In what ways is HR for Mercy Corps to be similar to HR at a global business like Starbucks or Dell?  2. How is HR at Mercy Corps likely to be different from HR at a g

MGMT-2115 Human Resource Management Case Study 2

Social Entrepreneurship and HR

In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck the island nation of Haiti a few years ago,

Oregon-based Mercy Corps arrived with a team of emergency-response experts from around the world.

Focusing on immediate humanitarian needs, the team delivered food to overwhelmed hospitals and set up

services to provide clean water. Mercy Corps also initiated a work-for-cash program that paid survivors to

aid in clearing debris and restoring buildings, thus providing them with a little dignity along with the

means to purchase supplies for their families and jumpstart the local economy. In addition, the

organization set up trauma centers for children, using counseling methods that it had helped to develop in

the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City 8 years earlier. In the aftermath of the devastating

earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011, Mercy Corps delivered emergency supplies and

set up such programs as Comfort for Kids to help children deal with the emotional effects of a large-scale

disaster.

Obviously, Mercy Corps isn’t a newcomer to the enterprise of providing humanitarian aid. Founded in

1979 as the Save the Refugees Fund, a task force to help victims of famine and genocide in Cambodia, it

expanded in 1982, becoming Mercy Corps International to reflect its broader mission. Since its founding,

the nonprofit organization has provided $2.2 billion in humanitarian aid and development assistance to

people in 114 countries and annually reaches over 19 million people in 39 nations.

Mercy Corps’s approach to on-the-ground assistance also involves more than immediate-response and

emergency-relief services. Mercy Corps has learned that communities recovering from war or social

upheaval must be the agents of their own transformation for change to endure. It’s only when

communities set their own agendas, raise their own resources, and implement programs themselves that

the first successes result in the renewed hope, confidence, and skills to continue their development

independently.

Mercy Corps thus works to foster “sustainable community development that integrates agriculture, health,

housing and infrastructure, economic development, education, and environment and local management,”

as well as launching “initiatives that promote citizen participation, accountability, conflict management,

and the rule of law.” In India, for example, Mercy Corps has taught small-scale tea farmers sustainable

ways to grow organic teas and get fair prices for them. On plantations owned by big tea companies, it’s

helped not only to improve living and economic conditions in worker villages but to form self-governing

Community Initiative Groups to manage ongoing community needs in education, infrastructure, and

employment. In southern Sudan, which has been torn by Africa’s longest civil war, Mercy Corps has built

networks of local organizations to provide such essential services as adult literacy, orphan care, and

HIV/AIDS counseling; other programs have helped to build roads and community centers and to electrify

villages.

In Indonesia, where sanitation is a major area of concern, Mercy Corps has launched a long-term Hygiene

Promotion Program. On Hand Washing Day, for instance, community representatives take to the streets

with colorful buckets and teach children how to wash their hands with soap and water; similarly equipped

hand-washing stations have been set up in neighborhoods throughout the capital of Djakarta. (Dirty hands

can cause diarrhea, which kills 2 million children under the age of 5 every year.) Other programs focus on

education and equipment for harvesting rainwater and removing solid waste from residential

neighborhoods.

In addition to the devastating effects of war, social upheaval, and natural disaster, Mercy Corps is also

concerned with the effects of climate change on developing communities. It therefore works to provide

“viable economic options as communities adapt to new environmental realities,” especially in helping

poor communities to cope with “the rising incidence of climate-related disasters such as flooding and

drought.” According to Mercy Corps, its climate-related programs fall into three main areas:

• Alternative energy: promoting energy sources that support sustainable economic activities

• Sustainable resource management: supporting a community’s ability to provide its own

environmental and ecological services

• Advocacy, outreach, and models that work: inspiring governments and communities to rely on

proven environment- and climate-friendly programs

When drought in the African nation of Niger threatened nearly 8 million people with malnutrition and

starvation, Mercy Corps not only mobilized efforts to provide food commodities but also helped local

farmers deal with chronic debt arising from inefficient methods and prior crop failures. A year later,

Mercy Corps responded when Timor-Leste, an island nation northwest of Australia, faced just the

opposite in climate-related crises: Because seasonal rains continued throughout the dry season, when

farmers plant and harvest the country’s food supply, drainage systems failed and crops could not be

delivered over impassable roads. In addition to providing immediate relief, Mercy Corps trained local

blacksmiths to make portable silos for storing rice and corn, the country’s main staples.

Case Questions

1. In what ways is HR for Mercy Corps to be similar to HR at a global business like

Starbucks or Dell?

2. How is HR at Mercy Corps likely to be different from HR at a global business?

3. In general, why do people choose to work for a non-for-profit organization? What unique

advantages and disadvantages does this pose to managers?