title: Capacity Development within Humanitarian International NonGovernment Organisations: A Phenomenological Study of Business Support Host Country National’s Experiences Working with Expatriates
Creators: name: Mullany, David
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2024

description: In the global shift to localise management, humanitarian international nongovernment organisations (HINGOs) must understand the challenges of building the
capacities of business support host country national’s (BS-HCNs), especially when national offices are to assume expatriate and strategic positions (Duvivier, Peeters
and Harzing; 2019; Fee, Heizmann and Gray, 2017).

Yet a paucity of extant research examining the HCN’s perspective, especially when working with expatriates, highlights critical gaps in our knowledge (Michailova, Fee
and DeNisi, 2023; Schmitz, 2022), limiting insights and potential remedies.

This study interviewed 14 Myanmar BS-HCNs twice and asked them to describe detailed accounts of their lived experiences of acquiring capacity development while
working with expatriates within HINGOs. They were purposefully selected based on their ability to provide in-depth knowledge in addressing the research questions
(Patton, 2015).

Through using Giorgi’s (2009) descriptive phenomenological method, the verbatim
transcripts were analysed, and through reductive steps, a range of individual invariant meanings were derived. These were then combined and further analysed to
form a common ‘structure of the experience’, encompassing six constituents, or themes.

The structure of experience is a high-level depiction of how the phenomenon in question was collectively experienced. It is a way to understand how diverse details
relate and coexist in the same phenomenon and becomes the basis of communication and action (Giorgi, 2009).

An absorptive capacity (ACAP) lens was subsequently chosen to explain the findings in theory and practice (Zahra and George, 2002). Through aligning the six
constituents with the ACAP framework, the study posits a process model that uncovers revelatory insights into the facilitators and barriers of knowledge transfer
between BS-HCNs and expatriates within the HINGO environment.

The research found that the social interaction between expatriates and BS-HCNs is not a frictionless exercise because 1/ BS-HCNs encounter expatriates through a
dynamic network, and 2/ the expatriate’s presence can bring anticipatory emotions and additional work expectations.

Second, in engaging expatriates in the social context, BS-HCNs are aided or constrained by factors including, 3/ their national education system, 4/ informal
opportunities to establish relationships and trust, 5/ asymmetrical challenges of power and language and, 6/ the organisation’s workplace learning experience.

Through an action review with representative stakeholders and reflexive practices,
the thesis uncovers actionable knowledge and implications for workplace capacity
interventions, while also contributing to theory and methodological approaches.

The nature and context of this study and the specific circumstances in Myanmar
make these findings applicable only to that setting. Nevertheless, the implications of this research form an important agenda for wider HINGO business support management and future inquiry.