Eugene Lin Week 4: Leader/Follower Relationships

Given how large the American Red Cross is, the hierarchy is very difficult to follow. Even after spending an entire day taking the online orientation and familiarizing myself with the organization’s history, structure, and missions, I am still not too clear. What I do know is that the American Red Cross is only one version of the Red Cross. There is also the Canadian Red Cross, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and many more. Each has a different targeted region and act as separate entities from one another. Even just focusing on the American Red Cross can be confusing.

The American Red Cross is a large organization that is divided into six departments: Disaster Relief, Biomedical, Preparedness/Health and Safety Services, International, Service to the Armed Forces. Each department serves a different function to the public. For the most part, these departments operate separately from each other and tend to have different management. For example, the Biomedical department of the American Red Cross even has its own website since its goals are the most different from the other departments. Furthermore, the work direction can vary greatly depending on the departments. For example, the Biomedical department has stricter procedures for the work. Collecting, processing, and transporting blood has several red tape to go through before they reach hospitals. This is necessary because handling blood requires high maintenance. The slightest error can render an entire shipment of blood useless. Even the volunteers have strict requirements to transport the blood shipments by a certain amount of time. Even posting blood drives on the Red Cross’s social media has a strict process. There is certain language and formatting that cannot be used.

Unlike the Biomedical department, the Disaster Relief department doesn’t have such a strict protocol. There is much more flexibility for staff and volunteers to operate. When reporting to the scene of a disaster or hearing a disaster victim’s case, the report is filed based on the caseworker. The caseworker can also determine how much aid and resources to provide the victim depending on the severity of the case. It makes sense that this department will focus more on leader-follower relations. There is not a one step solution or a set protocol to solving a victim’s case. The solution requires an individual approach based on the worker’s observation. Thus, the leader rarely hovers over his/her workers and allows them to operate based on their personal judgement.

Thus, the leadership structure really depends on the department. And even then, this is only for the Richmond chapter office that I am working in. There are several more chapter offices in Virginia that may operate differently. Similarily, there are Red Cross’s in different states and the headquarters in D.C that may even operate entirely different from the state of Virginia.