Scenario. Consider the following. FUN, a medium-sized (but rapidly expanding) INGO hires you to manage the organization's internal communications and external outreach initiatives. Based in Minneapolis, FUN develops and delivers interactive classroom curricula and alternative instructional aids for teachers and educators in developing countries. Given FUN's small employee base, marginal global footprint, and traditionally constrained levels of stakeholder engagement, your day-to-day routine proves mundane and typically uneventful. Last month, however, FUN received a sizeable grant from USAID to initiate a program targeting tertiary education in Chad. Although your primary duties as Communications Manager relate mostly to client networking and logistical coordination, your superiors tasked you to lead a preliminary "in country" workshop on safety and security for FUN affiliates hoping to travel to Chad. Understandably hesitant at first, you agreed to help facilitate the workshopyou traveled to Chad as an adolescent, studied the region of Central Africa while pursuing your MPA at Indiana University, and (by leaps and bounds) have the most intimate understanding of local customs and courtesies within Chad.

Together with two Chadian counterparts (external hires) you organize the workshop; the initial sessions proceed without a hitch. Unexpectedly, one participanta new employee at FUN with an impressive tenure as an expatriate in South Asiastarts interrupting you and your Chadian guests during a staged practical exercise. The employee insists that "they know how things really work" and seeks to offer their "in-the-field" experience at seemingly every turn. Their advice, more often than not, blatantly contradicts the security tips and general safety protocols addressed in the workshop. The employee's remarks begin to unnerve you; they brag about ignoring their previous organization's safety procedures, traveling without a security detail (against regulation), and violating local laws and customs because they "knew they could" and "have been around the block." In fact, the employee at one point even complains that the training was "a complete waste of time." However, from your perspective, this security training is essentialthe majority of FUN employees attending the workshop have neither traveled to Africa nor formally studied Chad.

Question. Do you agree or disagree with the unruly FUN employee? Why might proactive security trainingreviewing safety procedures, local and state-level political dynamics, the rule of law, emergency contact methods, and security contingenciesprove vital for FUN employees? What are the possible benefits (or shortfalls) of this workshop? Defend your position using assigned class readings and drawing from in-class discussions.