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A robust optimization approach to volunteer management in humanitarian crises

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  • Lassiter, Kyle
  • Khademi, Amin
  • Taaffe, Kevin M.

Abstract

In the aftermath of a disaster, humanitarian organizations quickly assemble a workforce that can immediately serve a community׳s needs. However, these needs change over time, and the volunteer base (and their skill sets) also changes over time. In this paper, we develop a flexible optimization framework to dynamically allocate volunteers in order to minimize the cumulative unmet demand and maximize volunteers׳ preference. We use a robust optimization approach to handle the uncertainty in task demands because in the scenarios of interest it is unlikely that demand distributions are available for decision makers. We consider maximizing volunteers׳ preference by introducing a constraint into the model which enables decision makers to derive Pareto optimality and allocation decisions for any degree of conservativeness. Our numerical results show that volunteer managers should consider matching volunteers to their task assignment preferences up to a critical percentage, above which needs fulfillment decrease quickly due to overly strict adherence to volunteer task assignment preferences. Moreover, one can estimate the complete price of volunteers׳ preference by a difference between the objective function when the matching threshold is 1 and 0. Our sensitivity analyses shed light on the effect of conservativeness in the objective function and allocation decisions as well as the model׳s tractability.

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  • Lassiter, Kyle & Khademi, Amin & Taaffe, Kevin M., 2015. "A robust optimization approach to volunteer management in humanitarian crises," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 97-111.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:proeco:v:163:y:2015:i:c:p:97-111
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2015.02.018
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    Cited by:

    1. Ela ABDULKADIR & Cosmin DOBRIN, 2022. "E-management: Tools and Techniques of Leaders in Non-Profit Organizations for Online Volunteer Work," REVISTA DE MANAGEMENT COMPARAT INTERNATIONAL/REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE MANAGEMENT, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 23(3), pages 356-366, July.
    2. Rodríguez-Espíndola, Oscar & Albores, Pavel & Brewster, Christopher, 2018. "Dynamic formulation for humanitarian response operations incorporating multiple organisations," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 83-98.
    3. Abualkhair, Hussain & Lodree, Emmett J. & Davis, Lauren B., 2020. "Managing volunteer convergence at disaster relief centers," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    4. Gloria Urrea & Eunae Yoo, 2023. "The role of volunteer experience on performance on online volunteering platforms," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 32(2), pages 416-433, February.
    5. Matinrad, Niki & Granberg, Tobias Andersson, 2023. "Optimal pre-dispatch task assignment of volunteers in daily emergency response," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(PB).
    6. Sperling, Martina & Schryen, Guido, 2022. "Decision support for disaster relief: Coordinating spontaneous volunteers," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 299(2), pages 690-705.
    7. Kaur, Milan Preet & Smith, Safron & Pazour, Jennifer A. & Duque Schumacher, Ana, 2022. "Optimization of volunteer task assignments to improve volunteer retention and nonprofit organizational performance," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    8. Gabriel Zayas‐Cabán & Emmett J. Lodree & David L. Kaufman, 2020. "Optimal Control of Parallel Queues for Managing Volunteer Convergence," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(10), pages 2268-2288, October.
    9. Rodríguez-Espíndola, Oscar & Ahmadi, Hossein & Gastélum-Chavira, Diego & Ahumada-Valenzuela, Omar & Chowdhury, Soumyadeb & Dey, Prasanta Kumar & Albores, Pavel, 2023. "Humanitarian logistics optimization models: An investigation of decision-maker involvement and directions to promote implementation," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    10. Wang, Qingyi & Reed, Ashley & Nie, Xiaofeng, 2022. "Joint initial dispatching of official responders and registered volunteers during catastrophic mass-casualty incidents," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    11. Paret, Kyle E. & Mayorga, Maria E. & Lodree, Emmett J., 2021. "Assigning spontaneous volunteers to relief efforts under uncertainty in task demand and volunteer availability," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).

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