La juventud como proceso de construcción socio-cultural

The respondents were asked to indicate their perception of corporate- humanitarian collaborations (“favourable”, “unfavourable”, “not sure”, “no opinion”) and whether they are involved in cross-sector collaborations, as well as how successful they feel the partnership is (“very successful”, “fairly successful”, or “not very successful”). Figure 4.2 illustrates this by showing the percentage distribution of the humanitarian aid workers‟ and commercial logistics employees‟ perception of (upper bar chart) and involvement in cross-sector collaborations (lower bar chart). On the ordinate the total number of respondents in percentage terms is shown. On the abscissa the respondents‟ level of perception of corporate-humanitarian collaborations (upper bar chart) and involvement in corporate-humanitarian partnerships (lower bar chart) can be seen.

The graph indicates that the majority of respondents both in the logistics industry and the humanitarian aid sector evaluate partnerships as “favourable”, whereas 21% of relief workers and 18% of commercial logistics employees are “not sure” about their perception of corporate-humanitarian partnerships. This might be due to their non-involvement in such collaborations or due to the relative infancy of this type of partnership with the result that scarce independent research is available on their success or failure. Nevertheless, no statistical correlation between the respondents‟ perceptions and their involvement (from “very successful” to “no involvement at all”) in cross-sector collaborations could be ascertained. 36% of respondents from the commercial logistics sector and 50% of interviewees from the humanitarian aid sector are not involved in corporate-humanitarian collaborations.

FIGURE4.2:PERCEPTION OF AND INVOLVEMENT IN CROSS-SECTOR COLLABORATIONS OF COMMERCIAL LOGISTICS COMPANIES AND HUMANITARIAN AID ORGANISATIONS

It is important to note that just over 36% of commercial logistics employees who are involved in partnerships (which accounts for the majority) rate them as “very successful”: which is in sharp contrast to the ratings given by humanitarian aid workers. Of the humanitarian aid workers surveyed, 36% assess their collaborations as “fairly successful” and only 14% as “very successful”. This fact might be based on the limited knowledge held by logistics companies regarding disaster relief logistics when these companies first enter into a cooperation. On one hand, logistics organisations may be confident that the support they provide during relief missions contributes to the improvement of processes at exactly the stages humanitarian aid workers are dependent on. On the other hand, it may be argued that communication difficulties between partners do not allow commercial companies to help as much as they actually would be able to in other circumstances. Hence, aid workers might not state their needs and expectations

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Yes-very successful Yes-fairly successful Yes-not very successful No-not involved

Commercial Logistics Company Humanitarian Aid Organisation 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Favourable Unfavourable Not sure No opinion

Commercial Logistics Company Humanitarian Aid Organisation

Perception of cross- sector collaborations

Involvement in cross- sector collaborations

clearly enough for companies to be optimally effective and a general “language barrier” may further exacerbate barriers to the provision of the right service at the right time and place. Additionally, it has to be taken into consideration that only half of those relief workers who participated in the survey were actually involved in a collaboration.

Figure 4.3 provides an overview of the most frequently mentioned advantages that commercial logistics providers and humanitarian aid organisations involved in corporate-humanitarian collaborations provide their partners. On the ordinate the total number of respondents in percentage terms and on the abscissa the respective sectors can be observed out.

FIGURE4.3:OVERVIEW OF BENEFITS COMMERCIAL LOGISTICS COMPANIES AND HUMANITARIAN AID ORGANISATIONS PROVIDE THEIR PARTNER

The main benefit commercial organisations provide humanitarian aid agencies is “Logistics Services”, including best practices, logistics expertise, consulting and improvement activities, as well as staff training. This is followed by the provision of “Resources”, such as material and financial resources and manpower. Finally they help build the capacity of relief supplies between disasters and provide some degree of security of the flow of processes as well as of material and financial supplies.

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Commercial Logistics Company Humanitarian Aid Organisation Building of Capacity Image Logistics Services Resources Security

Humanitarian aid agencies in contrast provide their partners publicity and the possibility to improve their reputation and increase brand awareness. Moreover, humanitarian aid workers are experienced in the management of logistics operations pertaining to emergency situations, so the commercial companies may be able to adapt these procedures to maintaining their own business processes in disaster areas.

FIGURE4.4:FORECASTED DEVELOPMENT OF CORPORATE-HUMANITARIAN COLLABORATIONS IN THE FUTURE

Finally, respondents were asked to forecast the future development of cross-sector collaborations in humanitarian aid and disaster relief from “strong development” to “no development”. Following the gridlines of Figure 4.4, the graph shows explicitly the trend towards a moderate development of such partnerships. A minority of respondents from both the commercial logistics industry as well as the humanitarian aid sector believe that corporate- humanitarian collaborations will not exhibit either strong or slight development in the near future. Additionally, all respondents agree that some kind of development, either strong or weak, will be observable. It can be argued that the humanitarian aid workers may be slightly more sceptical of the development than respondents from the commercial logistics sector. This might be correlated to the

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% Strong development Moderate development

Slight development No development

earlier feedback in which the respondent‟s experience of collaboration was rated less successful by humanitarian respondents than by participants from the commercial logistics industry.