Anna Kim experienced firsthand how rapid development of an economy can be like a double-edged sword.
Growing up in South Korea, which transitioned from a poor country to one of the world's fastest- growing economies between the early ’60s and late ’90s, Kim had more opportunities than her ancestors. But she has also seen some of the unintended consequences of that development, such as destruction of the natural environment and income inequality.
That’s why Kim was inspired to first work with Oxfam, an international confederation of organizations trying to end global poverty, and later to switch to the world of academia and research market-based approaches to development, particularly the Fair Trade movement and Fairtrade certification. Kim is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow with Ivey’s Building Sustainable Value Research Centre.
Her PhD dissertation from The University of Cambridge, “Market-Based Approaches to Development: Fair Trade and Corporate Responsibility in East Africa,” won the Emerald Best International Dissertation Award at the 2014 Academy of Management Conference in August. It was also a finalist in the categories of Best Dissertation Award, Social Issues in Management Division, Academy of Management, and Best Dissertation Award, Society for Business Ethics.
The dissertation is based on her research on nine tea-growing communities in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania where the growers already have or are working toward Fairtrade certification. Kim spent five months total in two separate time periods in East Africa learning about the Fairtrade development initiative from the perspective of farmers and workers.
“If I think about why I went there in the first place, I think my background of coming from South Korea influenced it a lot. My mom struggled to get a basic education in her childhood and my grandmother was illiterate so, when I’d go to those villages and meet those illiterate women, I’d realize they are just like my grandmother,” she said. “Whereas I’m in Canada and I did my doctorate. That was completely unimaginable for my mother or my grandmother. So I have seen the great benefits of development, but because of the South Korean experience of development in such a short time period, there were many unintended consequences, as well. I wanted to understand those unintended consequences better and what we can do about it.”
Shedding light on the challenges of development in East Africa
One of Kim’s key findings is that the distribution of resources over time needs to be taken into account with development in the African communities. For instance, when organizations visit these communities and see the poverty and lack of education, she said they typically invest in the communities by building schools or medical clinics without realizing that such development creates additional resources needs, such as money to pay salaries for teachers, doctors, or nurses.
“They have the best intentions, of course, but sometimes they don’t see the flow of resources and needs over time,” she said.
Kim said such investments seem to be based on the assumption that development is linear and one good move prompts another so there is always progress. But that isn’t always the case, she said. For instance, if children go to school some farmers may end up short of labourers so their operations don’t progress. Additionally, development in these communities is cyclical and might be dependent on seasons. For instance, crops are impacted by rainy and dry seasons so there isn’t constant progress, she said.
“I’m not saying that the whole Fairtrade initiative is full of flaws, just that sometimes the resources from Fairtrade could be invested in much better ways if you take into account those flows,” she said. “For instance, you harvest more tea in the rainy season, but you can produce honey in the dry season so money could be better invested in bee hives, rather than building one more school. I’ve seen communities using resources from Fairtrade in such alternative and more effective ways.”
Making a broader impact
Kim’s work with Ivey’s Building Sustainable Value Research Centre is an extension of her dissertation project. Her goal is to build on her research in East Africa and find its relevance to a wider set of organizations in terms of the importance of time and sustainable development.
Her recent research award has particularly inspired her because it was in the broad scope of international management, rather than a more specific division.
“I took it as a sign that this topic, sustainable development, is no longer a small section of an organization,” she said. “I, of course, appreciate the award, but I was even more pleased that this topic is appreciated as something relevant to management and organization studies at large. That was a great feeling.”
Another motivator was how she was appreciated in the East African communities.
“People were so pleased to have me there. They were so welcoming,” said Kim. “I interviewed a female farmer who was very old and she said she had grown tea for 50 years or so and during that time no one had ever come to see her to tell her the tea was appreciated. That was special to her and it was special to me as well.”
