or ability to change while moving forward progressively requires resilient behaviour to help drive organizations into the future (Harland et al., 2005; Raelin, 2006, Bennis, 2007).

Resilient leaders possess certain unique characteristics. Resilient leaders are typically optimistic about their organization, They believe that the future will be bright, that setbacks can be mastered and that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Respond to situations instead of simply reacting, Make decisions with imperfect or incomplete knowledge, they can easily adapt to changes and new realities, have a mastery of themselves, they the capacity to Recover from setbacks, Resilient leaders understand the importance of creating a strong social network. social support has been associated with better performance.

Resilient leaders exhibit optimism, adaptability and they respond to situations instead of reacting. This is evident from the life of Ernest Shackleton, an Antarctic explorer, and the journey of his ship, The Endurance. In the December of 1914, Shackleton’s crew set out to navigate Antarctica—the last frontier of the golden age of exploration. On January 19, 1915, their ship foundered on ice, never to sail again.

When it eventually thawed, the Endurance crew set out in three lifeboats, carrying almost nothing with them, to find dry land. After five days at sea in temperatures of -200 F (-300 C), they reached Elephant Island, a desolate place inhabited by penguins. It was soon evident that there was no chance of rescue. Shackleton abandoned one valued goal and accepted another, forced on him by circumstance.

Through extraordinary hardships that lasted almost two more years, testing the men’s mental and physical endurance, and, indeed, his sanity, he ensured the survival of all his 27 crewmen. It was a testimony to his leadership skills that eight members of the ill-fated expedition signed up for Shackleton’s next voyage to Antarctica. The more leaders emphasise the things they can do something about and work on them, the more successful and resilient they become.

Shackleton represented the frontiers of human fortitude. Shackleton exemplified characteristics of resilient leadership for almost two years on the ice.  When his expedition encountered serious trouble. He had to reinvent the team’s goals from a mission of exploration to a mission of survival.

Franklin Roosevelt used adaptability and optimism to survive the economic depression. In 1929, the world experienced a global crisis when the stock market crashed resulting in a worldwide economic depression that lasted for 10 years. This depression was at its peak and it affected all aspects of society. During this period unemployment rate in the US was at 25%, every bank locked its doors. Franklin Roosevelt was elected as president during this period of crisis.

As a leader during this crisis period, he had the vision to put an end to the great depression. To this effect, the signature the domestic legislation introduced the new deal which was a series of programs, public works projects, financial reforms and regulations. His quick, clear and communicated decisions contributed greatly to reviving the economy of the US during the late 1930s and 1940s.

Most other organizations that survived and thrive during this crisis exhibited a leadership style that could quickly accept and adapt to changes for instance General Motors (GM), acted promptly and decisively to savage its cost base, allowing it to cut prices by as much as 70 per cent on its top-of-the-range cars.

Between 2014 to 2015, the Ebola virus epidemic raged and challenged leadership in west   Africa and around the world. The Ebola crisis resulted in a loss of gross domestic output, a threat to food security, a fall in employment and livelihoods and a decline in foreign investment. It equally impacted the transporting of agricultural goods to consumption areas.

Workers were afraid of travelling to contaminated areas, and the number of traders decreased by 20 per cent at the height of the epidemic. This lowered farmers’ incomes and led to unstable crop prices. Through some characteristics of a resilient leader like optimism, adaptability and strong social support from her citizens, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf brought the crisis to an end.

December 2019 saw the emergence of the COVID 19 pandemic. This pandemic greatly challenged leadership in the whole world. There was an increase in death tolls, Lockdowns, quarantines and social-distancing measures which led to massive fallout for the global economy, putting the future of many organizations at risk. The global stock markets lost around one-third of their value and the Unemployment rate skyrocketed. This pandemic added another layer of difficulty on top of pre-existing problems.

Millions of people started working remotely overnight, and leaders had to figure out how to manage entire organizations virtually. To navigate through this crisis, leadership in most organizations exhibited resilient characteristics of optimism, hardiness adaptability they equally relied on social support from other leaders and friends (Deloitte, 2020).

Since October 2016, Cameroon has been experiencing a socio-political crisis especially in the English-speaking parts of Cameroon geographically differentiated as the North West and South-West Regions. This crisis has resulted in a drastic drop in economic activities as well as the shutdown of some organizations in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon.

This research is carried out in the Mezam division of the North West Region of Cameroon; with particular emphasis on the activities of some international, national and local Humanitarian organizations as case studies. This is because these organizations have stood the test of time in their activities during the ongoing anglophone crisis affecting this region. The focus of this research work is on ‘Resilient Leadership and organizational performance, a behavioural capacity comprised of network leveraging, learning and adaptability in the context of crisis (Kuntz et al., 2017).

The development of resilient leadership comes from engaging with enabling personal, social and contextual resources. In the workplace, support for resilience may be found in enabling cultures and climates (Khan et al., 2017; Lengnick-Hall et al., 2011), but leaders are particularly salient supporters of resilience at a relational level (Nguyen et al., 2016; Valero et al., 2015).

A crisis is almost inevitable as far as organizations are concerned. The difference is how each organization can react and respond to the crisis. Some organizations are being “knocked off” and suffer fewer desirable outcomes and diminished wellness. Meanwhile, others respond in a better way by developing and maintaining a style that accepts and acknowledges hardships as inevitable occurrences that can not only be successfully overcome but also help strengthen leadership’s fortitude by being able to move ahead.

If leaders are to thrive amid chaos and lead their organizations into an uncertain future, they need a new, more effective, way of leading—one that enables them to sustain themselves and their organizations over time (Bob Duggan, 2018). Resilient leaders set a healthier tone as they learn how better to care for themselves emotionally, mentally and physically. They promote and enables complex systems to function and thrive in the face of a major crisis.

Resilient leaders lead from the heart and the head and inspire their organizations to persevere through crisis, positioning their brand to emerge in a better place, prepared for whatever may come while equipping organizations for a step change that creates more value not just for shareholders, but for society as a whole (Renjen, 2020)

In the context of a crisis, what resilient leadership offers, besides the common core principles of leading, is how to lead in a manner that can be sustained over time while individual and organizational wellness is maintained concurrently with the effective accomplishment of goals and objectives. Without resilient elements as part of the leadership style, human factors may not be fully taken into account and can result in detrimental effects upon leaders and followers and ultimately produce decreased morale, motivation, loyalty, and productivity in the organization.

McCale (2018). The goal of this research study is to examine “Resilient Leadership” in some selected humanitarian organizations and their performance as they respond to the ongoing socio-political crisis in the Mezam Division in the North West Region of Cameroon. By investigating this leadership style, this research seeks to pinpoint whether the present performance of these selected humanitarian organizations in these municipalities can be accredited to the resilience of their leadership and to come up with proposals to help leaders respond to the crisis more effectively

1.2 Statement of the problem

Humanitarian organizations have a particular trait of being drawn to ‘danger’ (Blyth, 2018). They often operate within areas that could potentially be facing or have recently overcome a crisis. The humanitarian sector context calls for effective resilience-enabling leadership and a consideration of what makes a resilient workforce since both are necessary for building adaptive organizations that can effectively integrate tensions and solve contemporary problems (Howell & Avolio, 1993; Lengnick-Hall et al., 2011).

The goal of any organization is not only to survive but also to sustain its existence by improving performance. To meet the needs of the highly competitive markets, organizations must continually increase performance (Arslan & Staub, 2013). Organizational performance thus involves analysing a company’s performance against its objectives and goals which focuses on three main outcomes, first, shareholder value performance; second, financial performance; and third, market performance (Gelbard et al., 2018). Many organizations experience a drop in their performance during the crisis. During such periods, the role of leadership cannot be overemphasized, it can either foster or stifle the performance of the organization. Given their position of influence, they receive attention and scrutiny during crisis periods because others in the organization expect them to provide guidance, comfort, hope and accurate information (Urszula, 2020).

Managing an organization during a crisis is always a leadership challenge. Disruptions, unexpected turbulences and threats are increasingly becoming characteristics of our contemporary society. These disruptions and turbulences range from natural disasters, terrorism, health pandemics, economic crisis, technological as well as socio-political crises.

Recent events demonstrate that many leaders are unable to harness the opportunity posed by the crisis such that some of them lose support, face resistance or fail to save their organizations from collapsing under the weight of the crisis.

Organizations used to describe agile change as “fixing the plane while it flies,”. However, the severity of the recent crisis has rewritten the rules in modern times. Those leading organizations are not just fixing the plane in mid-air, but are building it (Renjen, 2020). Times like these need leaders who are resilient in the face of such dramatic uncertainties. Resilient leaders, do more than bounce back-they bounce forward, With speed and elegance. Resilient leaders take action that responds to new and ever-changing realities, even as they maintain the essential operations of the organizations they lead (Reeves and Allison, 2009, 2010).

According to human sciences, when confronted with stressful situations, the human brain becomes overwhelmed. It becomes unable to take in new information and thus resort to past experiences. Experience has shown that during crises, leaders paralyzed by the fear of failure often prefer not to act.

In case of a familiar crisis, they draw from their personal experiences to make decisions. But what happens when leaders are being confronted with an entirely new situation and have no historical benchmark to guide decision making? The socio-political crisis plaquing the Mezam division in the North West Region appears like one of such crises which though not entirely new in existence but are confronting most leaders for the first time. With no experience of such a crisis and uncertain of the future, for how long will leaders of organizations freeze decisions making paralyzed by the fear of failure? (Adam Coughran, 2021).

The ongoing socio-political crisis in the North West Region has put to the test leadership in this part of the country. Organizations in this region ranging from educational, medical, business as well as humanitarian have been caught between numerous lockdowns, arson on properties, collateral damages, roadblocks, rampant kidnaps, hold-up of population, increase the rate of migration of labour force and a sharp decline in financial capability.

This ongoing crisis has brought about unprecedented changes in the way organizations operates impacting also every organization in some capacity. To mitigate the effect of this crisis, some organizations have downsized, some have slashed down salaries, some have reduced their production capacity while others have relocated.

Meanwhile, organizations that have been unable to adapt have been forced to close their doors.  Statistics of this period according to the taxation office shows an estimate of 5 businesses closing daily at the height of the crisis, others in jeopardy while some others are facing the threat of bankruptcy (Cameroon Tribune, October 2017).

Interestingly, while some organizations are collapsing under the weight of the crisis, other leaders and organizations not only survive but also thrive in this crisis. Most of the humanitarian organizations during this period in this area are struggling with some measures of performance such as efficiency and meeting the satisfaction of their beneficiaries (relevancy).

Despite the crisis, an organisation such as CARITAS has increased its performance in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and relevancy. They have been able to access every village in Mezam, supplying their beneficiaries with food stuff and other items. Other organisations like Plan International and Safety Net Project have relocated their offices to less affected areas in Mezam to function with less disruption, others like Alima have changed their direction of activities from the provision of food items to the provision of medical assistance to the beneficiaries. Meanwhile, the performance of organisations such as SUDAHSER, WFP, and LICHA have dropped in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and relevancy. They are not able to meet their set target of beneficiaries due to the inability to penetrate certain areas.

Safian (2012) believed that the leaders who thrive in chaos have the characteristics of adaptability, flexibility and are optimistic. According to Joy (2017) Even though leaders acknowledge this fact, the need for cultivating a culture of resilience is generally ignored. Most researchers have investigated resilience as a personal characteristic (‘resiliency’) or a static feature of collective groups or organisations ( Wanberg and Banas, 2000).

Recently academic interest in resilience and organizational performance has been on a steady increase. However, in Cameroon with the ongoing anglophone crisis, sufficient empirical studies are not yet established to prove whether the performance of humanitarian organizations in anglophone Cameroon is due to resilience in their leadership or not.

It is against this backdrop that this research aims at investigating whether the performance of the selected humanitarian organizations in Mezam during this ongoing socio-political crisis is a result of resilient leadership. The following research questions guide this research as well as the objectives to be attained.

1.3 Research Questions

1. What is the effect of the personal resources of leadership on the performance of the selected humanitarian organizations?
2. How does the adaptability of leadership influence the performance of the selected humanitarian organizations?
3. What is the effect of the hardiness of leadership on the performance of the selected humanitarian organizations?
4. What is the effect of social resources of leadership on the performance of the selected humanitarian organizations?

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