Managing Projects in Decentralised Organisations: Tracking Humanitarian Fleets

Managing projects in decentralised organisations is challenging. IHO is a medium-sized international humanitarian organisation. To improve fleet management in IHO, the goal is to implement vehicle tracking technology. A successful pilot project is followed by a failed rollout. The case examines the managerial and organisational issues affecting the project’s performance.

1. Examine the challenges of project management in a decentralised (humanitarian) organisation operating in an atypical (developing world) context. 2. Highlight the managerial issues affecting a project rollout involving two parties (the logistics function and relief and development programmes in the field) with diverging objectives. 3. Provide a basis for discussion on the transfer of best (management) practices between the humanitarian and private sectors.