Healthy Communities - Essay Example

The Quest to Continue: Healthy Communities, Inc. HCI can be considered as one of the popular and prestigious non-profit organization founded in the year 1996 in order to help the people of the community by improving the health issues within the community. The organization gained huge support from several external agencies and healthcare organizations of both private and public sector to meet the developed goals and objectives. In addition to this, government of the United States of America also supported the cause and developed mission of the organization. The organization tried to ensure effective strategy development and decision making process in order to enhance effective community development process. However, the organization is facing several issues regarding implementation of leadership style, required fund, employee turnover and incompetency of the board of the directors. This particular report has suggested several plans for the organization to overcome its current challenges. First of all, it has recommended the organization should remove the current leader in order to and employ a leader to from the board of directors who is competent enough to give effective solutions to the problems. In addition to this, the report has suggested to implement change management process as it can help the organization to make some changes in the strategy development process to overcome the current issues and challenges. Introduction Global business environment is becoming highly competitive as several leading organizations are trying to capitalize on the potential opportunities in the business operation process. In the early 1990s, several agencies and small corporations were trying to work on several health issues to improve the community scenario. Healthy Community, Inc. Can be considered as one of the leading non-profit organizations deals with the improvement of several health improvement issues. Day-by-day, communities in the global areas are suffering from several critical health issues. Therefore, governments of several countries are trying to increase the awareness of several healthcare programmes in order to reduce the effect of the issues. Several local health leaders were considered during the development of HCI. The mission of the non-profit organization to aware the entire community about the effects of several health related issues. Health of community is getting affected as several individuals in the community are neglecting the moral responsibility to improve the health of the community and environment. HCI adopted several unique strategies to meet their developed mission, goal and objective i.e. addressing and sharing the responsibility for the community improvement. In addition to this, the organization also faced several challenges in their strategy development and business operation performance process. This essay will summarize the case study and will develop a literature review based on the provided facts and aspects in the case study. Then the study will discuss about how the organization can address the current challenges that can stop the organization to meet the developed objective and goals. Finally, the study will summarize each and every important facts and aspects that are discussed or mentioned in the entire report. Literature Review HCI was founded in the year 1996. Major goal of this non-profit organization is to overcome the issues that are affecting the health of the community. This part of the report will try to provide some review of literature related to the offered facts and aspects in the case study. Governance and Staffing United States of America can be considered as the strongest economy in this world. In addition to this, the country is achieving strong social and communal growth rate. But, major problem arises when some issues in the societies and communities affect the entire social or communal balance. It is true that several critical health hazards or diseases can affect the good health of the people within the community (Huxham & Vengan, 1996, p.6). The federal government of the United States of America has taken several important and valuable initiatives in order to overcome the issues. In addition to this, the government used to support several non-profit agencies and small non-profit corporations to participate in the health awareness programmes. In addition to this, several public or private bodies are influenced by the agencies to organize some valuable health awareness programmes to improve the scenario of the society or the community. It is true that government of the United States of America always tries to motivate both the public and private organizations to take the responsibility of the health improvement of the community. It is right to do so. Development of a country cannot be judged only through the economic growth of the country. It is highly important for the country to ensure social, communal, environmental and political growth of the country. A conflict free community can help a country to ensure favourable social and communal environment for the people of the country. The federal government of the country understood the significance of these health awareness programmes. Therefore, the federal government of the United States are strongly supporting both the public and private sector firms to take responsibility to overcome the health issues that are affecting the balance of societies. Corporate governance can be considered as an important aspect for both the profit and non-profit organizations. It is clear from the case study that the organization has ensured 12 board members who have the willingness to care for the community and the willingness to serve the people within the community with all kinds of hard work and full potentiality or ability. It is highly important for the organizations to provide effective value to the stakeholders of the organization in order to meet the developed goals and objectives. It is true that HCI has influenced several private and public sector corporations and agencies in their activities in order to maintain effective collaborative work performance (Rhodes, 2002, pp. 38-39). It is true that a developed goal or objective can be met through an effective collaborative performance or activity. In this case, government, people within community, partnering firms, agencies, volunteers and staffs can be considered as the major stakeholders of this non-profit organization. It is true that effective stakeholder values can help the organizations to gain effective support to complete the assigned work and meet the developed goals and objectives. In terms of staffing, the non-profit organizations generally adopt two different staffing strategies. An organization can recruit employees for full time employment (Salamon and Anheier, 1992, p.15). On the other hand, several organizations can select volunteer or some community members in a particular project to bring efficiency in the work place performance activities. It is true that HCI works closely with the local institutions and universities in order to employ students for a particular project in which the students have the freedom to conduct independent research activities. In addition to this, the organization also has recruited the senior level undergraduate students who trying to gain a community-based experience in the medicine or nursing or the health fields. Besides of these activities, it is important for the organization to maintain a strong and permanent workforce to maintain efficiency in the operation processes. According to several literatures, it is highly important for a non-profit organization to ensure full time employment as well as voluntary based activities. It will help the organizations to maintain effective performance of the organization. Activities, Resources and Environment It is highly important for the non-profit organizations to identify the issues that are affecting the balance of the community and society. It is highly important for the organizations to ensure high quality caring and assessment of the issues. It is true that several non-profit organizations are being supported by the government and other valuable external or internal stakeholders to meet the developed goals and objectives (Knox & Gruar, 2007, p.5). Therefore, it can be sated that the issue selection can be considered as one of the important activities for these kinds of firms. Several organizations look for development of the workforce or the volunteer team to complete a project before identifying the actual problem. However, the management of the HCI effectively understood the significance of selection of appropriate issue before developing any kind of workforce or volunteer team. Therefore, it is highly important for the organizations to ensure effective issue selection and appropriate team development to complete the project successfully. HCI can be considered as the most popular and prestigious organizations. The organization got huge exposure as the organization has successfully met the requirements and policies developed by the Federal Government of the United States of America. Most importantly, it is the coordination between the firm and several external agencies that helped HCI to gain huge success. It is highly important for the organizations to find appropriate and effective resources that are required for the operation and activities. Resources can be considered as major aspects for an organization. However, resources of an organization can be divided into several categories, such as financial resources, human resources and natural resources that can enhance the business operation activities. First of all, it is highly important for the organizations to source financial resources as these firms are non-profit firms. In addition to this, government of the countries and several external agencies need to play an important role to allocate required funds to these types of non-profit organization (Hambrick, 1981, p.17). It is highly important for an organization to make sure transparency and sustainability in the operation process to get the valuable support from both the external and internal stakeholders. In terms of human resources, it has been discussed earlier that the organizations can choose two types of human resources. Either the organizations can recruit employees by providing permanent employment opportunities or the organizations can source several community individuals or members to complete the developed project. These are quite necessary activities that need to be considered by the organization. It has been mentioned in the introduction part that several organizations are influenced by the government to initiate several community development and improvement programmes in order to maintain sustainability in the social and community environment. It is the responsibility of the non-profit organizations to follow a proper procedure to maintain effectiveness and efficiency in the operation process to improve the scenario of the social and communal environment (Geer, 1977, p.14). However, HCI effectively monitored and controlled all the operational activities that have helped the organization to maintain effective operation performances. Discussion/Analysis Under the leadership of Irvin Glick HCI grew at a rapid space. He was able to bring more funds and help through his contacts and it brought huge number of opportunities for HCI. Glick was a charismatic and strong leader who had his influence over its employees and they used to believe that under his leadership the group can conduct more activities and help more people in the heath community. Glick was able to make his employees to work hard and inspired a lot of help for HCI and Glick got the initiatives to make the action team to work towards the coordination of various organizations efforts or to create new services and in developing new programs. Glick had his influence and used his contacts to get office furnishing and computers from a non-profit organization. Glick made key decisions for the HCI which did help to get funds and accomplish many actions. Glick had charismatic skills in him who created a great image of his on his employees and they used to have lots of faith on his decisions and the way he used to take the steps for HCI. His power of attracting many opportunities for HCI gave a great impact on all the employees and all the board members believed on him and his policies which helped the company in big way (French, 2011, p.71). With the change in leadership and when new president Beverly Adams, came up there was a certain discomfort for the other members as Beverly could not bring as many as opportunities as Glick used to do with his contacts. As it is normally seen in every organization the change in leadership does brings a little discomfort among the other members, as they have to undergo a change which is very difficult to do. Adams gave more important to the profit chain group Happy teeth as a result of which she was not able to give her full concentration on HCI and thus HCI faced major troubles of not getting funds and neither more opportunities. To overcome this challenge which is hampering the daily process of HCI the board members should decide and look to talk with Adams regarding the matter and if she still continues to do the same, they should look to take a strong decision of replacing Adams with Roberto Garcia as the president so that she can use contacts and also take help from Glick and look to head HCI and lead it in a better and committed way. The fund in HCI has come down drastically over the year and the treasurer believes that the treasure fund might finish within next 6 months and HCI might be left with no funds after that for conducting any activity helping the society for improvement on the community health. HCI has lost many opportunities after Baverly Adams took over as the leader because of weak leadership and Adams didn’t concentrate over the betterment of HCI. The organization needs to come out of this situation very soon to operate successfully again. This is a huge challenge for them to gain fund again in such a small time and they should take steps immediately. The board members need have to take strong step and change the President and remove Adams from that position and Roberto Gracia should take up the responsibility. The new president should come in contact with Glick and take his help for the contacts and grant requests and arrange more funds and opportunities for HCI so that they can start their operations and the action team can perform actively again and recover from this huge slump . It should look to get more support from the contacts that Glick had developed while he was the president and get contracts from them for continuous support so that HCI can work towards the improvement and betterment of the committee health (Mills, Bratton and Forshaw, 2006, p.29). The board members along with Gracia should try and bring long term relationships and support from others to help the operation of HCI. Thus as it is very important to overcome from this situation the board members need to make this decision and look to bring better opportunities and long term support from others. It is clear from the case study that the performance and activities that are adopted and practices by HCI are getting affected due to employee turnover issue. Two employees have given resignation from their jobs in last two months and accepted a high pay job opportunity. It can be considered as one of the major reasons behind the underperformance of the organization. However, it is highly important for the management of the organization to reduce the possibilities of employee turnover. The management of the organization should try to retain their employees in this competitive business environment (Martin, 2001, p.98). It has been mentioned earlier that the organization should try to pick a member from the board and give him or her responsibility to maintain the responsibility of the leader. It will help the organization to maintain high employee motivation. In addition to this, the organization should try to increase the self-confidence and motivation level of the employees. It is true that intense competition in global business environment is forcing the organizations to motivate the best performer of a competitor to join the organization in order to strengthen its workforce. First of all, it will help the organization to improve the payment structure of the employees. In addition to this, promotion to a higher job post can help the organization to motivate or influence its star performers to stick to the organization (Wilson, 2003, p.18). It has been mentioned in the literature review part that each and every organization should try to ensure effective corporate governance and sustainability in the business performance. Board of directors play an effective role in the maintenance of corporate governance and sustainability. Therefore, the organizations should try to strengthen the board of director by selecting skilled, experienced and competent members in the board. It will enhance the decision making process of the organization. Change can be considered as an important variable for both profit and non-profit organizations in this competitive business environment. The members of the board as well as the top level management team should try to ensure strong relationship with the valuable external stakeholders in order to gain positive project or task outcome as it will help the organization to maintain a high brand value around the country (Singh, 2009, p.34). In addition to this, change in leadership and implementation of change management process will help the organizations to maintain effective corporate and organizational culture. Conclusion It is clear from above discussion that being one of the leading non-profit organizations, HCI is facing problem regarding leadership style, management process, fiscal problem due to shortage of funds, employee turnover and lack of competence of the board members. It is true that the business environment is becoming highly competitive as several organizations are trying to adopt and implement employee poaching in the business operation process to strengthen the workforce. Therefore, it is highly important for the organization to implement effective change management process by selecting young, energetic as well as experienced individual in the board of the organization. Adoption and implementation of effective change management process will help the organization to overcome recent issues. In addition to this, the organization should try to introduce a new leader in the organization to improve the performance of the organization. The newly appointed leader should try to ensure both personal and professional needs of the employees as it can help the management of the organization to retain its effective and skilled employees. The management of the organization should try to use its network all over the world to source fund. The consideration of these strategies will help HCI to overcome the current challenges and improve its operation performances to meet the developed goals and objectives. References French, R., 2011. Organization Behaviour. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Geer, A. (1977). Advances in the study of diffusion of innovation in health care organizations. The Milbank Memorial Fund quarterly, 22(1), 19. Hambrick, D. (1981). Strategic awareness within top management teams. Strategic management Journal, 29(2), 17. Huxham, C., & Vengan, S. (1996). Working together: Key themes in the management of relationships between public and non-profit organizations. International Journal of Public Sector, 12(2), 6. Knox, S., & Gruar, C. (2007). The application of stakeholder theory to relationship marketing strategy development in a non-profit organization. Journal of Business Ethics, 11(1), 5. Martin, J., 2001. Organizational Behaviour. New York: Thomson Learning. Mills, J., Bratton, J., and Forshaw, C., 2006. Organizational Behaviour in a Global context. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Rhodes, T. (2002). The Public Manager casebook. London: Sage. Salamon, L., & Anheier, H. (1992). In search of the non-profit sector. I: The question of definitions. Journal of Voluntary and Non-profit Organizations, 23(3), 15. Singh, K., 2009. Organizational Behaviour: Text and cases. New Jersey: Pearson. Wilson, F., 2003. Organizational Behaviour and Gender. London: Routledge. Read More