Cultural Conflict within Civil-Military Cooperation: A Case Study in Bosnia

Scheltinga, Tjallie A.M. and Rietjens, Sebastiaan J.H. and Boer de, Sirp J. and Wilderom, Celeste P.M. (2006) Cultural Conflict within Civil-Military Cooperation: A Case Study in Bosnia. Low Intensity Conflict & Law Enforcement, 13 (1). pp. 54-69. ISSN 0966-2847

PDF
Restricted to UT campus only: Request a copy
255Kb

Abstract:	In peace-support operations, employees of international humanitarian organisations often clash with those of the military. A lack of familiarity with each other's practices and values, embedded in their respective organisational cultures, is often seen as the culprit. This article presents and illustrates a road map to manage such cultural differences between cooperating organisations. We found that the military culture, in our Bosnian case study, was seen to operate as a hierarchical culture (characterised by formalisation, stability, predictability and efficiency). The culture of international humanitarian organisations, on the other hand, was depicted as clan-type (characterised by teamwork, participation and consensus). To facilitate the creation of cultural awareness as well as respect for, and reconciliation of, cultural differences we recommend several concrete actions that could improve civil-military cooperation.
Item Type:	Article
Copyright:	© 2005 Routledge
Faculty:	Management and Governance (SMG)
Research Chair:	Design & Implementation of Information Systems (ISCM)
Research Group:	Knowledge intensive entrepreneurship, strategic market oriented and International management (NIKOS) Industrial Engineering & Business Information Systems (IEBIS)
Link to this item:	http://purl.utwente.nl/publications/72784
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09662840500223606
Export this item as:	BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager

Show download statistics for this publication

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Metis ID: 224576