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Models of Management in Rwandan INGOs: The Decoupling of Formal and Informal Management Practices
Full text linkThe proper nature of NGO management has been debated by many scholars, dividing the argument into at least two central themes: those who advocate that third sector organizations should take management more seriously and acknowledge the continuities with mainstream management, and those who argue that third sector organizations are distinct and cannot be managed using mainstream management practices (Lewis, 2002 and Thomas, 1998). A number of questions have been raised regarding the management of NGOs. What type of management is appropriate for NGOs? Does the management of these organizations differ from other sectors? What management practices are being used by Southern NGOs (e.g., leadership, motivation, human resource management practices) that can be characterized as local or indigenous ? Each of these questions adds value to the understanding of third sector management and the drivers contributing to the formal and informal structure of these organizations. This paper will examine the decoupling of informal management practices from formal institutional rules in Rwandan NGOs, and how these practices lead to effective ways of working
Conversation with Latisha James
No full textThis conversation with Latisha James, Director, Center for Commmunity Partnerships, Government and Community Relations explains how Case Western Reserve University is an integral part of the quality of life in University Circle and adjacent neighborhoods
Effective Selling Skills in Life Insurance Sales: The Implication on Sales Performance, Recruiting, and Retention of Producers
Full text linkThis ethnographic study of effective selling skills in life insurance sales was conducted in Houston, Texas. The identity of the financial service company, the producer, and other participants were withheld for confidentiality. Persistent industrial problems in life insurance sales of mostly new sales producers and their inability to attain a successful sales career consequent to poor sales production spawned this study. A consequence of poor sales is low commission income, which directly impacts attrition of sales producers as well as recruiting efforts of companies. Life insurance is an intangible product with an inherent level of difficulty, hence effective selling skills are needed to be successful. The strategic goal of sustaining a market share or gaining a competitive advantage is contingent on effective selling skills of the sales team. The producer\u27s perspective includes the need for continuous improvement as consumers are more informed today than in the past. Moreover, the repeal of the Glass-Stegall Act increased competitive pressure by allowing banks and other financial institutions to compete in the same market. This impairs the competitive landscape for ineffective producers. Many prospective agents who successfully passed the selection and licensure process leave prematurely because of poor sales. The company either terminates the relationship or the producer leaves voluntarily because of insufficient income. It is known in the sales environment that most salespeople who fail will fail within the first year. In some fields of selling, this figure can run 99 percent and even higher (Lawhon, 1995). However, separation in life insurance occurs in most cases after six months, allowing time for training and acquiring professional licenses. The implication of this separation is magnified in the wasted resources in opportunity costs by the company and producer during the engagement period. The organizational structure of a life insurance company has the producer as the only member of the company with direct consumer contact. This arrangement forces the producer to perform strategic functions of distribution and production for the respective company. This relationship means that the agent is located at the point in the organization at which the company\u27s financial security policies and plans are distributed to the consumer, and also at the point at which services are directly produced to the consumer (Oakes, 1990). These services are delivered by the agent in the form of consulting--providing financial security information to clients and assisting them in financial planning strategies to meet their goals. The goal of a producer is to build a practice by growing the client base. As reported by Kimball (1994), relationships and emotions are the keys to success in selling. People buy from salespeople they like and trust. This fact makes price and the company brand insignificant when clients make a buying decision, hence increasing the importance of a producer. “The insurance company can distribute its products only if consumers buy them and consumers can be expected to buy life insurance only if agents sell it to them (Oakes, 1990). The implication of this notion on a company\u27s strategy is that it increases the need to maintain an effective sales force to sustain a competitive advantage. This study provides an understanding of effective selling skills and explores how these skills can be integrated in the organizational structure to enable successful selling. This ethnographic study began with reviewing relevant literature on effective selling including skills needed for good sales performance and management of a sales force. I was cognizant of what I bring into the research as a practitioner and knew to avoid any biases, hence the researcher experience memo (Maxwell, 1996). According to Maxwell, this is a way to identify and take into account the perspectives that a researcher might bring to the study from the experiential knowledge of a practitioner. As a nineteen-year veteran of the industry and a manager with recruiting responsibility, I am committed to a better understanding of the problem. Thus, my experience memo accomplishes this task with the following: Opinion--During interviews, my opinion was not offered and I did not participate in discussions, as this might influence the results. Product Analysis--Product analysis in comparison to others in the industry was not done, as this is not the objective of this study and may affect the results. Pricing —Analyzing the cost is not the objective of this study, hence a highly competitive company was chosen to mitigate the effect of pricing. Compensation--Compensation is also not the objective of this study and as one of the leading companies in the industry, the expectation is that the commission rate will be competitive for a producer. Feedback--Feedback after a presentation with regards to how well the producer performed was not offered, as it may jeopardize the study. Many authors in the literature reviewed acknowledged an inherent difficulty in selling at various levels, depending on the type of product or service. However, a consensus among the authors on the prerequisite of salesmanship exists. Sales people have to master the fundamentals of selling...have to learn prospecting... [and] they have to present their products. Some sales people have to use some fundamentals more and some less. Only when these fundamentals have been mastered can they specialize in computer sales or insurance sales (Ridge, 1995). I began this ethnographic study after reviewing the literature on selling. The study was conducted through participant observation of an identified successful producer. The structured interviews were conducted with the producer as well as the recruiting manager. Recruiting participants for this study took several steps to ensure depth in research and value to the potential audience--the practitioners. Studying one person allows the opportunity for depth and thick description needed to understand effective selling skills. Therefore, the objective is to discern, by shadowing and through structured interviews, what makes this individual a successful producer. The structured interview with the manager explains the company\u27s commitment to skill developing and hiring practice. The expectation is that this interview will provide understanding on how to leverage resources to improve agents\u27 development and selection process
The Pursuit of Clinical Quality and Patient Safety: Challenges Presented by Bureaucratic Structures, Organizational Complexity and Professional Ethos
Full text linkClinical quality and patient safety are important features of contemporary medical care. Health care organizations and professionals are being urged to make significant improvements in care delivery and care outcomes; including a reduction in the risk of inadvertent patient injury associated with the care process. This study describes an opportunity to observe how a health care system and its professional staff reviewed and revised current clinical quality and patient safety programs. The intent was to better understand the attributes and mental models organizational members brought to this task and to appreciate the influence organizational structure and culture had on the effort. Using observational ethnographic methods and semi-structured interviews native views concerning these subjects and the organization\u27s efforts to strengthen them were obtained. Structural complexity and ambiguous accountability were prominent emergent themes. Both impeded organizational improvement efforts directed at the topics of interest. The basis for the structural complexity was explored by comparing the subject organization with previously described models of organizational structure. The two organizational elements examined ( a tertiary referral and teaching hospital and an employed multi-specialty medical group ) demonstrated many professional bureaucratic features complemented by machine bureaucratic elements. Structural complexity contributed to the ambiguous accountability observed. A lack of clarity regarding the roles and responsibilities of the clinical departments where care is provided and the quality support departments also contributed to this uncertainty. Another factor, the professional culture associated with the physicians working in the organization, influenced issues of accountability and responsibility. As a group physicians have been ambivalent regarding the adoption of continuous quality improvement methods applied to the clinical care process. While there are several potential explanations for this behavior it is suggested that medical education, with its emphasis on independent decision-making and professional autonomy, may be a contributing factor
Teacher Acculturation: From Platform Theatre to Improvised Theatre and Learning Dynamic Choreography
Full text linkThis research, using ethnographic methods, focuses on the acculturation process experienced by a group of teachers who moved from India to the US. I looked at the phenomenon from the eyes of the teachers as they struggled to describe, explain and understand the new setting in which they were working and their new roles. Their teaching skills were culturally rooted and ineffective. The reworking of their identity i.e. feeling of being self-efficacious, occurred through a process of learning, which occurred while being engaged with the students and based on improvisation to the actual emergent situations in class. A mediating element of this trial and error process was the formal and informal networks with colleagues, mentors, and superiors. The study identifies various coping choices that were available to the teachers. The teachers differed in their attitudes towards the approach to adapt to the situation, choices of coping options exercised and in the approach to obtaining feedback. Some teachers adapted better and were using a wider spectrum of strategies to adapt. The research seems to suggest an agenda for future research in correlating different situations with degree of individual embedded-ness and adaptive efficacy. Acculturation can be seen as a process of identity reconstruction that involves cognitive and behavioral changes. The study has managerial implications for enabling entry of executives into organizations
Happenings at the Local Volunteer Fire Station: Analyzing the Role Community Service Organizations Can Play in Transforming High Risk Youth
Full text linkThis ethnography starts at the beginning, with a review of the relevant literature on juvenile delinquency and on reform programs for juvenile delinquency. Simply put, there are major issues in the way that society is dealing with the problem of juvenile delinquency. Juvenile delinquency itself is a huge societal problem. For instance, each year, the juvenile justice system spends billions of dollars to handle approximately 7,000,000 youths...the problem of juvenile delinquency exacts a high toll on society in terms of loss of property, life and each year, more disaffected youth (Ozanne, et al P185). After examining the relevant literature and identifying problem areas in the social programs designed to aid juvenile delinquency, this ethnography will then analyze, through participant observation and structured interviews, how the GVFD has had such a dramatic impact on the juvenile delinquents who choose to join
Lessons from the Cellblock: A Study of Prison Inmate Participants in an Alternatives to Violence Program
Full text linkThis paper is a follow-on to preliminary research on the Quakers conducted in the fall of 2000. That inquiry looked at other-regarding principles in the Quaker religion and how they are applied in practice. Underlying Quakerism is a deep regard for all people. The Quakers believe that “God is in everyone.” They are strongly anti-violent, very receptive of people of other faiths, and generally very tolerant in their approach to life. Because of these principles, Quakers are frequently sought out as mediators, counselors, and leaders of organizations committed to non-violence. The strength of their beliefs about the goodness of all other people led me to the notion that this principle might be transferable and useful as a means of fostering cooperation. It seemed logical that the degree to which one person regards another would have a bearing on his or her willingness to cooperate. If other-regarding/other-valuing (I will use these terms together frequently throughout this paper) can be instilled and reinforced in people and their willingness to cooperate subsequently shown to increase, then we should be able to draw the conclusion that modifying these values produces a positive effect on cooperation. My theory is that it does, and I will present an analysis that supports this conclusion herein. A second, and more difficult question, is whether or not the other-regarding behavior can be generalized across a broader segment of the population (beyond the immediate group). That question is not specifically addressed in this project, but it is a logical extension of the research. The principal literature on cooperation (vs. competition) argues two divergent positions. First, competition is inevitable, part of a Darwinian selection process, and unless actively controlled, will be the default modus operandi of human interaction. Axelrod (1984) best articulates this school of thought in his work on the Prisoner’s Dilemma game. He argues that cooperation has to be instilled (or at least supported by some interventionist strategy). The opposing view is that reflected in the works of Kohn (1986, 1990) and Deutsch (1973), who see competition as strictly a learned behavior, one that can be unlearned, as well. Both of these views, however, focus on external factors influencing cooperation and fail to appreciate the significance that our view of others has in determining our willingness to cooperate. For the practitioner, this is a crucial gap, for while external factors are clearly relevant, they are not sufficient to explain cooperation. This paper will show the influence of other-regarding behavior on cooperation, and while the group under study is somewhat unique, the lessons learned here are of relevance to practitioners in a more generalized context. I will begin the paper with a brief explanation of the setting in which my observations were conducted. A narrative account of my experience follows. I will then provide an analysis of what I observed and how it relates to the research question. The narrative approach I have employed here follows that of William Foote Whyte, whose work, Street Corner Society, I greatly admire. My objective is to tell a story as much as it is to conduct research, and while two prison workshops are clearly insufficient to establish a case for prison reform, it should not escape the readers of this piece that helping prisoners develop alternate ways of dealing with violence is an appropriate objective, even in the absence of any broader interest. One must keep in mind that most of the prisoners in the system will ultimately be released from prison into society. I, for one, would like to see them employ non-violent means of addressing conflict once they have rejoined us. But this paper is about more than just alternatives to violence; it is about how values affect the development of behavioral skills. That is what I hope will be the most useful discussion for management practitioners, the audience I wish most to address
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