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- Convenors:
-
Franziska Schwarz
(Bond)
Marcus Erooga
Frances Longley (CARE International UK)
Sally Proudlove (Unicef UK)
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- Formats:
- Roundtables Synchronous
- Stream:
- Practicalities of aid
- Sessions:
- Thursday 18 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
In this roundtable discussion, we are focussing on a tool to support leaders in creating and modelling a positive safeguarding culture within their organisations; exploring what a positive safeguarding culture looks like; how "culture" can be assessed; and what role those in positions of power play.
Long Abstract:
In early 2018, the UK media reported on incidents of sexual exploitation, abuse and sexual harassment in the international aid sector. Safeguarding failures, such as sexual exploitation, abuse and sexual harassment, are rooted in underlying power imbalances and inequalities, for example, those based on gender, ethnicity, religion or socioeconomic group. Tackling gender inequality and addressing a range of power dynamics within organisations on an intersectional basis, and ensuring that safeguarding policies and practices are implemented, requires organisations to create a culture where safeguarding best practice is lived and breathed across all organisational activities.
In this roundtable discussion, we are focusing on a tool to support leaders in creating and modelling a positive safeguarding culture within their organisations. The tool was developed by an NGO working group following media reports of incidents of sexual exploitation and abuse in the international aid and development sector, and we are interested in exploring how the tool can be used and disseminated effectively and how it can have an impact on organisational culture. We are also interested in broader questions, such as: How can "organisational culture" be assessed? What positive role can those in positions of power play? How do leaders' behaviours impact on safeguarding cultures within organisations and on creating an organisational culture that is conducive to safeguarding and protecting people from harm? How can leaders challenge existing norms and address deeply rooted power dynamics and inequalities?
Accepted paper:
Session 1 Thursday 18 June, 2020, -Akintunde Giwa (Tai Solarin University of Education)
Paper short abstract:
A systematic evaluation of the organizational culture of Nigerian institutions of higher learning reveals the hidden root causes of the co-existence of progressive educational policies with the culture of circumventing the policies.
Paper long abstract:
Two recommendations emerge from a review of models of organisational culture evaluation. One is to redefine leadership as the totality of the members of an organisation with the strength of character to originate and advocate certain values and ideas which other members adopt—consciously or unconsciously. The other is to resolve organisational culture into two basic dimensions: the explicit and the implicit dimensions. The explicit dimension consists of observable tendencies of the behaviour of members of an organisation. The implicit dimension is the set of ideologies that inform observable tendencies.
The paper adopts both recommendations. It thus includes in the class of Nigerian leadership not only recognized authority figures but every Nigerian with such originative strength of character. In the Nigerian institutions of higher learning, this includes ministers and commissioners of education as well as certain unsung personalities in various colleges, polytechnics and universities. It is to these people that the formulation and the cultural circumvention of educational policies can be attributed. Consequently, the organizational culture of honest rigorous study, ostensibly upheld through established strictures, is culturally circumvented through ingenious, systematized practices of cheating at examinations and advocation of sexual exploitation.
Employing evaluative models, such as Kirkpatrick's and the Denison models, the paper reviews these cultural tensions in the Nigeria institutions of higher learning. It identifies the types of leaders who originate them, and reviews the safeguarding practices of these leaders with a view to recognizing why sanitary educational policies are not always the bases of every organizational culture.
Keywords: leadership; organizational culture; safeguarding practices; cultural tension; educational policies