Exemplary Leadership and the Performance of Humanitarian Aid Organizations (HAOs) in North-East Nigeria

O. Akanbi¹

Section:Research Paper, Product Type: Journal-Paper
Vol.9 , Issue.3 , pp.18-26, Sep-2021

Online published on Sep 30, 2021

Copyright © O. Akanbi . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 

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Abstract :
Humanitarian aid organizations (HAOs) exist to give assistance to people in need. Fulfilling this mandate depends largely on the effective leadership practices able to mobilize needed resources. These also shape practical leadership decisions on organizational goals. The existing research highlights challenges associated with leadership potential and performance of HAOs to include power of strategic influence on decision-making, rigidity of some humanitarian response agreements and insecurity in the region. This research used the positivist philosophy to probe leadership style issues in the over 150 active international and local voluntary aid organizations, engaged in humanitarian and development assistance in north-east Nigeria. Primary research data was obtained through 150 questionnaires. These were distributed to representatives of the active NGOs in the north-east of Nigeria. The questionnaire was developed around an exemplary leadership model and leaders’ individual performance-related efforts were evaluated. Research ethics were observed to ensure consistency, correctness, morality and integrity throughout the process of inquiry. In analyzing the instrument, a multiple-regression model was used. The major findings indicate that “modelling the way and inspire shared vision”, elements of the exemplary leadership model, have significant impacts on HAO performance, while “challenging the process enhance others to act and encourage the heart” have insignificant impacts on HAO performance in north-east Nigeria. However, lack of consensual agreement on emergency response situations and continuous insecurity in the region badly affected leadership of HAOs.

Key-Words / Index Term :
Exemplary Leadership, modeling the way, inspire shared vision, enable others to act, challenge the process, encourage the heart, Performance, Humanitarian Aid Organizations

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