Management Problem Final Essay

Military Women’s Association Needs Assessment

The Military Women’s Association history department is not functioning properly. There is an internal problem with the management of an uncooperative person. This person’s knowledge is extremely valuable to the organization; however, the lack of cooperation results in a breakdown in communication; deadlines not being met; unprofessional presentations and no-shows at events; hostility; and lack of trust.

Due to the problems listed above, this department will eventually fail to “To preserve and promote the history and traditions of women in the military from World War I to the present…” and it is currently failing “…to foster the spirit of the comradeship of women who have served or who now serve in the United States military...”. This problem is mainly due to one individual whose behavior causes a hostile atmosphere which does not foster comradeship; however, there are also some board members who have allowed the issue to grow because they have entertained the behavior for so long. This is contrary to a professional and non-hostile environment that inspires friendships and camaraderie among women who are working together for the best interest of the organization which benefits active duty and veterans while learning new pieces of our history, sharing it, and keeping it alive. According to the Volunteer Management Handbook (2012) located on the Serve Montana website, a characteristic of an agency which engages volunteer effectively lays the foundation through mission and vision by building understanding and collaboration by making a conscious effort to “reduce boundaries and increase the teamwork between paid and volunteer staff. Accomplishments of volunteers and of staff are equally shared and celebrated”. Comment by N Harv: Good reference support.. This also provided detail as to what the desired operations should look like.

With a hostile atmosphere comes communication breakdowns, high turnover rates, and lack of continuity. Also, by allowing this person to be the sole point of contact for so long, she has held information and contacts so closely that she feels that she owns the information and has made herself way too valuable to the organization. She is also not working with new volunteers and sharing all the information that she has for the best interest of the organization and for those who benefit from it. If new volunteers are not properly trained to handle and preserve historic items; account for them; research and keep updated to maintain historic accuracy of items and information; and have key points of contact to liaison with other history organizations and the military, this important piece of the organization will fall apart. Comment by N Harv: Good detail of current operational deficits.

Organizational initiatives are also a piece of this problem; however, it also goes along with allowing a sole point of contact for history related agendas. The organization periodically receives requests to set up a history display and has events that occur every year. There is also a biennial convention in which this person sets up the organizations historic display that she responsible for maintaining. This person has also been filling two history department positions. One position reports to the second vice president and the other reports to the first vice president. This has created a problem because if she does not like what the second vice president says, she goes straight to the first vice president or the president when that organizational chain is not correct according to the position she is working in. The board of directors have gone to this person for everything history related instead of filling the other position and the positions within the history committee and ensuring all volunteers get properly trained; this would have made this person less valuable and ensure there was someone else ready to step up in case she resigned, had medical issues, or an emergency. It is also too much work for one person, which is a cause of failure to meet deadlines.

There are individual performance issues such as hostility which was stated above; dishonesty; conflict of interest with another organization; refusing to provide inventories requested by the organization; and failing to meet deadlines due to refusing help and working with another organization. There is nothing written in the standard operating procedures to provide criteria to rate performance. This is most likely due to it being a volunteer organization. For future elections, the organizations and members are most likely looking for someone who will benefit the organization by helping to support the mission. Sometimes there is no competition to fill the positions, so it doesn’t matter what the person does or doesn’t do unless the organization chooses to leave the positon vacant or try to put the responsibilities on someone who is on the board of directors. Care needs to be taken to select performance measures and indicators in a volunteer organization because the volunteer manager could end up never wanting to lose a volunteer. This can result in poor performing volunteers or those who are disruptive being kept on when they should be let go. It can also result in volunteers not being given the flexibility they need to stop volunteering because of other demands on their time, something which can result in those volunteers never coming back again in future” (Jackson, 2015). Comment by N Harv: Good work and detail. However, be sure to discuss the effects in more detail. For instance, demonstrate how the current operational deficits (hostility, poor leadership, etc.) impact the organization negatively i.e. loss of volunteers, donations, etc.

References

Jackson, R. (2015). The wrong metrics can harm your volunteer program | Rob Jackson |

Third Sector blogs. Retrieved from http://robjackson.thirdsector.co.uk/2015/07/02/the-wrong-metrics-can-harm-your-volunteer-programme/