Organizational Environments and Culture - Essay Example

Project Description The interviewee, Mr. Gail V. Riina, is a reverend of Lutheran Chaplain from the Lutheran Campus Ministries located in Syracuse University at Hendricks Chapel. The reverend has major responsibilities that include director of programs, supervision of student leaders, leadership development, pastoral and vocational counseling, spiritual direction, volunteer coordination, education, fundraising and development. Mr. Gail’s employing organization is the Upstate New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America commonly known as ELCA. The organization connects and supports ministries of congregations and missions of the ELCA in the New York State, excluding the New York City area. The headquarters of the Upstate New York Synod is in Syracuse, New York and the national headquarters of the ELCA is in Chicago, ILL. Mr. Gail has been in the organization for 17 years and has had his reverend position for 8 years. Methodology The method of data collection was through structured interview or questionnaire, where questions were created prior to the interview and there was a limited set of response categories. The interviewee was asked a set of questions from different categories in a face-to-face manner and the responses were noted down. The structured interview provided several benefits in the course of the interview. This type of interview ensured efficient conducting of the interview because the questions available in the questionnaire provided a guide to how the interview questions were to be answered. This implied that in the report the questions asked and answered during the interview prevented deviation from the main topic of the interview. The benefit was having specific questions answered that were centered on the topic at hand. The Interview Narrative The reverend manages all the operations of this complex organization. His primary management task is the management of communication between the volunteers who are involved with implementing diverse set of programs. The tasks on a daily basis involve managing calendars, email, and public relations notices. These details are generated by the management of a collaborative process used in program development, and the mentoring of student leaders. On top of this, Mr. Gail’s position requires 50% of the financial resources necessary to run the organization, which involves management of annual and special campaigns, fundraising events including the management of a database for development efforts. One aspect of being a reverend of ELCA for Mr. Gail is that there is no “typical” day. The reverend explains that there are new challenges and new opportunities every day. His week has a pattern where there are standing meetings with the leadership teams that are responsible for different aspects of the program. Much of what the reverend is involved with is program planning, implementation and evaluation. Tuesday for him is usually working with email and catching up on correspondence and database management. On Wednesday, he works with undergraduate leaders and programs. On Thursday he focuses on STEP Center interfaith service opportunities. On Friday he normally devotes his time to educational programs and preparations for the worship service on Sunday. When meetings with faculty or community members involved in the collaborative programming are required, they are normally held early in the morning or late afternoons similar to appointments for counselling or spiritual direction. However, the reverend faces several problems. His biggest problem at the moment is dealing with the dramatic need for increased fundraising as the support budget was cut and 20% of the income was lost. This was considered an across the board national cut, needing a shift to a much larger percent of funding from local sources. Mr. Gail tries to deal with this problem through shifting to two fundraisers instead of one each year, investing in reaching out to older donors in a more personal format. This transition in funding expectation was difficult for him as a reverend and manager, because the large national support of the ministry was motivational and supportive for him as a representative of the organization. He needed to go through a period of grief when they experienced the loss of the funding, before he could move forward with new strategies to make up the loss. The reverend continues to explain that understanding the reasons for the cut did not result from the evaluation of the program being helpful. Mr. Gail proposes working with my local board to come up with new approaches as being necessary and extremely helpful. He suggests that people will respond to urgent needs when it is presented in a “we must and can do this” mode. Although there are problems with being a reverend and a manager for ELCA, advice exists that the reverend suggests for new managers. He suggests that a new manager should have an overall picture of responsibilities. He continues to explain that the responsibilities need to be broken down into small tasks. These small tasks according to him need to be tackled on a priority basis, where the tasks that are deemed important to the organization need to be done first. Mr. Gail advices new managers to put more emphasis on collaboration in the organization’s tasks. Collaborate, collaborate and collaborate is what the reverend emphasis on when new managers take on small tasks. He explains to new managers managing small tasks that caution should be exercised on the side of communication, because with poor communication, tasks will be difficult to complete. The concept that more heads are better than one is what the reverend thinks new managers should concentrate on. He says that new managers should encourage and support others in their organizations to use their gifts to contribute to a successful project. Lessons Learned The interview of Mr. Gail V. Riina has highlighted important organization management issues that I have learnt, especially when looking at the environment and culture of an organization. Williams (2006) examines organization environments in two ways: stable environments and dynamic environments. In a stable environment, he explains that this is an environment in which the rate of change is slow. An example of this stable environment is wholesale food distribution companies. In a dynamic environment, he illustrates that the rate of environmental change is rapid. Smartphones companies such as Apple, HTC, Motorola, and Samsung are some examples. In this type of environment, a smartphone like iPhone has had different innovate features that have seen the smartphone environment changing rapidly. In the interview, before the budget got cut, the reverend was in a stable environment where funding was assured throughout the year. However, with the support budget being cut and a loss of 20% of income, the reverend had to switch to a dynamic environment of management. He had to shift to two fundraisers rather than one each year and reaching out to older donors. In addition to the stable and dynamic environmental way of organization, cultural organization has taught me more about management. The culture of planning, implementing and evaluation of an organization ensures that set goals and objectives of an organization are achieved or improved on (Williams, 2006). Planning concerns coming-up with organization’s goals and how the goals can be attained. Implementation concerns carrying out a plan that has been set in motion. Evaluation concerns whether the plan that was implemented achieved the intended purpose of the organization. Going back to the interview, Mr. Gail insisted that program planning, implementation and evaluation is what he does in his position of work. The planning and implementation in his case is involved in planning for the tasks of the week. For instance, working with email on Tuesday, working with undergraduate leaders and programs on Wednesday, focusing on STEP Center interfaith service opportunities on Thursday, and Friday devotion to educational programs and preparations for worship service on Sunday. The evaluation in his case involves finding out whether he has been able to accomplish his weekly plans or not and whether he has been able to generate 50% of the financial resources necessary to run the organization. Apart from the stable and dynamic environmental way of organization, and cultural organization, there are several aspects of the interviewees’ business domain that I have learnt. I have learnt that the non-governmental organization relies on funds from donors and if the donors decide to reduce their funding, new management strategies will have to be implemented. Take the example of the reverend, the cut in budget funds means that he has to come up with a strategy that will make up for it. This means that the business domain environment changes frequently and only careful plans and proper evaluation can ensure he achieves the goals and objectives set. Also, his business domain is all about achieving specific goals and objectives. Therefore, management is a position that requires a manger to be ready to change with a changing business environment. This interview has affected the way I will manage a business when I am given the responsibility of becoming a manager. First, I have learnt that management encompasses all aspects of a business organization including planning, implementation and evaluation. Mr. Gail weekly planning and implementation discussed above has shown me that a manager needs to have a plan for the entire week and how those plans will be implemented. In knowing how plans need to be implemented, a manager can forecast or predict when problems will occur. It is in this planning and implementation that evaluation has become an important part of me in running a business. This means that when plans have been evaluated as being fruitless, new plans need to be made to ensure business goals are achieved. Second, the environment of a business is crucial. In today’s world, the business market is changing rapidly resulting in dynamic business environments. It will be easier for me as a manager to implement plans that are suitable for a dynamic environment. If the market requires new products, then I will have to adapt to the market and provide new innovate products to gain a competitive edge in the market. To conclude, Mr. Gail’s interview has been educational and practical to me as an aspiring manager. Reference Williams, C. (2006). Management. Boston: Cengage Learning. Read More