When Roles Collide: How Ambiguities Triggered an Organisational Crisis in a Polish Refugee Reception Centre
When Roles Collide: How Ambiguities Triggered an Organisational Crisis in a Polish Refugee Reception Centre

Summary/Abstract: This study investigates deviant behaviours within a volunteer-based refugee assistance centre operating during a time of crisis. Drawing on ethnographic fieldnotes, interviews and autoethnographic observations from multiple site visits, we argue that the absence of clear operational rules, blurred normative frameworks and tensions between market logic and altruistic values all contributed to irregular practices by the private entrepreneur managing the facility, volunteers, and displaced persons. The findings underscore the challenges of public-private collaboration and call for a critical rethinking of multilevel governance assumptions in crisis contexts. During the 'organisational crisis' phase, irregularities surfaced, including an unequal distribution of labour, ambiguous employment conditions and tolerated illicit activities such as currency trading. According to participants' accounts and field observations, these dynamics contributed to organisational disorder, disproportionately burdened female volunteers and gradually eroded trust in leadership. The subsequent 'crisis of legitimation' phase intensified internal conflicts, revealing tensions between solidarity-based and profit-oriented motivations.

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