Employee Psychological and Emotional Experiences in a Humanitarian Organization: Insights From Pure Hands Indonesia

Abstract

Humanitarian organizations operate within morally charged and resource-constrained environments that require employees to demonstrate sustained emotional engagement and psychological resilience. While existing research in humanitarian contexts has predominantly emphasized adverse outcomes such as burnout and emotional exhaustion, limited qualitative attention has been given to employees’ lived psychological interpretations of purpose, meaning, and emotional engagement. Addressing this gap, this study explores the psychological and emotional experiences of employees working within a humanitarian organization, using Pure Hands Indonesia as an in-depth qualitative case study. An exploratory qualitative case study design was employed to examine how employees construct and sustain psychological meaning within a mission-driven organizational environment. Data were collected through six semi-structured interviews with full-time male staff members across different organizational roles and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. The findings revealed three interrelated themes: (1) experiencing purpose and meaning in humanitarian work, (2) emotional fulfilment, well-being, and sense of belonging, and (3) emotional safety, support, and relational experience at work. Employees described strong value congruence, identity-based motivation, and emotional affirmation derived from perceived social impact. Supportive leadership, team cohesion, and psychological safety further reinforced emotional sustainability and engagement. The study contributed to the literature on meaningful work and prosocial motivation by providing contextually grounded qualitative insights into how psychological and emotional dimensions were constructed within an emerging humanitarian organization in a developing context.