For several years now, the American Red Cross has undergone a massive organizational transformation, particularly in its Disaster Services operations. To facilitate this transformation the Disaster Services Human Resource System has been redesigned to focus on two strategic principles; services delivered to constituents and implementation of the tenets of competency-based management. This article reports the organizational transformation resulting from the redesign of the Disaster Services Human Resource (DSHR) System and the intended impact of the new DSHR System on American Red Cross Disaster Services. Progress in implementing the new DSHR System throughout the American Red Cross is also discussed.
it’s mouth through to the relationship they have with cherished toys or blankets were key in understanding how the infant copes with feelings of separation. Transitional phenomena is a way of evoking a representation of mother in her absence, an acknowledgement that he is going through a state of transition (1971:14).
“The transitional phenomena represent the early stages of the use of illusion, without which there is no meaning for the human being in the idea of a relationship with an object that is perceived by others as external to that being (Winnicott, 1971: 11).
In an observation carried out with Charlie I saw her sucking her thumb but with her spare hand she caressed her ear repeatedly,
Charlie takes her seat on the computer bench and puts her thumb inside her mouth and slouches onto the desk pushing her bum out…She sits back up and this time she’s sucking on her finger. Another toddler is in distress and won’t stop crying. Charlie stares at the crying toddler. I look for a reaction from Charlie but I don’t get one, she has a blank look on her face. As the crying toddler wanders away Charlie goes back to self-soothing and sucks on her thumb. With her spare hand she caresses her ear, a movement that I see her doing repeatedly today (Rose, 2016: 24/30).
It could be said that Charlie’s use of the transitional phenomena is a way of evoking the feelings she has about feeling separated from her mother as she begins to come to terms with the outside world.
From the transitional phenomenon comes the concept of transitional objects, which may be a blanket or soft toy. The parent respects the right of their child to make the object their own and it is not challenged (Winnicott, 1971: 4).
“The object represents the infant’s transition from a state of being merged with the mother to a state of being in relation to the mother as something outside and separate” (Winnicott, 1971, 14).
My own transitional object illustrates why Winnicott’s theory resonates so much. A red bear stayed with me as I grew from baby to child and despite holes appearing in its body and it’s eyes falling out, I recall nursing it with bandages, not wanting to give it up. I kept it in a bedside cupboard and it was only when I entered adolescence that I was able to say goodbye. As Winnicott says, “it becomes not so much forgotten as relegated to limbo” (1971: 5
