OXFAM crisis

Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................4
Situation Analysis...................................................................................................................................4
SWOT analysis....................................................................................................................................4
PEST Analysis.....................................................................................................................................6
Political..........................................................................................................................................6
Economic.......................................................................................................................................7
Social.............................................................................................................................................7
Technological.................................................................................................................................7
Brief narrative....................................................................................................................................8
Identifying Target Audience...............................................................................................................8
Stakeholder theory............................................................................................................................8
Donors...........................................................................................................................................9
Media............................................................................................................................................9
Employees.....................................................................................................................................9
Government...................................................................................................................................9
Segmentation..................................................................................................................................10
Determining the communication objectives (SMART).....................................................................10
Media...........................................................................................................................................10
Designating Message.......................................................................................................................11
Donors.........................................................................................................................................11
Media...........................................................................................................................................11
Employees...................................................................................................................................11
Government.................................................................................................................................12
Selection of Media...............................................................................................................................12
Meetings:.........................................................................................................................................12
Conference Calls:.............................................................................................................................13
Email................................................................................................................................................13
Social Media....................................................................................................................................14
Summary/Conclusion..........................................................................................................................14
Press release........................................................................................................................................15
Oxfam apologises to Haiti over sex allegations....................................................................................15
References...........................................................................................................................................17
Introduction

In February 2018, an investigation that had been led by The Times newspaper had found that

OXFAM did allow three men to get resigned and had also sacked four for gross misconduct

after an inquiry was conducted for sexual exploitation (Mayne et al. 2018). A 2011

confidential report by OXFAM had had illustrated a culture of impunity across some of the

staff members in Haiti. It stated that it can’t be ruled out all of the prostitutes were under-

aged. Among all the staff members that had been permitted for resigning was the Belgian

director, Roland Van Hauwermeiren (Carolei, 2018).

Even though OXFAM had successfully disclosed details of the incident to charity

commission, it was revealed by the Commission after The Times investigation that they had

never received the final investigation by OXFAM and there was no particular detail regarding

the precise allegations, nor did they make any indication regarding sexual crimes that did

involve minors.

Situation Analysis

SWOT analysis
There are different methods for the purpose of conducting situation analysis. One of the most

common methods for conducting situational analysis is through the use of strengths,

weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis (Shabanova et al. 2015). Within the

context of OXFAM, they can be described as follows:

Strengths: Weaknesses:

A non-profit entity that has branches all across the Generic

world and has a strong brand value.  OXFAM has been facing budgetary issues.

Moreover, the organizational capacity has

 OXFAM has technical expertise for giving
been limited in their administration
solutions to social justice and poverty.
department (O’Brien, 2018).
 They have a work force that is culturally
 OXFAM has limited capacity when it
diverse and has knowledge of local culture.
comes to adapting to the situation
 A massive volunteer base that has expertise
requirements and the company has also
in broad fields. This is certainly a huge
become bureaucratic and relatively slow.
saving for OXFAM (Bukenya, 2018).
Specific:

 The sex scandal has put a dent on the

goodwill and reputation of the company.

Opportunities: Threats:

 NGO’s like OXFAM tend to get regular  OXFAM receives significant capital from

grants through government and also individuals that have supported the cause

private institutions, even if there has been of the company (Eagleton-Pierce, 2015). In

recession within the market. The flow of times of economic recession, consumers

money for NGO’s would not be restricted cut back on money.

(Sanz Martins, 2018).

Specific

 OXFAM has an opportunity for attracting

 OXFAM is also required to maintain a
private institutions for the purpose of their
transparent and clean image for the
findings (Cooper, 2014). They are
purpose of conducting their transactions.
beneficial for private institutions as they
This is because their customers have been
are able to get tax deductions for charities
associated with attainment of the
 that have been made towards the NGO’s. organization’s objectives (Dencik and

Allan, 2017).

PEST Analysis
From a business perspective, PEST (Political, economic, social and technological) analysis

evaluates the macro environment of an organisation (Van Wijngaarden et al. 2012). Within

the context of OXFAM, they can be further described as follows:

Political
 NGO’s are adhere to government policies that include national, state and provincial.

 They are required to combat lobbying/campaigning performed by interest groups.

This could include domestic and global companies.

 They may have to comply with changes in influence, power and connectedness of key

relevant groups/actors (Hilton, 2018).

Economic
 NGO’s are required to adhere to economic situation of particular relevant

communities and population groups

 Economic prospects and situations of industries that are relevant.

 NGO’s are required to assess and evaluate financial situation of the key partners and

other relevant organisations.

 Availability of resources of private sector that are essential for the project/initiative.

Social
 NGO’s are required to have information regarding practices and attitudes of a specific

population group (West, 2017).

 NGO’s also have a significant potential for the purpose of knowledge exchange.
  NGO’s can follow major cultural trends and relevant events.

 Dynamics related to how social change may arise within a specific context.

Technological
 Access of population groups to particular technologies.

 Patterns of utilization of current technologies that could well be changing

 New technologies influencing the context or for attainment of specific objectives.

 Technology access, transfer, licensing and other issues that are directly related to

intellectual property rights (Yuan, 2016).

 Foreseeable tends of technology. They can include social and economic influence of

adoption of current technologies

Brief narrative
It is evident from the SWOT and PEST analysis that OXFAM is a highly influential NGO

that has contributed significantly to charities across the world (Mackelprang et al. 2015).

However, the epidemic of sexual exploitation has been rooted in the unequal power

relationships that have allowed individuals in power to exploit vulnerable individuals by the

means of sexual harassment, bullying and violence. According to O’Brien (2018), a culture of

zero tolerance is the only solution that could help NGO’s to be successful. This is required to

be backed by recruitment practices, rules and leadership.

Development agencies such as OXFAM certainly cannot short fall on this important

narrative. OXFAM has certainly been dealing with people that are some of the world’s most

vulnerable (Shabanova et al. 2015). Across the programs of OXFAM, the NGO comes into

contact with children and women that have lost everything. These vulnerable individuals do

have a right for demanding and expecting the highest protection standards of protection.
Identifying Target Audience
Target audience is regarded as a limited segment of an audience for which an organisation

determines to emphasize on. This is true particularly for promoting and marketing their

services and products.

Stakeholder theory
Stakeholders includes a group, person or organization that tends to have concern or interest

within a company. Stakeholders could influence or be influenced by a company’s policies,

actions and objectives. They comprise of the constituencies and individuals that contribute

voluntarily or involuntarily for the purpose of their activities and wealth-creating capacity.

For OXFAM, the stakeholders are explained as below:

 Donors

 Media

 Employees

 Government

Donors
Donors can include grant givers including charitable foundations, federal or state agencies

that are able to provide funding. Every charity is required to have income that can be derived

from different sources (Nelson, 2015). Each source can help in bringing stakeholders that are

required to be kept engaged and interested.

Media
An important step in communication of message for OXFAM is effectively dealing with

media. Interviews and press briefing should be required to be regularly attended. They can

help OXFAM to clarify the situation in media (McCormack, 2018). This results in becoming

the message of the organisation to be wide spread and the situation being handled effectively.
Employees
For OXFAM, reaching out to the employees of the company as the sexual exploitation

scandal can have a negative impact on company sales (Khan, 2018). It is important that

employees of the company are notified regarding the situation that has been developed. This

will allow OXFAM to be ready for the future consequences.

Government
Government have a significant influence on the operations of an NGO such as OXFAM. This

influence can keep the NGO directly in compliance with government interests and policies

that would comprise of regulatory requirements (Brass et al. 2018). OXFAM strategy would

comprise of partnerships and negotiations with governments for showing their support for

governmental programs and efforts.

Segmentation

In OXFAM’s case, segmentation is primarily based on the firm’s behavioral patterns, cultural

and ethical values and lifestyle choices. Being an NGO, OXFAM is required to spread their

objectives for being relevant (Hilton, 2018). As a result, it emphasizes on awareness and

educational activities. The major markets of OXFAM are customers that are able to support

its cause along with other institutions interested for providing help for needy individuals.

Determining the communication objectives (SMART)

Setting up of the required objectives of communication could be an approach for establishing

the purposes for communicating to various audiences. Within the context of OXFAM, the

smart objectives can be described in detail as follows:

Donors

The management of OXFAM should communicate with the donors through different channels

regularly. OXFAM is required to develop a strategy that would address donors and win back

their confidence (Sanz Martins, 2018).

Media
OXFAM should focus on improving goodwill of OXFAM by confronting press immediately

after the incident had occurred (Bukenya, 2018). Within this regard, leadership of OXFAM

can prove to be helpful for attainment of certain tasks on time as it is essential to improve the

image of the company.

Employees

To conduct regular employee trainings for rectifying the situation. OXFAM should make the

employees understand regarding the potential consequences of the sexual exploitation scandal

and how it could damage the goodwill of the company (Mayne et al. 2018).

Government

OXFAM can communicate and clarify the situation to the government regarding the crisis.

They should create a strategy that would effectively address the government (Carr, 2018).

Designating Message

For the purpose of designating a message, Lasswell's 5W model could be effective. It would

focus on explaining what had been said, who said, what channel had been used, to whom it

had been addressed and with the required effect (Melancon and Dalakas, 2018). The tool can

be used by OXFAM for designing as well as communicating their personal message for the

target audience. It could further be described in detail as follows:

Donors

Donors are required to be notified and communicated regarding the situation that has been

developed in a manner that would allow the company to improve their future plans for the

purpose of their operational activities. Synchronized memos and emails are required to be

sent to notify the donors of OXFAM (Eagleton-Pierce, 2015). Having a detailed idea of the

current situation can certainly allow donors of OXFAM to act as an responsible members.
Media

For addressing the press and media, the theme that is required to be utilized by OXFAM for

designing the message is required to be rational (Khan, 2018). It is essential for OXFAM that

press has been handled with caution. Interviews with PR representatives of OXFAM is

required to be assigned to the company’s senior employees.

Employees

For employees, message by OXFAM is required to be inclusive of a combination of moral

and rational theme. Employees can be clearly notified for the purpose of the situation that has

now developed (Nelson, 2015). They are required to be encouraged regarding the process of

the sexual scandal that did occur and told that they should focus on making the image clean.

Government

According to the research of Sultana (2018), customers are required to be communicated

directly but with thoughtfulness. For OXFAM, the message should be inclusive of all

important rational benefits for government. Any legal multi-stakeholder process is required to

adhere to the main principles of good governance, specifically accountability, transparency

and inclusion of relevant stakeholders.

The UK’s biggest international agencies for development can also come together for the

purpose of creating a global centre to eradicate sexual exploitation and child safeguarding.

These agencies can also work in close cooperation with OXFAM and other local authorities

for the purpose of supporting victims and preventing problems (Rehman, 2016).

Selection of Media

One of the most important element for addressing communications to stakeholder is by the

means of identifying target audience. For OXFAM, some of the selected mediums comprise
of Email/social media, meetings and conference calls. For OXFAM, the theory of agenda

setting can prove to be highly productive. The theory of agenda setting illustrates that

organisations within mass media can help to determine what general population would be

able to consider newsworthy by successfully deciding level of attention received through the

means of a news story. The tools that OXFAM can utilize for this are:

Meetings:

From an organisational perspective, a meeting could be beneficial for OXFAM. Since personal

opinions and insight would be shared for the purpose of meeting, it is important to have a

staff member monitor the meeting when are providing their ideas to maintain professionalism

(Eagleton-Pierce, 2015). It is essential for management of OXFAM to keep all of their staff

members professional by reminding them that all associated shareholders have their personal

opinion.

The motive of meetings could vary depending primarily on the target audience. It is up to

OXFAM for maximization of this essential dialogue.

Conference Calls:

Over the years, conference calls have been essential for the purpose of business

communication. Organisational employees can share their ideas by the means of an online

portal (Dencik and Allan, 2017). In the context of OXFAM, advanced functionality helps

presenters sharing a desktop or video with all associated participants in the same timeframe.

Email

An Email could prove to be an important communication channel. Employees are able to

utilize the tool for communicating valuable data with each another. Due to the fact that email
can be provided to a large audience, OXFAM can utilize the technology for keeping in touch

with press, government, donor and employees.

For OXFAM, a major weakness of email as a tool or mode of communication is that

messages spread by the means of these mediums are delivered to specific receivers but the

organisation is unable to effectively gauge if they were effectively understood and read. This

is because at times there is limited or even no feedback.

In the case of OXFAM, the immediate feedback could certainly prove to be highly valuable

as it would help to strengthen the message of the company and to make sure that it would

have an influence and feedback would be received quickly.

Social Media

Social networking websites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have now emerged as

some of the most important and valuable channels of business communication. Businesses

are able to instantly increase their exposure towards current and prospective customers along

with their proprietary channels of communication in such sites. OXFAM can use these tools

to address their donors and press/media and can explain their personal motive.

Summary/Conclusion
From the scenario of OXFAM, it is evident that OXFAM sexual exploitation scandal had

been extremely controversial. By connecting with all the associated stakeholders at a personal

level, it is essential for OXFAM to handle the crisis and control the sex scandal.

For avoiding such scenarios from occurring in the future, OXFAM should focus on

cultivation of a workplace that can encourage and truly listen to the voicing of concerns or

analysis from team members that belong to communities that are historically marginalized.
An organisation like OXFAM may well seem a safe space for conducting such dialogues on

paper. However, only a limited number are actually able to model this within their feedback

based reaction.
Press release

7th January, 2019

Oxfam apologises to Haiti over sex allegations

The management of Oxfam offers its humble apologies for the government of Haiti

regarding sexual exploitation allegations through their staff members. This exceptional

publication is being made by the management of OXFAM as the company wants to be as

transparent as possible for its stakeholders regarding the decisions it had made for the specific

investigation and for the recognition of the breach of trust that had been caused. The

management had also met with the government of Haiti to apologize for their mistakes and

can discuss what can be done to compensate.

The regional director for Latin America, Ticehurst, said: “Oxfam has been grateful for the

government of Haiti as they have allowed us with a chance now to provide our humbles

apologies and for starting to explain ourselves and initiate re-establishment of partnership and

trust, due to our 40-year history with Haiti and their citizens. OXFAM is ready to engage with

the people of Haiti and has expressed its openness for cooperating as much as needed with

government of Haiti.”

The apology had been made as Oxfam was able to finally release the findings derived from

the investigation into relief workers behaviour that had been sent to Haiti after the

consequences of the earthquake being a part of their efforts for drawing a limit within the

crisis that had resulted in engulfing the charity over the past few weeks. The management of

OXFAM has also analysed how the allegations have now come to light. It has also
investigated an interview with nearly 40 witnesses, one of them had been intimidated and

physically threatened through three suspects after investigation details had been leaked.

“The behaviour discovered by management had been horrific. It was certainly below the

standards that is usually expected for NGO’s and charities that we have been working with. I

do admit the fact that there certainly have been some revelations today that do illustrate that

there had been physical intimidation of all the witnesses. This was certainly horrific”. This is

certainly the problem that is seen by us. It means that more often individuals are not able to

directly come forward towards reporting what had happened to them regarding the behaviour

that they were on the receiving end.” Said Ticehurst

Irrespective of the difficulty that the management of OXFAM may face and irrespective of

the fact that how hard it is to confront these scandals, we at OXFAM do believe that it will

help the management to take actions that would be meaningful in the future.

About OXFAM

A confederation of 20 independent charitable organisations, Oxfam focuses on global poverty

alleviation. The organisation was founded in 1942 and had been led by Oxfam International.

OXFAM is an important nonprofit group that has a broad collection of operations. Oxfam is

certainly determined for changing that world through mobilization of power of individual

against poverty. All across the globe, Oxfam focuses on finding highly creative and practical

ways for individuals for lifting themselves out of poverty and be successful. Oxfam also

collaborates with various partner companies and vulnerable men and women for ending

injustices that result in causing poverty.

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