bentley final

Payge Fehr

November 23, 2015

INTS 3300

Dr. Gail Bentley

Texas Tech University

Interdisciplinary Research

Abstract Human trafficking is an issue that does not seem to get a lot of attention. The world seems to be

focused on five hundred other things that are more of a pressing issue due to the fact that more

individuals are seeking that "their" issue be fixed or dealt with sooner rather than later. Using an

interdisciplinary approach with a focus on human resources and organizational leadership along

with research gathered, one should be able to shed some light on some kind of training that can

be in place to better education employees on what to identify when human trafficking is taking

place. Although there is no real correct solution, at least that has been found, hopefully the

combination of human resources and organizational leadership can help open up some

possibilities for others.

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There is no question that today’s world is not perfect, there are tons of issues that are

widely talked about and have been fixed. Then there are issues that everyone knows about, but

nothing has happened to help reduce or stop the issue. Interdisciplinary research is a great way to

look at these types of complex problem and find a possible solution or to help further other

already posted research. Human resources and organizational leadership are two very similar

disciplines, but they both embody a different aspect of the business lifestyle. With the research

gathered, one should be able to answer the following question: how can organizations educate

their employees about human trafficking and how to react to the situation if and when it takes

place.

Step 1: State the Focus of Your Paper

Defining the problem or stating the research question is the first and most basic activity

that one undertakes in conducting research or engaging in problem-solving of any kind." (Repko

2012) From the little research that was found, Human Trafficking is not something that many

people think or really know that much about, so when taking an interdisciplinary approach and

pulling two disciplines together to help suggest a solution can be really challenging. Repko

(2012), states that “interdisciplinarity focuses on complex problems, questions, objects, texts,

and systems. (pg. 69)” Using an interdisciplinary approach can help shed some light on any

wicked problem and hopefully, through research, find a possible solution or can suggest an idea

that could eventually help further someone else’s ideas on the same topic. Using human

resources and organizational leadership as two disciplines, the plan is to focus on how

organizations can use information about human tracking to help educate their employees to

recognize when this kind of situation is happening and how to address it if it does.

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Many organizations do not necessarily deal with this type of issue and may never need to

worry about it taking place in their organization, but then there are some and for this paper one

shall be digging into the athletic organizations and what kind of role these types of sporting event

are playing in the human trafficking process. Sporting events draw in people from everywhere

and the amount of traffic flow is quite a nightmare. With all of those people constantly going

back, forth, left, right, upstairs, and downstairs it can be a challenge to just simply maintain order

much less spot any suspicious actives. Human traffickers know this and play this to their

advantage, because of the large amount of people and different races all in one location it can be

very easy to slip under the radar.

Step 2: Justify Using an Interdisciplinary Approach

Repko (2012) talks about how there are four criteria commonly used to help justify using

an interdisciplinary approach when dealing with a complex problem. The criteria's that need to

be met are: “the problem or question is complex, important insights or theories of the problem

are offered by two or more disciplines, no single discipline has been able to address the problem

comprehensively or resolve it, the problem is an unresolved societal need or issue.” (p. 84) With

the question of how an organization can educate their employees about human trafficking and

how to react to the situation if and when it takes place, this meets all four of those criteria’s.

This is a very complex problem because is calls for an extensive amount of research. The

type of research that is needed to help understand human trafficking is that you not only need to

pull information from how the whole operation works, but you also have to find a way in which

to present this information to your employees. Understanding how a whole new “way of life” can

be hard to comprehend, which in turn can make it hard for some individuals in the organization

to understand the information that is being given to them.

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From research found, there are important insights that come from many different disciplines, but

the two used here are human resources and organizational leadership. Human resources are a

certain department of a business or organization that handles the hiring, and training of the

personnel working within the company. Since professional athletes, and just about anyone else

that has a lot of money, seem to blow it on things they never thought about before. Research has

compiled that numerous times during the World Cup human trafficking has taken place. We also

know that HIV has a high number in South Africa and with the World Cup taking place there,

there is a possibility that some athletes will catch HIV. From a human resources point of view,

there could be training in place on how to avoid such things and what it might mean from their

professional careers. Now from the organizational leadership side, organizational leadership is a

management style that focuses on the company or business as a whole all at the same time. It

also encourages leaders to lead from whatever level they currently hold. If you think about the

sports industry, the manager needs their team to be in good physical condition to help pull out a

win. If half of the team is out because of a virus that made them to weak to play, then that could

change the whole season for that team.

Human trafficking is an issue that has many different components to it, it is a business so

in order to help reduce or find a possible solution you will need to pull from several different

areas to just understand how it works. It is something that many do not know about which makes

it hard to handle from just one discipline.

Human trafficking can and does happen on the daily and it has been going on for

centuries and there has yet to be any kind of solution to this kind of activity. What will it take to

find a possible solution and act on it? There is research out there that talks in depth about what

exactly is going on, there have been victim’s that talk about their experience, and yet there are

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still people out there doing this. There are many issues that need to be resolved and some are just

ranked higher than others.

Step 3: Identify Relevant Disciplines

Discipline is defined by Repko 2012 as “a particular branch of learning or body of

knowledge such as physics, psychology, or history.” Those three areas encompass many

different disciplines which leaves that door wide open when deciding on what specific

disciplines to use when asked about human trafficking. When finding research, there are many

different elements that come to light. Law enforcement plays a vital role in the fact that this type

of activity is illegal. Transportation could be looked at because how do they transport the

individuals from place to place? These are just a few insights teaching why human resources can

help educate employees about what signs to look for. Organizational leadership can help shed

some light on how an organization as a whole can help reduce or educate such activities. Lastly

the use of technology, like social media, plays a huge part in the fact that so many victims can be

tracked down this way and viewed as vulnerable.

Step 4: Conduct a Literature Search

The definition of human resources is a discipline that focuses on the hiring and training

of employees within the company. Training is a very vital aspect of any job and with research

that Zimmerman, Hossain, and Watts (2011) did on the health concerns and how police could

more easily identify human trafficking victims. Their article talks a lot about the stages of

human trafficking, while also breaking down certain situations and how it might affect the

victims. It also stated many quotes from actual victims that help you better understand that

many of the situations that have been talked about are real and did actually happen. A very

interesting topic that was brought up was about how many people get trafficked more than one

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time and how the younger victims are more likely to be the targets for this. The overall picture

the authors were trying to paint for the reader is that there are many health concerns that come

along with human trafficking and it can cause not only physical but psychological pain as well

and that kind of pain stays with that individual for the rest of their lives. There are issues, such

as threats, physical violence, and hazardous labor related exposures, that happen to just about all

of the victims, but the percentages of each effect and how it correlates to the treatment they

were given are very interesting and eye opening. Many victims do not get the proper treatment

because the “owners” just do not seem to care and have the mindset that it is easy to get a new

human to use. This information can be very beneficial in the Human Resources aspect because

it helps someone understand what can happen and how to treat a person with such a

background. They can make training sessions around this information and how employees

should handle such individuals. Adding a presentation on how human trafficking starts, all the

struggles from destination to destination, and the end results can help teach employees how it all

happens and what precautions they can take not only at the workplace but at home as well.

Organizational leadership is the umbrella that hosts many different aspects of a company

from top to bottom such as accounting, human resources, logistics and many more. Research on

athletic events and natural disasters seem to be the most dominate time when human trafficking

takes place, but for a more solid understanding, sporting events are the most dominant. Based on

research from South Africa, there is increased attention on sex work with reports of HIV. With

the FIFA world cup around the corner, there were concerns about this not only being a crime, but

also a concern for the football team. (Richter, M. L., Chersich, M. F., Scorgie, F., Luchters, S.,

Temmerman, M., & Steen, R. (2010)

Step 5: Develop Adequacy in Each Relevant Discipline

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The most relevant disciplines involved in training employees on what key components of

human trafficking are human resources and organizational leadership. With that being said, how

does Human Trafficking and Human Resources Development correlate? To better understand

human resources and how it connects to human trafficking, one needs to have a good

understanding of what theories and methods are relevant to this discipline (Repko 2012). A few

theories we have found to be the most beneficial are Motivational Theory as well as traditional or

classical theory. Smallbusiness.chron.com states that "HR managers may rely on a variety of

sources and studies to motivate employees, even through tough organizational changes.

Motivational theories are generally based on intangible benefits, financial rewards, and

organizational structure." This helps demonstrate that no matter what situation a business maybe

looking into, they will dig and find the adequate information to help their employees better

understand the problem at hand. Traditional or classical theory on the other is a “theory that

focuses on an impersonal side of business. Employees and managers should not allow

friendliness and personal interactions to become involved with the organization.” This is an

important aspect because it helps one understand that if there is any ethical issue that may be

taking place, such as human trafficking within the workplace, there should not be any “strings

pulled to protect someone. A few methods that have been found are typically anything that has

to do with the hands-on aspects of learning. Human Resources can be beneficial in the fact that

there are all kinds of training materials that can be shared within the workplace that can help

notify employees on what to look for, or what to do when they come across really any situation,

but in this case for human trafficking. Finding a clear set of theories and methods that fit well

into Human Trafficking is difficult, but there are ways to obtain that kind of information, you

just have to think outside of the box and find those keywords and phrases such as training,

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human trafficking, and effect of human trafficking victims. One of the reasons behind not finding

a lot of information linked between the two could be that there is not many people just have not

thought about putting the two together.

Now, how does organizational leadership and human trafficking correlate? Once again,

one needs to have a good understanding of what theories and methods are relevant to this

discipline (Repko 2012). Managementhelp.org named a few theories that individuals can use to

better grasp the meaning or organizational leadership. Transformational theory and situational

theory are two that both help complete this connection. Transformational theory is defined as “a

process by which a person engages with others and is able to create a connection that results in

increased motivation and morality in both followers and leaders. It is often likened to the theory

of charismatic leadership that espouses that leaders with certain qualities, such as confidence,

extroversion, and clearly stated values, are best able to motivate followers. The key in

transformational leadership is for the leader to be attentive to the needs and motives of followers

in an attempt to help them reach their maximum potential. In addition, transformational

leadership typically describes how leaders can initiate, develop, and implement important

changes in an organization. This theory is often discussed in contrast with transactional

leadership.” The keyword to pull from that definition to help link human trafficking and

organizational leadership is motivation. If any leader is passionate about something and they

have to drive to continuously motivate their employees, then the employees will in turn, pick up

on the information needed, and be able to speak about the information fluently. Situational

Theory, on the other hand, “requires the ability to adapt or adjust one’s style to the circumstances

of the situation. The primary factors that determine how to adapt are an assessment of the

competence and commitment of a leader’s followers. The assessment of these factors determines

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if a leader should use a more directive or supportive style.” Being able to adapt in any situation is

key for many organizations, seeing as how there is no situation that is the same. After an

employee has been educated on what to identify as a human trafficking trait, then that employee

will have to adapt and multitask without causing a scene.

Step 6: Analyze the Problem and Evaluate Each Insight or Theory

Analyzing is not just a one step process, and when combined with interdisciplinary

research, there are at least two steps that one should take. The first step is to analyze the problem

from both perspectives, followed by step two, which evaluates the disciplinary insight (Repko

2012).

Insight of Human Resources

Using human resources and organizational leadership can really help spread the word

about the issues that happen during human trafficking. Many people do not really think about

this topic because it is never in the spotlight like it should. With that being said, how can human

resources development combined with organizational leadership help companies and individuals

across the nation be more aware of human trafficking?

Human resources can be looked at in many ways, the main focus is to gain, maintain and

educate employees. They look at a number of things when conducting their everyday business

routines; a large part includes metrics as well as surveys that have been conducted throughout the

company. When dealing with both quantitative and qualitative data you need to be able to read

and understand the information as well as be able to share it amongst your peers. This can be a

huge help when dealing with any kind of training. Training is a crucial part of any job and when

the correct information and the correct steps are followed, then it should be fairly easy to

complete. People need adequate training to relay the proper information to their employees, if no

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one knows the warning signs or what to look for, then many will never know the situation, like

human trafficking, will continue to slip on by. There are tons of interaction within a business as

well as many individuals from outside the business that may be blind as to what to look for when

it comes to human trafficking. If they have the correct training and can identify the dead

giveaways, or the warning signs, then there is potential to help save a life.

Zimmerman and Watts (2011) talk about the stages of human trafficking and breaks

down certain situations and how it affects the victim physically and mentally. They also stated

many quotes from actual victims that help you better understand that many of the situations that

have been talked about in the media are real and do actually happen. A very interesting topic that

was brought up was the fact that many people get trafficked more than one time and that the

younger victims are more likely to be the targets for this. The overall picture painted for the

reader is that there are many traumatizing memories and health concerns that come along with

human trafficking.

Desyllas (2007) talks about how there have been some associations that have helped law

enforcement become aware of the possible activities that relate to human trafficking. It states that

women are the number one victims because they have a history of being the weaker sex. One of

the associations believed that prostitution was ruining their country and got an act passed called

the Contagious Disease Act. This act was passed because they believed that it would help purify

and vanquish the prostitution that was taking place. The Contagious Disease Act was suspended

due to the fact that the women were getting held against their will as well as being examined

without their consent.

Lastly, Sherestha, Karki, Suwal, and Copenhaver (2015) wrote an article around a study

done in Nepal, a place where there is high poverty, and low literacy rates. It starts off by telling

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us about a survey that had been taken by students on if they knew about human trafficking and

how they heard or knew about it. A good majority, over half, of the students have indeed heard

about this situation. A high percentage of the students have heard about it through the media

such as television, radio, etc. A good percentage of students that knew about this was because of

family members and friends, but a few of the students knew about him because they know the

victims. They did another study on high school girls and asked them if they thought human

trafficking was an issue, around 60 percent of them said it was an issue. Ending the article, they

conducted a survey asking if they thought their government was doing a good enough job with

the policies and laws they have in place, many said they were doing a good job, but a low

percentage disagreed and said they were not doing a good enough job.

All in all, there are many open questions about human trafficking and what kind of steps

we can take to help prevent such a situation from happening. There are many different

disciplines that you could use to help investigate, stop or help prevent human trafficking. One

would be surprised at the kinds of information you can find when doing such an interesting topic.

Insight of Organizational Leadership

Tyldum, G., & Brunovskis, A. (2005) compiled an article that retrieved its information

from telephone calls as well as different types of data collection. There were some language

barriers that they overcame, but there was a nice outcome of participants. They talk about how

there are stages in human trafficking. According to their research, different stages require a

different type of behavior. They also talk about how someone moves from one stage to the net

and what might help that process. They also talk about how it is hard to calculate by the

population as to how many people have really been trafficked to what area. The stages and how

one moves’ to and from those stages can be really educational to just about everyone. Knowing

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what to look for so that if it may ever happen to you, you will be aware of what is happening and

you would have already thought of a plan to escape.

Hepburn, S., & Simon, R. (2010) This article talks a lot about the different regions and

how one's family might sell their child to help pay off any outstanding debt. It also talks about

natural disasters and how that is a prime time for traffickers to begin the process. A very

interesting part read was about how a young girl ran away from home to meet up with her

trafficker, and they did very similar things to that young that was done to them as well. It is what

they know so they carry on the trend and hopefully make the same amount of money their

traffickers did. This article is beneficial in the fact that it talks about the kinds of situations that

might help “open the door” for the trafficked victims. It also talked about how some get

trafficked because they want a better life and pay x amount of money to come make a better life

for themselves and then end up never paying off the debt that figured they could pay off after

being promised a job making x amount of money.

Potocky, M. (2011). In this article, they conducted a training seminar with law

enforcement, social service workers, and health care. They started by calling up individuals and

finding that there are not many people that seem to be comfortable talking about the situation or

that just do not want to participate or had not relation to the subject. They did not seem to find

many new participants that would help with their training seminar because of this. Overall this

article's main goal was to see what kinds of measures are being taken to help train individuals on

human trafficking. This article shows how there are steps being taken to help figure out what

kind of information leaders can take to help build awareness. There are bullet points nearing the

end of the article that the author thought would be good explanations of the findings done by this

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study. Theses explanations can be used to help Human Resources build their training programs

to help inform their employees.

Step 7: Identify Conflict Between Insights and Their Sources

“The immediate challenge for interdisciplinary is to identify conflicts between

discipline insights concerning the problem. This is necessary because these conflicts stand in the

way of creating common ground and, thus, of achieving integration.” (Repko 2012) Nothing is

perfect and there will always be differences between people and their thoughts. In chapter ten of

our textbook, Repko (2012) talks about ways in which you can identify conflicts between

insights Some conflicts are buried way deep and you have to go digging for them, and others

may jump right out at you. When conducting research it seems to be a hidden factor that you

have to think critically on in order to see that gleaming bit of light. Then once you find it though,

every word and detail start to come together. With all of the research found within the past five

years, there is still little know about how human trafficking works. There is information about

how the internet is used to lure children into these types of situations, but nothing that informs us

about what takes place during the whole process.

Human resources and organizational leadership are both sources in which help people.

Human resources are there to help get you settled into your new job, make sure you understand

your benefits package, ensure that you have the proper training, and help with any issues or

concerns you may have at work. Organizational leadership, on the other hand, works towards

what is best for an individual or a group to ensure that everyone has the empowerment that may

need to complete his or her job. With all that being said, I do not find that either one of my

disciplines contributes to the conflict mentioned above.

Step 8: Create Common Ground

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“The theory of common ground as the basis for collaborative communication and

interdisciplinary integration.” (Repko 2012) The technique that helps create common ground to

help find a possible resolution for human trafficking is the redefinition technique. According to

Repko (2012) “redefinition involves modifying or redefining concepts in different texts and

context to bring out a common meaning.” Now when connecting human resources and

organizational leadership, there is a Very clear connection. Both of these are focused on making

the organization or business a better place. Human resources focus on the individuals while the

organization works to help collaborate those individuals ideas and make the pieces, that they

didn’t know were missing, fall into place.

Step 9: Construct a more Comprehensive Understanding

“A more comprehensive understanding is the integration of insight to produce a new and

more nuanced whole.” (Repko 2012) The world is filled with many different disciplines, some

are very alike and some are complete opposites. When selecting two, no matter how different

they are, and picking them apart so much that they actually seem to work together will really

open your eyes to a new way of thinking. Human Resources and Organizational leadership are

two very similar disciplines that can be very easily combined to answer any business related

question, but when a curve ball is thrown in the mix, such as find a way on how these two

disciplines and human trafficking correlate, can be quite the game changer.

Human trafficking is an issue many people here in the United States do not hear much

about. They do not know the signs, the struggles, the logistics behind it all, which is why when

read through research one can formulate a question that would possibly help give one insight on

this kind of problem. How can Human Resources Development combined with organizational

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leadership help companies and individuals across the world be more aware of Human

Trafficking?

From the research gathered throughout this paper, the overall conclusion is that there is

no definite answer when it comes to logistics of the operation. Many victims do not feel

comfortable with sharing their information and some, I would assume, have no idea on what

exactly happen either because they were locked up or blindfolded.

Step 10: Communicating the Results

“Research of any kind, including interdisciplinary research, involves reflection” Repko

(2012). Since just about everybody is connected to some form of technology, there are very

simple ways in which any business or person can shine some light on human trafficking. Human

resources can easily put together a PowerPoint for their employees when the adequate

information is found. A business could make an advertisement that could air either on the

television, radio, billboard, internet and in magazines. A few years back, there was a massive

worldwide campaign about Kony 2012. “Kony 2012 is a thirty-minute film focused on Joseph

Kony and his use of child soldiers in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) that amassed one

hundred million views in six days, speaking to a whole new dimension in terms of speed and

scale of communication. Much analysis has focused on Invisible Children’s use of Twitter and

other forms of social media in creating the viral success of this film. “ (Karlin, B., & Matthew, R.

A. (2012). After the flyers and the videos got spread around, people started looking into what

this actually was and the video that helped explain exactly what was happening. All it takes is

one person to spread the word to others and once it sticks with the right person, everyone will

soon find out what kind of monstrous things are happening in our world.

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ReferencesBlog: Leadership. (n.d.). Retrieved November 28, 2015, from

http://managementhelp.org/blogs/leadership/2010/04/21/leadership-theories/

Desyllas, M. (2007). A critique of the global trafficking discourse and U.S. policy. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 34(4), 1-24.

Hepburn, S., & Simon, R. (2010). Hidden in plain sight: Human trafficking in the United States. 27.5, 1-26. doi:10.1007/s12147-010-9087-7

Karlin, B., & Matthew, R. A. (2012). Kony 2012 and the Mediatization of Child Soldiers. Peace Review, 24(3), 255-261. doi:10.1080/10402659.2012.704222

Potocky, M. (2011). Human trafficking training and identification of international victims in the United States. Journal Of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 9(2), 196-199. doi:10.1080/15562948.2011.567159

Repko, A. F. (2012). Interdisciplinary Research: Process and Theory. Los Angeles, CA: Sage. ISBN: 978-4129-8877-3

Richter, M. L., Chersich, M. F., Scorgie, F., Luchters, S., Temmerman, M., & Steen, R. (2010). Sex work and the 2010 FIFA World Cup: time for public health imperatives to prevail. Globalization & Health, 61-6. doi:10.1186/1744-8603-6-1

Tyldum, G., & Brunovskis, A. (2005). Describing the unobserved: Methodological challenges in empirical studies on human trafficking. Migration International Migration, 43, 17-34.

Zimmerman, C., Hossain, M., & Watts, C. (2011). Human trafficking and health: A conceptual model to inform policy, intervention and research. Social Science & Medicine, 73(2011), 327-335.

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http://managementhelp.org/blogs/leadership/2010/04/21/leadership-theories/

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