A study on how teenage pregnancy affects education, employment, and housing.
Introduction
Teenage pregnancy is a major social problem affecting many countries worldwide ranging from the first world to third world countries. According to research, UK has the leading number of teenage pregnancies. Every year, there is an increase in the number of girls between 13 and 19 who get pregnant (Magaraggia, 2010).
An increased number of teen pregnancies have been attributed to various factors such as peer influence, lack of parental guidance on sexual health as well as socioeconomic factors such as poverty. Most researchers link lack of parental guidance, peer influence and mass media influence as the primary causes of teen pregnancy.
Despite extensive measures laid down to deal with teenage pregnancy, the rate remains rampant. Teenage pregnancy leads to school drop out for the victim, poor housing due to increased cost of living and unemployment for the relatives due to increased responsibilities. (Magaraggia, 2010).
Objectives of the study
The major objectives of the study will include:
To identify factors contributing to teen pregnancy.
To determine and describe the effects of teen pregnancy on education, employment, and housing.
To determine the various ways of curbing teen pregnancies
Rationale
In the current world, the number of teen pregnancy has been a growing concern. The United States has been found to have the highest number of pregnant teenage girls. Therefore it is an issue that requires to be addressed to help in reducing the numbers.
Aim
The study will aim at getting relevant information on teen pregnancy, and this will substantially contribute to prevention of pregnancies among adolescents. Information gathered from the study could be used in education institutions as well as healthcare facilities to offer the necessary information regarding teen pregnancy.
Literature Review
Today, teenage pregnancy remains a major issue. According to Minnick & Shandler 2011, among the industrialized countries, UK has second highest rates of teenage pregnancy. The Census conducted in 2008 which indicated that the birth rate of mothers between the ages of 14-19 was 41.5 per 1000 women. Each year, 14 million children are born worldwide to teenage mothers between the age of 15 and 19 UNICEF, 2012. Magaraggia (2010)established teenage pregnancy as a social problem which requires being addressed.
Many factors have been attributed to high incidence of teenage pregnancy. The following factors have been attributed to the increased rates of pregnancy among adolescents. These factors include; inadequate and inaccurate information on sexual health, peer pressure which offers an avenue to discuss sex matters and mass media which gives teenagers easy access to pornographic materials (Magaraggia, 2010)
Teenage pregnancy may have detrimental effects in all aspects of life including education where the affected person as to drop out of school to be able to take care of the child. Also, it may lead to unemployment being attributed to low self-esteem as well as inability to perform assigned duties(Girma & Paton, 2015). Consequently, the victims find themselves living in substandard houses due to reduced finances.
Conclusion
Curbing of teenage pregnancy requires application of different approaches including sexual education and raising awareness. Both the society and policy makers can as well be involved solving in providing solutions to the risk factors of teenage pregnancy (Girma & Paton, 2015). Therefore, combined efforts from families, healthcare facilities and the society as a whole will be required to help in coming up with a solution to this nightmare.
References
Girma, S., & Paton, D. (2015). Is education the best contraception: The case of teenage pregnancy in England? Social Science and Medicine, 131, 1–9. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.02.040
Improving mental health efficiency by using of community health workers to decentralize health care services
Overview of healthcare industry, markets and competition
Recent changes in the UK in National mental Healthcare Services (NHS) have introduced new complexities into the accountability arrangements of the healthcare facilities. The current mental health systems are best described as command and control system. The mental budgets as well as policy are strategically set centrally by the Department of Health (DoH) and the government is administered locally by the NHS organization but accountability lies with the DOH.
The situation is more complex than the explanation of the ‘command and control.’ The balances between the central government and the local government have led to fluctuating autonomy and misallocation of resources (Normand, 2011).
The UK mental healthcare system relies on highly centralized and costly expertise to delivery healthcare services. This type of system relies in intuitive medicine, and is best suited for healthcare issues that are complex and episodic. In addition, this type of healthcare system is associated with mismatch for chronic diseases, preventive measures and wellness care; which results into additional barriers and disparities especially among the underrepresented population.
It is time for the National Health System (NHS) to depart from a one-size-fits all model and develop channels that will enable better delivery of services that can serve the dynamic needs of the population (Clayton, 2009).
This study proposes that decentralizing mental healthcare services will aid in lowering cost of care, broaden accessibility and maintain as well as improve quality of care. For instance, the physician specialist will have the capacity to work in outpatient, the nurse practitioner will effectively provide care in retail clinics, and lay community health promoters or workers will improve health education, thereby reducing health complications associated with disease progression.
For example, the system will improve diabetic self management at patient’s residents. This measure is in line with Institute of Medicine (IOM’s) health disparity vision of confronting ethnic and racial disparities using strategies that improve care delivery and or implement preventive measures and to enhance risk reduction (Black & Gruen, 2005).
Perceived problems in current healthcare systems
The fundamental issue that is believed to affect mental healthcare activities includes quality of care, safety issues, access to healthcare, cost of care, and delivery of services. These issues arise because of the problems that affect healthcare systems which include misallocations of national health resources, allocative inefficiency, and increased inequalities. Most of the health facilities get less proportion of healthcare budgets. An example of healthcare system that suffers from misallocation of resources is the mental healthcare system, which suffers due to misallocation of resources within the sector (Goodwin, Gruen, & Iles, 2006).
In my facility, funding is done on low cost effective-interventions such as non-essential prevention strategies. For instance, People diagnosed with substance use along with mental health (commonly referred to as dual diagnosis) is associated with many health demands, yet they suffer too much to access quality healthcare services. These patients have complex needs and often experience multiple adversities in their lives including deprivation, childhood abuse, poverty and loss of support from their family members.
These persons are also associated with multiple needs such as homelessness and unemployment that makes them become prone of exploitation. This increases their risk of poor physical health, self harm, suicide and perpetrating violence. Dual diagnosis is unpopular in the UK, partly because the society is entrenched perceptions of substance abuse where most people believe that is a lifestyle choice instead of a health issue that needs urgent care and treatment (Normand, 2011).
Dual diagnosis is one of the issue facing mental health and substance abuse. In the past one and half decades has lead to development of specific initiatives but all of them have had no improvement. The same changes have been implemented since the 90s. Today, mental health services today still exclude people if the problem is not perceived as substance related disorders. The misallocation of resources is associated with inefficient delivery of care as most of the healthcare resources are wasted (Kirk and Glendinning, 1998).
For example, it is inefficient to give patient a brand name over drugs cheaper generic ones that have same efficacy. The misallocation of resources also results to underutilization of resources which also affects the productivity efficiency. In current type of healthcare system often leads to indiscretions such as specialists handling numerous uncomplicated cases at high cost, cases that primary care centers could handle with ease (Normand, 2011).
The aforementioned factors have lead to increase on cost of care without matching consumer’s health benefit. In addition, the existing weak monitoring system enables leakages of public subsidies to private sectors and medical covers which are already financially stable. This results to increased health disparities where poor and under-privileged in the society lack care affordability (World Health Organization, 2000).
These affected populations unfortunately are the majority, and often receives low quality of care. One of the best strategies is to train the staff in mental health facility in order to equip them with skills that will help make dual diagnosis by improving their knowledge and skills but have not managed to change the society’s perception and values.
Therefore, the two great challenges in this aspect of mental health a) to increase awareness on dual diagnosis in order to change attitudes people’s attitudes on mental health and b) to provide effective services to people diagnosed with dual diagnosis, especially in this unprecedented mental health crisis (Normand, 2011).
Change in mental healthcare systems
Change in the healthcare system is intended to improve the performance by adjusting the way services are delivered and relocating or roles and responsibilities for specific healthcare services and the processes of delivering care to the population including financing, implementation process, monitoring as well as regulation. There are various drivers of change in the current health care system including the expected shift in political, social and economic factors that will come with new governing system. In addition, the increase in technological advancement should be enhanced to not only improve quality of care, but also the accessibility (Normand, 2011).
The key drivers for the proposed change within the mental healthcare system in NHS includes changes in population growth, demographic characteristics due to immigration, technological advancement, health’s infrastructure conditions, and increased patient level of acuity. Change in ideologies refers to the modifications of frameworks used by the public health services to deliver care. For instance, new labor in 1997 removed department of health monopoly which created more opportunities for private sector and voluntary services that helped better healthcare system to some extent, at higher cost of care.
Similar changes have been observed with the coalition government in 2009 which removed government agents and gave more roles to local authorities and the private providers, which led to increase misallocation of resources. Therefore, decentralizing delivery of healthcare services using community workers will create freedom for providers to innovate strategic services that meet the specific demands for patient needs (Pickard and Glendinning, 2002).
In addition, the current infrastructure conditions are too old and are not adaptable to provision of modern care for dual diagnosis. The current healthcare infrastructure demerits include high cost of care, reduced staff retention and inconsistencies in delivery of care. Therefore, vertical integration of decentralized health care in this community is aimed at addressing these challenges by reconfiguring healthcare services to suit the specific community demands.
For instance, technological advancement has made it easy to access patient information and also increased portability of patient’s health information and education of appropriate optional treatment. It is time to tap on the innovative techniques to increase efficiency in delivery of mental healthcare system and manage delivery of care in a way that maximizes population health benefits (Duguid & Pawson, 1998).
Changes in population growth and the demographic factors is also another driving force for decentralization of mental healthcare services by the NHS. The increase in population has put pressure on the current healthcare system as it has led to dilapidation of healthcare facility caused by congestion due to population growth, which has led into high demands building of bigger healthcare facilities that will accommodate the patients.
In addition, the gentrification of the low socioeconomic households by the middle class has led to inconsistence in delivery of services. The increased patient level of acuity and knowledge on quality issues is pushing the healthcare providers to improve delivery of care in order to meet their expectations (Clayton, 2009).
Recommendation
Change refers to any alteration of healthcare services with the aim of improving its quality. Changes in healthcare system are wide and ranges from revolutionary technology to refining of health workers responsibilities. There are three types of change namely originates, borrowed and adapted. Borrowed changes are easy and cheap to implement. However, these types of changes are often not appropriate to meet the local needs as no community is similar to another, which implies that one size fits to all may not apply (Goodwin, Gruen, & Iles, 2006).
The proposed change is adapted change, which mainly implies that the strategies are borrowed from elsewhere and gets modified to fit the community needs. However, factors such as situational circumstances, management approach, wrong adaptation, and changes in political as well as economic environments determines if the change process will be effective or not.
Originated changes would be more effective as it involves more creativity than the adapted changes, but their implementation process is expensive as it requires an organizational climate that promotes innovation and creativity. The proposed change is a technical change as it modifies the ways in which normal activities are carried out by altering the organization and program structures (Clayton, 2009).
Decentralization is kind of change that involves dispersal of administrative, political and financial functions. It involves a process of shifting authority, power and responsibility from national to local government levels of the healthcare systems. The main advantages for vertical integration of decentralization in mental healthcare system includes technical benefits such as improving delivery of healthcare services, leading to better health outcomes. In addition, this method eradicates challenges associated with bureaucracy and monopoly that hinders effective delivery of healthcare services to the needy service users (Atun, 2007).
Political benefits associated with decentralization of healthcare services are that it extends democratic control of healthcare services to the needy individuals at community level. This may also increase opportunity for the citizens and services users to participate in decision making processes. This is effective strategy as it helps the government to identify the specific community needs.
Decentralization process also helps in minimizing financial burden associated with public procurement processes by transferring risks from a central point and distributing them to lower and private sector. This helps promote innovativeness and competition, which further improves the service user’s outcome (Bossert, 1998).
In this context, decentralization is the recommended as an approach of improving administrative activities that will help deliver healthcare services. This is also done for the purposes of achieving effective service delivery. In addition, decentralization helps improve local participation as well as autonomy in healthcare services. This acts as a means of redistributing power when it is effectively done, thereby reducing health disparities associated with tribal and regional tensions.
Decentralization is also invoked as a means of increasing cost efficiency in mental health care systems, which is attained by giving the local units better and greater control over the available resources as well as healthcare revenues. In turn, this approach sharpens NHS accountability in healthcare services and operations. The approach helps to covertly offload financial burden from resource poor governments to local service providers (Saltman et al., 2007).
Conclusion
The Mental healthcare system relies upon on highly centralized and costly. The optimal for mental healthcare system is based on intuitive medicine, and is best suited for complex and episodic mental health complication. This increases additional barriers to healthcare care disparities and the minority groups. It is important for the NHS mental health care system to depart from the one size fits all paradigms and to establish better channels that will ensure that healthcare delivery is improved to meet the growing dynamic needs for the underprivileged service users.
The potential impacts of decentralization intervention are that it creates opportunities that improve the prevention strategies. The balance between the primary and tertiary preventive measures regarding saving. The strategy will also increase access to healthcare services by ensuring that the downstream expenses are balanced. In addition, the approach will help replace the costly unnecessary services with less expensive and quality ones.
References
Atun, R. (2007). Privatisation as decentralization strategy, Chapter 14, 247-266. In Saltman, R. B., Bankauskaite, V., & Vrangbaek, K. Decentralization in Healthcare. European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies Series. McGraw Hill, Open University Press. Maidenhead, Berkshire, England.
Black, N., & Gruen, R. (2005). Understanding Health Services. Open University Press, Berkshire, England
Clayton, M. (2009). The Management Models Pocketbook. Management Pocketbooks
Duguid, S. & Pawson, R. (1998). Education, change and transformation: The prison experience. Evaluation Review. 22(4), 470-95
Goodwin, N., Gruen, R., & Iles, V. (2006). Managing Health Services: Understanding Public Health. Open University Press, Berkshire, England
Kirk, S and Glendinning, C. (1998). Trends in community care and patient participation: implications for the roles of informal carers and community nurses in the United Kingdom. Journal of Advanced Nursing 28:370-81
Normand, C. (2011). The healthcare system in Ireland: Controlling growth in expenditure and making best use of resources. Chapter 3 (pp 57-74). In Callan, T. (editor). Budget Perspectives 2012. Economic & Social Research Institute (ESRI) Research Series 22, Dublin.
Pickard, S and Glendinning, C. (2002). Comparing and contrasting the role of family carers and nurses in the domestic health care of frail older people. Health and Social Care in the Community 10: 144-50
Saltman, R. B., Bankauskaite, V., and Vrangbaek, K. (2007). Decentralization in Healthcare. European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies Series. McGraw Hill: Open University Press.
World Health Organization (2000). The World Health Report 2000. Health Systems: Improving Performance, WHO, Geneva.
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This chapter shall present a review of the literature on the problems presented in this research. The theory builds a platform of understanding the implication of non-financial rewards within the framework of the total rewards structure. Specifically, the areas that shall be covered in this chapter are theories of motivation, financial rewards, non-financial rewards, and the work environment. This chapter shall begin with theoretical review followed by a conceptual framework, empirical review and research gap.
Theoretical Review
Following Anfara & Mertz (2006), a theoretical framework determines the problem that should be investigated, what specific question should be asking, and data that should be collected to address all questions. Therefore, in this study, it is empirical to include theories Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory, Maslow’s theory of needs, social exchange and expectancy theory.
Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory
Dr. Fredrick Herzberg, a psychologist, determined to understand the effects of attitude towards motivation, he had set a research by asking questions to selected people about their behavior towards their jobs. On the basis of research’s result, he had developed Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory, also known as Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory. This theory suggests that motivation is two-dimensional and each dimension has unique factors. Herzberg revealed that each factor is associated with job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction.
He suggested that when an intrinsic factor or motivator is present, it promotes motivation. In contrast, the latter, if none of the factors are present, hence, employees become frustrated, unsatisfied and reduces motivation, which he referred the act as hygiene. In the simpler note, motivators are identified as achievement, recognition, advancement, personal and professional growth.
Hygiene on the other hand, Herzberg classified the factors salary, benefits, interpersonal relationship with supervisors and colleagues, administrative policies and attitude, working conditions and environment, and security (IFPO, 2007; Stello, 2011; Thompson, 2013). In this research, it is conventional to use the theory as a basis for understanding the factors that considerably affects the employee’s behavior towards their tasks.
Incorporating Herzberg’s theory into this research, it suggests that intrinsic and extrinsic motivators can crucially influence the workforce. Moreover, Herzberg had pointed that the ability of the workforce to achieve the goals are mainly related to job satisfaction (Stello, 2011).
However, in the expansion of the theory, the initial hypothesis concludes that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction cannot be dependably measured in the same range. It profoundly explains in Herzberg’s main hypothesis, that factors that lead to positive attitude will differ to those factors that lead to negative attitudes. In the second hypothesis, it is mentioned that factors and effects will differ from long-range sequences of events to a short-range sequence (Stello, 2011; Thompson, 2013).
In this case, Herzberg found that a relatively high sequence from a small number of factors can promote positive behavior towards the job. Predominantly, most of the factors where intrinsic motivators and that it steamed longer than extrinsic. Extrinsic motivators showed low sequence events; it is rare when these factors are found in high-frequency events (Bassett‐Jones & Lloyd, 2005; Stello, 2011).
Satisfaction (positive)
Consequently, the given figure shows that salary as a part of the extrinsic factor may show similar frequency in both low and high sequence events. However, salary may be viewed as satisfier if related to a job appreciation and not a factor itself. Therefore, when salary is addressed individually, the context can lead to dissatisfier factor (Bassett‐Jones & Lloyd, 2005; Stello, 2011).
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
In-depth understanding what motivates people, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs will support the efficacy of human needs. In this theory, Maslow stated that to achieve certain needs; people are motivated. Thus, when a need is fulfilled, the person’s next step is to achieve another need and so on. It is why, self-actualization priced on the top of his theory (McLeod, 2007; Montana & Charnov, 2008).
The pyramid illustrates how Maslow ranked human needs. This suggests that Self-actualization is believed to impose the higher level of human need. Although Maslow does not intend to imply that human receives complete satisfaction, he believed that when an experiencing human achievement and personal growth, a new set of attitude will be designed to placate its new needs (Montana & Charnov, 2008).
If taking Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory of Motivation into consideration, the theory somehow parallels to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Understanding the higher level of Maslow’s theory, Herzberg refers them as motivators. Maslow’s esteem and self-actualization needs also correspond to Herzberg’s motivators idea. Therefore, to meet a specific set of needs, both theories has a profound goal to propitiate human behavior and maintain it.
Social Exchange Theory
Social exchange theory explains a social change and a process of negotiation exchange between parties. George Simmel, a German sociologist, pointed that the significance of “reciprocity” in human being’s everyday life and how human interacts involving forms of exchange (Baker, 2001). In Cropanzano & Mitchell (2005) research, both mentioned that Social Exchange is considered as one of the most influential conceptual patterns in understanding the behavior of a specific workplace.
Thus, an exchange rule must be followed to build a constant relationship and exchanges. In a simpler thought, the assumption of the theory implies that when parties enter and maintain their relationship, a trace of tangible and intangible rewards can be expected (Chew & Gottschalk, 2009).
If highlighted in a workplace environment, a recognition of employee from a positive contributing work attitude simplifies Simmel’s theory. It may include economic exchange relationship (Aryee, Budhwar, & Chen, 2002), wherein, an economic benefit shall be provided to the employee in exchange for his or her efforts towards achieving work-related goals. In response to the theory, research had been formed to validate its efficiency towards understanding human motivation towards work.
With the available literature resources, results show that a continuity of social exchange theory as a part of the work-based evidence, employ a positive employee commitment and involvement, empowerment and motivation (Aryee, Budhwar, & Chen, 2002; Gould-Williams & Davies, 2005).
As highlighted in Haar’s (2006) research, the perception of advantageous rewards or exchange from the workforce results to an increased engagement towards its organization. On the other hand, if the organization failed to provide rewards to the employees, would likely result in a reduction of organizational engagement. In this case, when there are favorable stances within working environment both employees and organization will equally benefit.
However, keeping in mind that employees tend to react in a dissatisfying working condition by negating rightful working attitude such as, being late, absenteeism and planning to quit organization; an antecedent-consequence relationship as mentioned by Crede et al. (2007).
Expectancy Theory
This theory recommends that every individual’s expectations be dependent on its motivation and the ability to perform the given task and receive the desired rewards (Daft, 2005). In simpler form, if a person understood the worth of a certain task, he or she will be motivated to reach the goal, given with skills and knowledge to achieve it (Koontz, O’Donnell, & Weihrich, 2008).
Victor H. Vroom, a psychologist, suggests that motivation is highly predisposed by a continuous interrelated sequence of people’s effort will lead to performance, performance to specific outcomes and these outcomes are to be valued by the individual (Wlodarczyk, 2011). Moreover, in Vroom’s definition of the theory (Mancheno-Smoak, 2008), he mentioned that motivation depends on three system; expectancy, instrumentality, and valence.
E -P expectancy this explains when putting effort into a job may result in a high performance or may lead to the desired outcome (Daft, 2005). In this case, when a person works hard, a better result can be expected, and when a person is unresponsive to a particular job or task will lead to a valence of zero (Koontz, O’Donnell, & Weihrich, 2008). P -O expectancy explains if a successful performance can lead to the desired outcome. As an example, when a person is motivated to achieve a job-related award it is believed that the room of expectancy towards high performance can lead to award (Daft, 2005).
On another context, when an individual places importance upon an expected outcome, based on needs, values and goals Vroom identified the strength as valence (Daft, 2005). In this case, if the availability of an outcome extracted from high efforts and good performance; however, are not valued by the employees, the result motivation will end up low. On the other hand, if employees will highly value the outcome, motivation will be higher.
The implications are crucial when influencing employee’s motivation. According to Sims (2002), managers should understand the importance of the theory. It is recognized that expectancy theory, provides powerful explanation towards employee’s motivation. Another example as cited by Koontz, O’Donnell, & Weihrich (2008), when a person is motivated to accomplish some tasks, can be determined by person’s wish to accomplish the task.
Conceptual Framework
This section attempts to determine the implication of non-financial rewards on driving organizational strategy at Communications Authority of Kenya. The non-financial rewards include motivation, financial rewards, non-financial rewards, and the work environment. This study shall determine the effects of the independent variable on the dependent variables.
References
Anfara, V. & Mertz, N. (2006). Theoretical frameworks in qualitative research (1st ed., pp. 23- 24).
Aryee, S., Budhwar, P., & Chen, Z. (2002). Trust as a mediator of the relationship between
organizational justice and work outcomes: test of a social exchange model. Journal Of Organizational Behavior, 23(3), 267-285. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.138
Baker, M. (2001). Families, labour and love (1st ed., p. 78). Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin.
Bassett‐Jones, N. & Lloyd, G. (2005). Does Herzberg’s motivation theory have staying power? Journal Of Management Development, 24(10), 929-943. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02621710510627064
Chew, E. & Gottschalk, P. (2009). Information technology strategy and management (1st ed.).
Hershey: Information Science Reference.
Crede, M., Chernyshenko, O., Stark, S., Dalal, R., & Bashshur, M. (2007). Job satisfaction as mediator: An assessment of job satisfaction’s position within the nomological network. Journal Of Occupational And Organizational Psychology, 80(3), 515-538. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317906×136180
Cropanzano, R. & Mitchell, M. (2005). Social Exchange Theory: An Interdisciplinary Review. Journal Of Management, 31(6), 874-900. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206305279602
Daft, R. (2005). Management (8th ed., p. 532). Fort Worth: Dryden Press.
Gould-Williams, J. & Davies, F. (2005). Using social exchange theory to predict the effects of hrm practice on employee outcomes. Public Management Review, 7(1), 1-24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1471903042000339392
Haar, J. (2006). Challenge and hindrance stressors in New Zealand: exploring social exchange theory outcomes. The International Journal Of Human Resource Management, 17(11), 1942-1950. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190601000147
Non-financial Rewards effect on Organizational strategy
IMPLICATIONS OF NON-FINANCIAL REWARDS ON DRIVING ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY AT THE COMMUNICATIONS AUTHORITY OF KENYA (CAK)
ABSTRACT
A major challenge in an organization is motivating its employees to become efficient with their tasks and how to encourage the workforce to become competitive in an inevitably uncertain and dynamic environment. Thus, to uphold a higher level of productivity, the organization must run an effective strategy to motivate its employees. For this reason, there are managers in several organizations who see a reward system as an imperative factor that can influence its employee’s behavior.
These involve intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is driven by a natural sense of accomplishment; such as professional growth and personal achievement. Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is a tangible reward; and unlike an intrinsic reward system, the extrinsic reward can be identified as materials that can motivate its employees, such as salary and bonuses.
The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of non-financial rewards on driving organizational strategy at the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA). Moreover, this study assumes that the use of non-financial rewards can retain employees in the organization.
1.1 Background of the Problem
The core objective of any business enterprise is to generate consistent and sustainable profits. All the internal functions must be aligned with this objective. Human resource management plays a critical role in harnessing skills and expertise needed to convert resources to finished goods and services.
The managers recruit and train the employees so that they meet individual and organizational goals for optimal performance. Doing so requires the application of strategies that keep the employees motivated to perform. Lack of motivation is detrimental to a firm since it leads to stagnation in performance and it’s the cause of high turnover rates.
As such, a Human Resource Management (HRM) department is mandated to ensure that a firm’s production capacity is optimal to ensure that performance is high by designing and implementing strategic human resource approaches. One of the main strategies that human resource managers can apply is a reward system (Irshad 2016).
Zani et al. (2011) asserted that most of the successful public enterprises achieve better results and an increase in employee engagement by associating rewards directly to job performance. The strategy is not only applicable to sales personnel but to all levels and functions of a business. However, success of the reward system is guaranteed if proper implementation is observed.
Instituting a reward-based organizational culture may seem to be a short-term vision, but most successful managers claim that it’s an impeccable instrument for attaining success. A reward system unlocks employee capability, retains and motivates performers, and consequently generates higher revenues (Zani et al. 2011). Other benefits associated with a reward system include clear alignment of employee’s career path, a focus on development and growth, an increase in employee engagement and strategic decision making, and low turnover.
According to a research done by Giga Information Group on the impact of reward system to job performance, the researchers found out that retention improves by 27% when a firm exercises a reward system culture (Richard, 2010).
Like all strategic initiatives, a reward-based performance system requires comprehensive planning and flexibility. It should also integrate with HRM, the goal of the firm, and performance measurement. Since there hasn’t been identified a customized approach, managers should tailor the reward system to the current HRM processes and uniqueness of the firm. The approach is not just about setting up a framework and workers acting upon it.
Emotional and psychological realities have to be set up by asking the right questions and linking them to the human side of the incentives. While some employees are motivated by financial rewards, others get motivated through non-financial rewards (Lawler 2011).
According to Mowday et. al. (2013), some important questions that HRM should ask before deciding to apply a reward system is: “Are the tasks that people are taking moving the organization forward? Are the managers engaged with the employees throughout the year to make sure they carry out, and, achieve their objectives? Are individuals delivering against what is expected? Who is and who isn’t?
Are you objectively ensuring that bonuses, salary increases, and promotions are given to those high-performing individuals that you can’t afford losing?” These questions are paramount as they enable the managers to design a program that fits the needs of the firm; either a financial or non-financial reward system. Moreover, the employees should have full trust with the management in fairly administering the scheme and possess the needed skills and abilities to improve performance.
A reward system is in the form of financial or non-financial incentives. Financial incentives lead to extrinsic motivation whereas non-financial incentives generate an intrinsic motivation. It is crucial for managers to understand the difference between the two reward systems to determine the one that suits an organization. A financial reward system is tangible and usually involves the practice of provision of bonuses, commissions, and other monetary incentives to appraise employees for a job well done. The rewards are also given when an employee attains a certain target (Karwowski, 2014).
Economic volatility has seen many firms try to find ways to supplement financial rewards by concentrating on the non-financial rewards. Richard (2010) defined nonfinancial rewards as those not consisting of an employee’s salary. Often, workers tend to feel unappreciated by their firms due to layoffs, stressful working conditions, and increasing demands leading to their disengagement.
Employees can perform optimally if they feel valued, appreciated, plus a sense of job security. As such, non-financial incentives are programs that address these needs. The common non-financial incentives are reward, recognition, provision of career advancement opportunities, job security, and flexibility. The perceived importance of non-financial rewards differs across employee levels and it’s up to the HRM to establish what is appealing to the different groups.
For example, a fast growing firm may focus on work environment but a slow growing firm can focus on career growth and development. Investing in employees by appreciating them in diverse creative ways is a critical strategic approach that managers can apply in instituting a non-financial reward system. It is for this reason that non-financial reward system formed the basis of the study by focusing on the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA).
Just like other large organizations, CA faces the challenge of maintaining the motivation and productivity of its employees as it tries to upgrade its performance. The organization has previously applied both the financial and non-financial rewards. It therefore drives the question of the implications that non-financial rewards have had in facilitating the implementation of the firm’s strategic goals.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The challenge of most organizations is establishment of an efficient rewards systems aimed driving the strategy of the firm. One of the affected firms is Communications Authority of Kenya (CA). According to Murray et al. (2014), it is imperative for managers to keep track of the needs of employees to match the expectations of the organization towards productivity.
Most employees tend to underpin the impact of non-tangible rewards and seek satisfaction in tangible or extrinsic rewards. Thus, firms should involve employees in creating nonfinancial incentives, and ensure they understand each employee level and expectations for better results. According to a study done by Zani et al. (2011), the results stipulated that non-financial rewards such as recognition, praise, and kudos from the employers or the organization had a greater impact on the employee’s behavior and motivation towards their jobs.
Moreover, according to Westover & Taylor (2010), intrinsic rewards provide a clear view towards job satisfaction. Within their study, they had a wave of respondents towards non-financial rewards related to job satisfaction. In that case, it was determined that non-financial rewards have a greater value than providing tangible rewards to the employees.
However, the context of wages and bonuses is an important factor for employees and can continue to function within the organization. In the case of a research by Griffin and Moorehed (2014), the author asserted that financial rewards initially had greater impact onspecific employees. However, as the programs continue over a long period of time, managers should combine financial and nonfinancial rewards since they equally affect the employees’ behavior which in turn reduces employee turnover.
To simplify the result, both equities are important when done in complimentary proportions. This study emphasized on the impacts of non-financial rewards in driving performance in an organization. This is in order to understand how to retain skilled employees and subsequently sustain a successful work-related culture and organization without the use of monetary incentives.
The Communications Authority in Kenya (CA) had recognized both rewards system; however, sustaininga motivated and skilled employee had been their utmost dilemma, attaining minimal improvement in employee production and rate. This study seeks to address the gap that will be filled in the firm, and other related entreprises, if non-financial rewards are to be implemented in driving the strategies of the organization.
Moreover, this study also gives room to address criticisms and oppositions that may arise if non-financial rewards are introduced in different departments within the Communication Authority of Kenya. Furthermore, this study seeks to determine the employees’ flexibility towards a different form of rewards rather than aiming for tangible rewards.
References
Armstrong, M., Brown, D., & Reilly, P. (2011). Increasing the effectiveness of reward management: an evidence‐based approach. Employee Relations, 33(2), 106-120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01425451111096668
Armstrong, M. & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong’s handbook of human resource managementpractice, 13th edition (1st ed.). London: Kogan Page.
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Project failure in the business world is a result of lack of proper implementation of the project management principles. Most businesses focus on the partial implementation of the concepts, or they are in a rush to complete the project an aspect that results in poor project performance. The paper will evaluate the failure of Target Corporation expansion plan concerning penetrating the Canadian retail industry.
Project management refers to the application of knowledge, skills, methods, and concepts to ensure the requirements of a project are fulfilled. White elephant projects often arise more common in social projects than in business one due to the high amount of investment that is channeled in the achievement of the project (Larson & Gray, 2013, p. 11).
Target Company launched an impressive expansion project to Canada that ended up in complete failure. The company has a successful track record in the USA retail industry. The company building on this successful track record decided to venture into the Canadian market. In Project management, the time frame is set before the initiation of the project in this case the retail store had set a time frame of 10 months for the project to be completed (Megitis & Schuster, 2015, p.13).
Target bought 220 leases of the Zeller stores in Canada in January 2013, that was a declining Canadian discount chain store located in Hudson Bay. The retail store required extensive remodeling to improve its outlook as most of the stores had been neglected by Zeller store.
The immense desire to open the stores within the hyped time frame made the American retail store to ignore most of the project management steps that had been stepped up. The time frame set up was unreasonable for them to be able to open over 120 stores in Canada and stock them entirely (Megitis & Schuster, 2015, p.13).
In project management, comprehending the scope of the project does increase the success as the project team members can comprehend the magnitude of their operation. The magnitude and scope of the Target project were under estimated which resulted in poor coordination of the entire project. Target Company has a renowned design in their stores that sets it apart from other stores in the USA.
The retails store was focussing on bringing this concept to the Canadian market, but the poor state and design of the retail stores increased the magnitude of work that had to be done (Austen, 2014).
In project management, the managers and their teams work hard to control the level of uncertainties. In the case of the Target launch into Canada, it seems the complete evaluation of the project was not conducted to pinpoint all the hurdles that they were likely to face. The paper will delve incorporate the project management techniques and concepts in the evaluation of the reasons why the project failed immensely. Forcing the company to count their losses and close all the retail stores in the Canada and move back to the USA to regroup.
Project management: Project Life Cycle
All projects fall into five groups, which are an initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, and finally closing. The initiation refers to the commencement of the project where the idea generated is evaluated to determine if it is viable and will benefit the goals and objectives of the organization. In this phase the decision-making team which in most cases is the top level management evaluate the feasibility of the project and the resources required to ensure the success of the project against the benefits (Kerzner, 2013, p. 15).
In the case of Target Company was successful in the USA market and they were looking for new opportunities concerning global expansion. The company preferred the expansion in the form of physical brick and mortar retail store to e-commerce. The selection of Canada as the suitable area to launch their expansion plan was based on the fact that the country is geographically close and the Target market was popular among most Canadians who had visited the USA (Dahlhoff, 2015).
This reduced the marketing and advertising cost that would be required to create customer awareness about the retail store. Another factor that was taken into account in the selection of the country was that they were facing minimal levels of recession when compared to the USA. This meant that the consumer had more disposable income compared to the USA consumers, hence increasing the chances of the retail store to make high levels of profits (Dahlhoff, 2015).
The second phase of project management is planning. The planning phase refers to creating a detailed outline that transforms the feasible idea into a plan. The plan does guide the execution of the project as it details the series of steps to be followed in the utilization of the resources. It does ensure that the project team members can manage cost, time, quality, change, and risk among other issues (Serrador, 2012, p.5).
In the case of Target Company, the retail store failed to come up with a comprehensive plan that would have increased the success of the company in their launch of the retail store. The first dent in their plan is that they bought Zellers stores that were widely known. It seemed like a good idea in the initiation phase as the retail store was built on a present store and they, therefore, did not need to start from scratch (Banjos & Trichur, 2014).
The defect in this plan was that the Zeller location was located in areas that were difficult to access and had limited storage spaces. The Canadian customers were expecting the launch of large retail stores in the country that were similar to those in the USA. The downpour on their expectations resulted in negative reviews from the customers an aspect that decreased their sales (Banjos & Trichur, 2014).
The third phase of project management is execution phase, which is the longest one in the project management lifecycle. The execution phase is when deliverables are created and completed. During this phase, the members involved in the project are informed of their roles. The project manager does monitor and controls the utilization of resources and expenditure as during this phase a lot of them are expanded (Burke, 2013, p. 23).
In building the deliverable, the activities are undertaken often vary with the type and scope of the project. The activities are often executed in either a waterfall or an iterative manner. In a waterfall, the sequencing aspect is introduced where the projects are run one of another until they are completed while iteratively the deliverables are made until the needs of the customers are met (Burke, 2013, p.23).
In Target Company the project was executed iteratively. The retail store had purchased 220 stores from Zeller, but due to the short time frame of 10 months when they were expected to open their stores they had to rush the remodelling and design. The project managers were forced to alter their waterfall sequence and bow down to the pressure to open the stores on time.
The number of stores to open was reduced to 122 to meet the organizations tight opening time. The aspect was the genesis of their downfall as the project managers were unable to recreate the stores to resemble the ones present in USA (Wahba, 2015).
According to Leach, (2014) the fourth phase of the project life cycle is focussed on monitor and control which focuses on ensuring that all the resources are utilized to achieve the goals of the organization. The resources that are monitored are time, cost, procurement, change among others (p.27). The Canada expansion project was poorly monitored hence the high losses that the company incurred.
The purchase of the Zeller store was a poor strategy. The company could have benefitted more from renting their stores that would have been easy to simulate to the retail stores that they have in the USA. Additionally, there were a lot of subprojects that were started within the main project that ended up overshadowing the main project.
The company’s marketing team had created a huge hype for the opening of the retail stores in the country. The hype placed a lot of pressure on the management and project team which resulted in them racing various components of the project to beat the unrealistic opening team set up by the management team (Wahba, 2015).
Time and cost management come into play within this phase. Time management is the process of managing the time spent in the completion of a project. The time sheet form or the Gantt chart is used to create a projective time scale that the project will run and provides guidance on ways to execute the project (Lewis, 2010).
As discussed in the paper the concept of time management contributed immensely to the failure of Target Company to launch their stores in Canada. On the cost management aspect, the company had underestimated some finances required to launch the project in totality (Sorensen, 2015).
Target market did not carry out an extensive study of the retail industry in Canada. There are many other retail stores in Canada that posed a huge challenge to the company like Wal-Mart. In most cases when a business enters a new market, they either have to start small and build their brand or merge with another corporation (Sorensen, 2015).
Change management refers to the process whereby alterations to the project scope are evaluated and approved for them to be implemented. The project encountered some changes when it stepped into the Canadian market, which they had not anticipated. In the case of Target Company, they were new to the Canadian retail industry and. They purchased Zeller who was one of the big discount stores in the company. The company was thrown into a big feat to not only set up their operations to meet the size of Zeller but to also meet the customer expectations of the Target retail store (Sorensen, 2015).
Procurement and Logistics management focuses on the consolidation of all the suppliers and distributors under one umbrella. It ensures a seamless flow of supplies from the distributor to the requester. This aspect is enshrouded in building supplier/distributor relationship that enforces the spirit of confidence among them (Chen, 2015, p.1398). The confidence makes the suppliers and distributors go out of their way to deliver the supplies where they are needed.
Moreover, in the retail industry, the inventory notion cannot be ignored it is pertinent to the success of the stores. The managers of the retail store need to ensure that their warehouse is located at the central point that will enable them to access their requests on time (Leach, 2014, p. 27).
In the case of Target Company when they opened their retail store the happy bubble quickly busted when their customers encountered empty shelves in their different stores. Additionally, they had limited product offerings in their retail stores especially the products that were mostly stocked by their retail stores in the USA like Cherry Coke soft drink. The store does operate on the principle that they are a one stop shop, but in the scenario of Canada this was not the case. It increased negative reviews from their customers resulting in a sharp declining in sales and a damaged reputation in the country (St. Louis, 2015).
The problem is attributed to the fact that their warehouse was located at a far point from the retail stores. The poor positioning of the warehouse delayed the arrival of the orders to their 122 retail stores in different parts of the country. Moreover, the company had not established any relationship with the suppliers in the nation. The lack of supplier relationship affected the speedy delivery of products into the stores; most of the suppliers operated on a cash basis as the retail store was new and had no credit track record in the nation. The aspect resulted in them being unable to stock their stores with the products needed within the predetermined time frame to satisfy their customers’ needs (St. Louis, 2015).
The last phase of the project cycle is closing. In the closing, the entire life cycle is evaluated to determine if the objectives that initiated the project have been met. In the case they have been fulfilled, we then conclude that the project is successful in the case they have not been met the project is termed as a failure (Kerzner, 2013, p. 17). In the case of Target Company as discussed in the paper the expansion project was a total failure and resulted in not only immense losses that amounted $ 7 billion but also damaged the reputation of the retail store (St. Louis, 2015).
According to Johnson, Scholes & Whittington (2008), stakeholders are the individuals that have an interest in the operations of the organization. The stakeholders might be actively engaged in the project concerning its completion. Additionally, the stakeholders have the power to influence the project either positively or negatively. In other words, they are the main drivers of projects as they ensure that the resources are required to carry out the project are readily available.
In the modern project management, stakeholder engagement has taken the central role. They are more actively involved in the running of the projects in different areas. The involvement of stakeholders in the organizations is a show of corporate responsibility. The stakeholders include investors, employees, customers, suppliers, distributors among others. All of them benefit directly or indirectly from the successful completion of a project (Tammer, 2009, p.4).
Based on the stakeholder discussion, when they are ignored in the implementation of a project the chance of failure is higher. This was the case in the Target Company global expansion project in Canada; the stakeholders were not actively involved, hence the huge amount of losses. The customers’ needs were not taken into consideration to determine the type of retail stores that they wanted (The Globe and Mall, 2017).
The company worked on the assumption that the name Target will be enough to sell their product and services to the new market. Additionally, the customers have different purchasing behaviors to that of their customers in Canada. Moreover, they failed to include the suppliers and the distributors in their Canadian expansion plan (Penny, 2015).
Communication
In project communication management the focus is often concentrated on a seamless information flow between all the parties involved in running the project. The first process starts with them establishing the channels of communication to ensure that all the members involved in the project can relay their concerns. The response structure involved in the communication process should be decentralized to enable faster decision making (Heagney, 2016, p. 36).
Communication plays a role in integrating all the aspects of the project and ensures that in the case a problem is detected in one sector of the project, there is a prompt response. The medium of communications and response to situations is identified. A streamlined communication in all instances leads to the success of the project as all the members involved are reading from the same script (Heagney, 2016, p. 36).
Taking this into consideration, the Target Company expansion project plan in Canada there was a limited communication that hampered its success. There was a communication breakdown between the suppliers, distributors and the retail store operates. This caused most of the store shelves to lack most of the commodities (Sorensen, 2015).
Additionally, the communication between the management in the USA and the people set up to handle the operations in Canada was clouded with a lot of lies. The reports that the USA Target team received showed that the stores were performing at a slow pace and everything was going according to plan. The time when the management came to investigate they found a deplorable situation in most of their stores. The aspect forced them to close their stores a clear sign that the project was a big failure for the retail store (Sorensen, 2015).
Risk Management
Project risk management refers to all the processes that are involved in the identification, analysis, and control of risk. It involves concentration on increasing the positive results of the project while reducing the negative effects. The process involved in risk management entails risk identification, risk quantification, risk response development and risk response control (Pritchard & PMP 2014).
The process of risk identification focuses on the determination of the risks that have a higher chance of affecting the project (Pritchard & PMP, 2014). Target Company focussed on the superficial risk aspects that were going to affect the launch of their retail store in Canada. They analyzed the competition in Canada and to outwit Wal-Mart retail store they believed purchasing a known company will give them some head start, but this was not the case as the project failed (Span, 2015).
A risk development plan refers to the steps that have been created to manage threats when they occur. It does focus on the avoidance, acceptance, and mitigation (Moran, 2015, p. 18). There is a high possibility that the company lacked a risk response development plan. The reason for stating this arises from the fact that when they started incurring difficulties in; filling their stores, expanding the spaces, and offering the products at affordable prices like their retail stores in the USA they decided to throw the towel (Shaw, 2015).
The last step in the risk management plan is the risk response control. The risk response entails the execution of ways to manage the risk process. When it comes to controlling risk the first step that the company should have taken is to reduce the number of stores (Schwalbe, 2015, p.23). The 122 stores were unmanageable and did play a major role in the failure of the project.
Conclusion
In conclusion, for a project to be successful all the concepts of project management have to be taken into consideration. As discussed in the essay the failure of the project was due to lack of a risk management plan, communication process, and non-involvement of the stakeholders. Target Company failed to carry out a detailed project control when they launched their operations in Canada.
REFERENCE LIST
Austen, I., 2014. Target push into Canada stumbles. The New York Times. Retrieved on May, 25, p.2015.
Banjo, S. and Trichur, R., 2014. How Target Missed the Mark in Canada. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on May, 25, p.2015.
Burke, R., 2013. Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.
Chen, H.L., 2015. Performance measurement and the prediction of capital project failure. International Journal of Project Management, 33(6), pp.1393-1404.
Megits, N. and Schuster, J., 2015. Target Canada: Lesson from Failure of International Entry. Journal of Eastern European and Central Asian Research (JEECAR), 2(2), p.13.
Moran, A., 2014. Project Risk Management. In Agile Risk Management (pp. 17-32). Springer International Publishing.
Penny, J. (2015). Target Canada – Why Do Projects Fail?. [online] Calleam.com. Available at: http://calleam.com/WTPF/?p=7467 [Accessed 12 Aug. 2017].
Pritchard, C.L. and PMP, P.R., 2014. Risk management: concepts and guidance. CRC Press.
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Serrador, P. (2012). The importance of the planning phase to project success. Paper Presented at PMI. Global Congress. Newton Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
Sorensen, C. (2015). Off-Target: How a U.S. retail giant misread the Canadian market. [online] Macleans.ca. Available at: http://www.macleans.ca/economy/economicanalysis/off-target-how-a-u-s-retail-giant-misread-the-canadian-market/ [Accessed 12 Aug. 2017].
Span, S. (2015). Why Target Canada Failed (Hint: It was culture and management). [online]. Available at: https://www.eremedia.com/tlnt/why-target-canada-failed-hint-it-was-culture-and-clueless-management/. [Accessed 12 Aug. 2017].
Tammer, M. D. (2009). Early stakeholder involvement in projects. PM World Today, 9(4).
Wahba, P. (2015). Dumpy locations, empty shelves, and poor pricing compared to Wal-Mart doomed Target’s efforts in Canada. [online] Fortune.com. Available at: http://fortune.com/2015/01/15/target-canada-fail/ [Accessed 12 Aug. 2017].
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The research evaluates the adoption of changing technological trends such as Artificial Intelligence and how this will affect competitive strategies. Technological innovations are the main drivers of economic growth. The process ensures proper creation of technologies that make marketing activities efficient.
The philosophy is supported by the increasing number of consumers using online platforms. Many people have joined social media websites that allow them to connect with friends (Baker, 2014, p. 70). It is an opportunity for marketers to identify mechanisms to advertise goods on such platforms. For example, companies like Wal-Mart or Uber have identified opportunities to help them apply new technology when creating a profitable, competitive advantage.
Significance of Competitive Strategies
The research will help the society understand that technology plays an important role in implementing competitive strategies. It will provide with different modern techniques of improving customer service. Besides, the results will apply to companies that focus on innovative ideas to capture the market demand. It provides with applicable ideas that improve the current methods of providing answers to customer needs, questions and complaints.
The research allows the firms to identify a technological mechanism to differentiate their products from other competitors (Christensen, 2013, p. 65). The goal is to increase customer loyalty and retain them in the business. When the current teenagers become adults, the technological mechanisms will be very prominent (Spero, and Stone 2004, p. 34).
Scope
Research on competitive strategies by Porter’s (1991) shows different market processes and performance results (Porter and Heppelmann, 2015, p 78). It confirms that competitive strategies are the main components that shape and places business in an attractive position in the market environment.
Objectives
To determine the new technological strategies that promote competitive strategies
To evaluate the impacts of dynamic technological trends in the market
The generic strategies are also emphasized in the article which includes cost leadership, differentiation, growth, alliance, and innovation. Besides, Xu and Quaddus (2013, p.27) indicate that information system is appropriate to implement the main competitive strategies.
According to Nijem (2016, p. 3), active collaboration allows the managers to involve all stakeholders in the implementation of competitive strategies.
References
Ahmad, A., Bosua, R., and Scheepers, R., 2014. Protecting organizational competitive advantage: A knowledge leakage perspective. Computers & Security, 42, pp.27-39.
Baker, M.J., 2014. Marketing strategy and management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Cakmak, P.I. and Tas, E., 2012. The use of information technology on gaining competitive advantage in Turkish contractor firms. World Applied Sciences Journal, 18(2), pp.274-285.
Christensen, C., 2013. The innovator’s dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail. Harvard Business Review Press.
Fleisher, C.S. and Bensoussan, B.E., 2015. Business and competitive analysis: effective application of new and classic methods. FT Press.
Goksoy, A., Vayvay, O., and Ergeneli, N., 2013. Gaining competitive advantage through innovation strategies: an application in warehouse management processes. American Journal of Business and Management, 2(4), pp.304-321.
Harmon, P., 2015. The scope and evolution of business process management. In Handbook on business process management 1 (pp. 37-80). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
López, G., Quesada, L., and Guerrero, L.A., 2017, July. Alexa vs. Siri vs. Cortana vs. Google Assistant: A Comparison of Speech-Based Natural User Interfaces. In International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (pp. 241-250). Springer, Cham.
Nijem, A.2016. Contemporary Trends in the Information Technology (IT) World and its Transformational Effect on Chief Information Officer (CIO) Roles: Analytical Study. J Inform Tech Softw Eng pp. 100-500
Peppers, D. and Rogers, M., 2016. Managing Customer Experience and Relationships: A Strategic Framework. John Wiley & Sons.
Porter, M.E., and Heppelmann, J.E., 2015. How smart, connected products are transforming companies. Harvard Business Review, 93(10), pp.96-114.
Spero, I. and Stone, M., 2004. Agents of change: how young consumers are changing the world of marketing. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 7(2), pp.153-159.
Ward, J. and Peppard, J., 2002. The evolving role of information systems and technology in organizations: A strategic perspective. Strategic Planning for Information Systems, pp.1-59.
Milgram Experiment reveals that the majority of people are willing to obey an authority figure by following instructions to perform acts that conflict with their coincidence. Besides , the Lord of Flies is a real example of obeying authority. This is because the Lord of Flies shows that boys are willing to follow any chain of command. The connections show that there are less evil people than good. However, society acts as the foundation of a person’s wrongdoing or evil.
Milgram Experiment assessed people’s reaction told to give a painful electric shock, while in the Lord of Flies by William Golding readers are introduced to actors of evil and good. The study shows that despite many individuals being useful in the world, only a few are great.
The purpose of this study is to show how William Golding in the Lord of Flies connects with Milgram Experiment themes to demonstrate how people are willing to obey orders from an authority figure. The paper provides a clear analysis of the link between the Lord of Flies and Milgram Experiment and the implications it has on the modern day leadership style and how people are willing to obey a chain of command from an authority figure.
Milgram’s Experimet Theoretical Framework
Milgram Experiment was carried out to show how people obey authorities under all circumstances, especially people who instructed them to perform acts that conflict the coincidence of purposes. The purpose of Milgram Experiment was to give students electric shocks by separating them from the subject and establishing a tape recorder, which was integrated with electronic shocks. Therefore, if the answers were inaccurate, the teacher would administer a shock to the learner by an increasing voltage for each wrong answer, while for the correct answer, the teacher would go to the next word pair.
Milgram Experiment was in a controlled setting such that the learner could not attempt to quit the experiment, which led to the establishment of status and authority (Batson and Daniel, 2016,10). Milgram Experiment showed factors that affect obedience. For instance, the status of location showed that prestige of location increase obedience, while less personal responsibility increases obedience. Besides, individuals tend to obey others if they acknowledge their authority as legally based or/and morally right.
Thus, the uniformity of the authority figure can provide people with status as well as peer support or presence of others disobeying the authority figure decreases the obedience level. Milgram Experiment showed that proximity to authority plays a significant role in obedience as people can easily resist orders from authority if they are not nearby (Haslam and Stephen, 2017, 63).
In Milgram Experiment, the teacher does not know that the shocks are not real, and the student behind the participation is in the experiment working with Milgram. Besides, the learner is getting words pairs incorrect on purpose, making the experiment fake despite showing the importance of obeying authority. Therefore, the actual experiment is on the teacher.
Despite the increased yelling by participants, they continue to finish the experiment. As much as many participants wished to stop, Milgram used four phrases to entice them to finish the exercise. The motivating phrases were, “please continue, the experiment requires you to continue, it is necessary for you to continue and you have no other choice, you must go on (Haslam, Nick, Loughnan, and Perry, 2014).”
The Lord of Flies by William Golding introduced characters of evil and good. The study shows that despite many individuals being useful in the world, only a few are great. This is because people control how their environment influences their actions and behaviors. During the feast, Jack sat like a leader and idol as he issued commands such as who was going to join his tribe. [ (pg #?). ] Through his command and leadership authority, most of the boys accepted because they wanted meat and protection from Jack.
Besides, despite Jack punishing Wilfred for no particular or apparent reason, Roger and the rest of the boys of the tribe felt nothing wrong about it. This is because none of the boys had the courage or confidence to stand up for Wilfred. Therefore, the Lord of Flies by William Golding showed that people have a fear of authority and quickly give up justice. Moreover, Jack and Roger tortured Eric and Sam, forcing them to submit to Jack’s command and join his tribe. This shows that authority forces the weak people to follow them using violent action and false use of authority.
The failure of Jack to admit that he took too much power and authority shows that influential leaders are not willing and lack the courage to admit mistakes such as enslaving others. The analysis of the Lord of Flies shows that civilized officers are part of an adult world in which violence and war are associated with social order and civilization. People are expected to obey authority as influential leaders do things to destroy the peaceful world, similar to what Jack did to the boys and vice versa.
Connections
The comparison of Milgram Experiment and the novel of the Lord of Flies show that the boys feared the beast referred as the electronic shocks, while they allowed Jack to gain power and authority through obedience to his command. The review shows that it is easier to control people and persuade them to be savagery by obeying the experiments. This is because the boys followed the authority or command to get protection or avoid the electric shock.
The connection between Milgram Experiment and the novel of the Lord of Flies is evident in that both boys follow the order to obtain protection or avoid electronic shocks. For instance, the boys are stranded and end up following the commands from Jack without comprehending the reasons for doing it. Besides, from both sets of experiments, it is evident that people follow orders without questioning the consequences or impacts on the other party.
William Golding in the Lord of Flies presents the obedience idea in Milgram Experiment through the connections of actors take as a leader, Jack, and Ralph, and the other actors who ideally obey the leader’s command or orders without questioning. This connection shows how people or kids are ready and willing to obey the authority figure that has leadership skills. Besides, both Lord of Flies and Milgram Experiment present the obedience idea through leaders and the ones who unthinkingly follow commands and believe that they should be led.
People who want to be led wait for commands and orders to follow and they believe they need to be directed by a leader as Jack demonstrated by allowing characters to follow him without question. This undeniably connects with Milgram Experiment on obedience. This is because according to the Milgram Experiment, persons are possibly to obey commands by authority figures. Therefore, the robust scenarios of obedience on the Lord of Flies are indicators of Milgram Experiment.
The novel on the Lord of Flies presents the obedience theme, which is accurately connected, to Milgram Experiment on obedience. This is because many instances demonstrate the obedience theme. For instance, Jack is the leader of a group of hunters in a jungle who target to kill a pig, and the group follows him to the jungle without questioning and obediently. The boys have drifted away with the words of command such as “kill the pig,” “cut her throat. Spill her blood”(Laurent et al., 2015, 300).
It is evident that the kids are carried away with the obedience feeling as hunters and Jack manipulate the boys’ fear of the beast, making them obey him even further for protection and safety. The boys not only see Jack as a powerful leader but also obey him without question. Besides, there are other particular moments during the hunting game where Jack uses is authority and command to instill fear in the boys as they obey him unquestioningly. These instances in the novel of the Lord of Flies present how far the obedience feeling can take people.
The kids lose their morality and rational thinking by following commands. Despite the increased use of command, which instills fear and obedience to the boys, the sense of obedience goes off-limits, which signals that things can easily go out of control. Jack who is their leader for the sake of security and food because the boys do everything tells this. Thus, the novel by William Golding in the Lord of Flies presents the idea obedience in Milgram Experiment as it shows that without no doubt individuals will obey commands from others if they perceive them as leaders or authorities (Branson and Buckroyd, 2017, 20).
William Golding presents the obedience idea in Milgram Experiment in the final chapter of the Lord of Flies. In the last chapter of the Lord of Flies, there are clear instances where the boys obey authority figure as well as carrying them to higher levels. It is evident when Jack acts as a leader and as an idol giving commands during the feast where the boys obey the orders without question. Jack commands the boys to join his tribe, and all except Ralph agree to the idea. However, the reason behind Ralph objection is because he is supposedly the chief.
The sense of obedience manifested in Milgram Experiment is present in this scenario as all hunters obey Jack and fail to either object or to question the idea of being a tribe. Despite Wilfred getting punished for no apparent reasons, Roger and the rest of the boys of the tribe do not feel it or question for a reason for the punishment. This shows that they lacked courage and confidence to stand up for Wilfred because their submission and loyalty to their authority blocks them.
Even though Ralph wants to call for an assembly to question Jack, the boys once again prove their obedience and loyalty to their authority figure. Instances of obedience in the novel of the Lord of Flies stem from the idea of obedience from Milgram Experiment. In both groups of boys, they accept the command or authority figure by carrying out the orders issued to them by the leader or teacher.
For instance, if the boys are told to eat, they eat, and if told to fetch something for the leader, they do so. Also, they sit down when told to do so and even if the leader says they should be punished, they accept it without question. This result significantly connects with obedience from Milgram Experiment (Gridley and Jenkins, 2017, 25).
Milgran experiment Critical and Relevance
William Golding successfully puts the obedience idea in the Lord of the Flies novel by installing Jack as the leader. Jack is obeyed, and his subjects follow his commands or orders without questioning. The connections of two scenarios show that philosophic and legal aspects of obedience are of enormous importance. The excessive willingness of people to go to any level in the order of authorities constitutes the main findings of research and the idea that most directly demands full justification.
The study shows that people with authority tend to control the outcome and actions of others. The experiments reveal that a more significant part of people are just willing to comply with authority figures who directs merely them to execute acts that may vary or conflict with their individual coincidence, while the Lord of Flies by William Golding is a real example of obedience to authorities because the people are willing to obey any chain of authority (Hollander, 2017, 430). \
We live in a world where people demand obedience from the authority for them to function well for a society. However, obedience can have significant impacts on a society because authority figures have little to justify actions. Thus, conformity is an impact that influences people to do things they may not have otherwise done. Evidence shows that both obedience and conformity lead to atrocious actions. Therefore, horrendous crimes against humanity have happened and yet people fail to question the actions of authority figures.
The experiment shows that discipline and obedience are learned through social conventions. Thus, individuals are able of substantial evil and great good according to the circumstances they are positioned in. in addition, acts of both resistance and obedience have the power to motivate and inspire people to obey commands of an authority figure.
Conclusion
From the connection between Milgram’s Experiment and Lord of Flies, several factors force people to carry obedience to the extreme, even without questioning the command. People justify their behavior be assigning responsibility to authorities rather than themselves, and they define their behavior which is expected of them as a routine. Besides, evidence from the experiment shows that people do not want to offend or be rude to authority and they obey orders. Therefore, it is essential for people to question orders and reasons behind their issue.
This will ensure that obedience is acknowledged and is not adhered out of fear. The results show how people follow orders and obey leaders without question. This is a disappointing aspect of leadership style as the leaders directly threatened people in order to guarantee the protection and security.
References
Batson, Charles Daniel. What’s wrong with morality?: A social-psychological perspective . Oxford University Press, 2016: 2-25
Bègue, Laurent, et al. “Personality Predicts Obedience in a Milgram Paradigm.” Journal of Personality 83.3 (2015): 299-306.
Branson, Jane, and Peter Buckroyd. Lord of the Flies, William Golding: Workbook. Oxford University Press, 2017: 10-30
Gridley, Mark, and William J. Jenkins. Obedience to Authority. Macat Library, 2017: 20-27
Haslam, Nick, Steve Loughnan, and Gina Perry. “Meta-Milgram: An empirical synthesis of the obedience experiments .” PloS one 9.4 (2014): e93927.
Haslam, S. Alexander, and Stephen D. Reicher. “50 Years of “Obedience to Authority”: From Blind Conformity to Engaged Followership.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 13 (2017): 59-78.
Hollander, Matthew M. “The repertoire of resistance: Non‐compliance with directives in Milgram’s ‘obedience’experiments.” British Journal of Social Psychology54.3 (2015): 425-444.
Barriers and Facilitators to Veterans’ Transition to Civilian Work Force in Lawton, Oklahoma
More than 200,000 Armed Forces veterans retire annually because of harsh battleground experiences in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq (Robertson, 2013). However, a majority of veterans find it considerably difficult to transition into society and live effectively with the rest of the civilian community. According to Baert and Balcaen (2013), 66% of veterans leaving the military report having a challenging time transitioning to the civilian work force. Furthermore, Worthen and Ahern (2014) establish that approximately two-thirds of armed forces veterans are faced with numerous challenges.
These challenges make some individuals give up on integrating successfully into the society moreso the civilian work force. Empirical literature demonstrating disconnects between military experience and the civilian labor market exists. This indicates that their transition is limited by various factors including veteran stereotyping that associates veterans with post-traumatic disorder, mental illness and addictions, inability to translate job experiences from the military to the civilian environment and civilian work force and limited knowledge of human resource professionals on hiring and retaining veterans (Iran and Afghanistan Veterans of America, 2011; Lampka & Kowalewski, 2017).
In addition, veterans’ skewed view of the civilian work force makes it difficult for them to effectively transition. According to Lampka and Kowalewski (2017), veterans often lack adequate preparation for a transition to new jobs, suffer from culture shock due to changes in the environment, are incapable of transferring their skills to the new job, and lack knowledge in the search for civilian jobs. This calls for the development of strategies that will ensure that veterans can effectively reintegrate into the civilian work force and contribute to nation building as civilians.
Transition to civilian work force
This study will explore how Army veterans can effectively transition into the civilian work force in Lawton, Oklahoma, and effectively live with the rest of the civilian community. This chapter will provide an introduction to the topic and hence set the pace for the research. Secondly, it will provide an overview of the literature concerning the transition of Army veterans into the civilian work force. It will also determine the scope of study by identifying the population of study, what will be studied and the expected outcomes of the research.
The ever-rising number of the population of service men and women leaving the military and rejoining the community results in an increase in the number of veterans in our society (Andrew, 2017). In 2015, the Veteran Administration reported that 21 million adults in the U.S population were veterans. This number translates to about 7% of the civilian population in the U.S that is non-institutional (Chalabi, 2015).
Additionally, Chalabi also asserts that more veterans have been employed since 2014 shown by the reduced number of unemployed veterans. Most civilians do not understand the magnitude of the challenge that civilians face in the transition back into civilian life. A transition is an event that results in a change which affects a person’s routines, habits, and relationships (Anderson & Goodman, 2014). One of the most famous transitions in the America society is the transition of military veterans to civilian life (Anderson & Goodman, 2014). Transition, just like all forms of change, causes anxiety or stress to the veterans (Anderson & Goodman, 2014).
Anderson & Goodman (2014) noted that the biggest source of frustration for veterans during their transition is the adaptation from the structured military atmosphere to the less structured civilian atmosphere. This is because the change calls for a change in attitude and mentality which create a wide range of emotional demands for the veteran. It is evident that to join the civilian workforce after a military career can be both stressful and exciting time.
The operations and the culture of the civilian work force may significantly differ from military career experiences. Therefore, it is essential for the retired military personnel to be patient as they adjust in new civilian positions, co-workers and work environment. The everyday workplace stressors include the feeling of disconnected. Retired military personnel may occasionally feel disconnected when working with people who never had military experience
References
Anderson, M., Goodman, J., (2014). From military to civilian life: Applications of Schlossberg model for veterans in transitions. Career planning and adult development journal
Chalabi, M. (2015). What percentage of Americans have served in the military. FiveThirtyEight. com.
Contreras, C. G. (2011). What is occupational therapy’s role in the transition of returning veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Master’s and Doctoral Projects, Paper 155. Retrieved from http://utdr.utoledo.edu/graduate-projects/155[Accessed on March 22, 2016].
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VOLUNTEERS IN NFP AND NGOS
The Victorian equal employment opportunity law stipulates volunteers’ rights. The law states that, volunteers in not for profit and non-governmental organizations should have equal protection against harassment and damages as the other paid employees. Volunteers are important recourses for NGOs and NFP organizations. Most of these charitable organizations are run and managed by volunteers (Taylor, 2011).
They offer their services free of charge to the organizations that deliver charitable programs to disadvantaged countries and communities. They have no interest in financial compensation. Most of them derive personal satisfaction from offering their services free of charge to charitable organizations. The importance of volunteers is attached to their contribution towards achieving an organization’s mission and objectives. According to Ralph (2006), qualified volunteers should be retained through motivation. They can be encouraged by training incentives and rewards.
CHARACTERISTICS OF VOLUNTEERS IN NFP AND NGOS
Volunteers are very important resources for NFP and NGO’s. They are expected to deliver their services like the other employees. They are not entitled to any payment by the organization. There services are considered to be of good faith and charitable (Farmer & Fredor 1999). The fact that they are not entitled to monetary compensation, does not oblige inefficiency and lack of commitment. They work voluntarily, they cannot be forced to work, they can stop their services any time and the organization can dismiss them any time.
Volunteers should be willing to learn and train in order to acquire the necessary skills and qualification required in the organization. Choudhory (2010) found out that, most of them have different professional backgrounds that may not correspond to the nature of the organizations work. They should be flexible to acquire appropriate skills and experiences that are necessary through training.
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Taylor (2001) states that, volunteers do not have tenure of employment and when unproductive they are dismissed by the organization. The organizations objectives should be achieved through volunteers who should be willing and are committed to provide their services to the respective organization. They should be flexible in delivering their duties, some organizations work in risky and hardship areas, these calls for volunteer resilience and endurance.
Volunteers should be productive, efficient and motivated in carrying out their duties. Transparency and accountability is an important aspect in volunteering, they should be able deliver their services in a diligent and honest manner (Boraas, 2003).
Agreements between the volunteers and the organizations are not legally binding. The organization is not obligated to act in accordance to the volunteers’ specifications and the volunteers have no legal obligations with the organization. However, some organizations provide insurance cover for the volunteers, such covers shield against work related injuries and liabilities. In an occurrence of losses or damages, such organizations are liable to cover for the respective damages.
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According to Vitner & Yodfat (2008), organizations may award volunteers minimal payments as incentives but the organization is free from obligations. They can be entitled for allowances, rewards and should be reimbursed for their out of pocket expenses. They can also receive non monetary benefits like free air tickets and free access to services provided by the organization. Volunteers are entitled to work in good working conditions and in safe environments like the other paid employees. The equal opportunity Act protects their rights.
These charitable organizations have their responsibilities to fulfill. Qualified volunteers with proper skills, experiences and interests should be recruited so as to reduce turnover rates. The organization should provide proper training and orientation to volunteers. Proper induction facilitation should be enhanced so as to enable volunteers to work towards achieving organizational objectives.
RECRUITMENT OF VOLUNTEERS IN NFP AND NGOS
Non for Profit and Non governmental Organizations have significant intentions of attracting and recruiting qualified volunteers. In order to establish long- term productivity and relationship between the volunteers and the organization, volunteers should have appropriate skills, interests and qualities that correspond with the objectives and mission of the organization.
Attracting and recruiting volunteers with these characteristics, ensures good performance, such volunteers have high chances of being retained. Once qualified volunteers have been recruited, it is important to specify and delegate duties, responsibilities, expectations and tasks between the organization and the volunteers.
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Recruitment of volunteers depend on the organizations specifications regarding skills and competences. Background checks are also considered during recruitment. Background checks vary in accordance with the nature of the work the volunteer will be entitled. Volunteers working with children, elderly and disabled individuals should have distinct background check. The nature of the organization should correspond with the background checks.
It was established by Bruney (1999) that during recruitment, a written agreement is not necessary. However an agreement stipulating the roles and responsibilities is initiated between the organization and the volunteers. These will help to resolve any disputes concerning obligations between the volunteer and the organization. An organization should not take anyone as a volunteer if it believes he is incompetent and cannot perform the required tasks.
A volunteer may take action against the organization if he is discriminated in respect to personal characteristics. The Victorian Equal opportunity and Human rights commission stipulate laws that protect the volunteers against discrimination.
TRAINING VOLUNTEERS IN NFP AND NGOS
Training of volunteers is very important in ensuring efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery. Most volunteers do not have a background of professionalism in their assigned line of duties. Training is necessary towards achieving important organizational objectives. The aims of training volunteers include; maintaining long term motivation and orientation of duties and responsibilities to the volunteers. Volunteers are equipped with tools, experiences and exposure in their line of duty, further more leadership lessons and skills are facilitated through training (Courtney 2001).
Training volunteers is an aspect of supporting, attracting, rewarding and retaining volunteers. It enhances improvement in performance and quality in service delivery. Volunteers from different backgrounds with diverse needs and duties are catered for through training and proper orientation. Companies that train their volunteers attract potential volunteers; this is because motivation is provided through training and careers development. An organization that trains its volunteers is committed to supports its volunteer’s welfare and needs for career development.
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According to Johnson (2007), volunteer training involves either formal or informal training. The training is administered through out the volunteers’ lifecycle. Informal training involves induction programs while formal training involves college training for a specific period of time. Organizations train their volunteers according to their specific needs. Important aspects to be included in training include, determining the training needs, establishing the training objectives, designing, implementing and evaluating the training program.
DESIGNING A TRAINING PROGRAMFOR VOLUNTEERS IN NFP AND NGOS
A training program should be designed according to the organizations’ needs. Important aspects to be considered when designing training program include, determining the type of training to be administered, identifying the facilitators, determining the content of the program, sourcing for the appropriate materials and determining the setting through which the training will be facilitated. Settings for training may include, on job training, classroom or in the field training (Zullo, 2011).
Individual volunteer needs should be considered when designing training programs. Suitable training should be administered to different groups of people. Younger and older volunteers should be trained differently according to their needs and duties. Volunteer’s diverse cultural settings should also be considered (Nagbhushanam & Sridhar, 2010).
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Implementation of the training is the most important stage of volunteer training. The training contents should be appropriate and to be delivered effectively. Facilitation and coordination of the training is very important because it determines the outcome of the program. The success or failure of the program will be determined by carrying out an evaluation on the effectiveness of the program.
Evaluation questionnaires are usually used to collect feedback from the program participants. Criticisms, suggestions and proposals are obtained from the evaluation. According to Thomas (2007), criticisms from the participants can be used for continuous improvement in future trainings. A strategy can be formulated from the strengths and weaknesses established from the program.
It was observed by Allhyari (2000) that, evaluation should be carried out to determine if the volunteer target competency was achieved. It is very important in determining the effectiveness and reliability of the program. Volunteer training should be an on-going process. Volunteer’s skills and competencies should be frequently updated to suit the rising needs of the organization. Through training volunteers will be able to achieve career development and leadership skills.
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MOTIVATION AND RETENTION OF VOLUNTEERS IN NFP AND NGOS
Not for Profit and Non-governmental organizations should develop strategies that will enable them retain and motivate their volunteers. The success of such organizations highly depends on the workforce which majorly constitutes the volunteers. Many NFP and NGO’s have experienced a significant percentage in losing volunteers. This emerging trend has necessitated the need for motivation, so as to retain volunteers. Elshaug & Metzer (2001) established that, most volunteers serve briefly in their respective organizations.
Such organizations fail to provide sufficient motivation to retain the volunteers. Recent studies show that older volunteers most likely serve longer than younger volunteers. The younger volunteers have 20% lower retention rates than adult volunteers. The retention rate in adults is high up to 69.9%.
Various organizations employ different motivation strategies. It has been established that proper recruitment and motivation strategies leads to successful strategies for retention. Retention is affected by barriers and factors which discourage or encourage volunteers. Major barriers that discourage volunteers include risky and costly nature of their work, lack of appropriate skills and experience, insufficient time, poor working conditions, poor reward systems and lack of personal and career development (Odenheirmer, 2011).
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Volunteer retention can be achieved through various strategies. Frequent training is a strategy that motivates volunteers. Their personal and career development needs are enhanced through training. Another strategy to ensure volunteer retention relates to attraction and recruitment strategies, the recruitment process directly relates to retention. Recruiting interested and qualified volunteers improves the retention rates. Other important factors that contribute to volunteer retention include proper skills experience and qualifications, improved reward system, flexibility, recognition, leadership roles and career development.
Low volunteer retention is a vital problem that such organizations face. High rates of volunteer turnover affect the capabilities of these organizations in service delivery. In order for these organizations to achieve their missions and goals volunteer retention must be achieved. Proper working relationships should be enhanced between the volunteers and the organization (Ralph, 2006).
VOLUNTEERS IN NFP AND NGOS: VOLUNTEERING AND ITS BENEFITS
Vitner & Yodfat (2008) argued that, despite the current trend of low volunteer retention rates, enormous benefits can be derived from volunteering. Individuals are able to acquire more skills and career development through volunteering. One of the greatest benefits of volunteering is the impact it creates on the community. Charitable services and activities offered by NFP and NGO’s are aimed at improving the status of the community. Most of these organizations’ activities address social and development needs in the community. The disadvantaged countries and poor nations are the major targets of these organizations.
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Volunteers are able to expand their social skills, make friends and create networks through wide interactions with the communities. Some individuals derive personal fulfillment and satisfaction through community service. These individuals attach themselves to the society and are determined to impact positively on the society. Such individuals desire to give back and may commit their own resources to improve the community. Recognition and appreciation in the community provides personal satisfaction (Zullo, 2011).
Career development is enhanced through volunteering. Individuals are able to acquire important work place skills such as problem solving skills, teamwork, project management and task management through voluntary exposures. Individuals with these qualities have high employability rates and a competitive advantage in career development. Professional experience is acquired through volunteering. Such experiences are useful in acquiring long-term professional career. Furthermore, volunteering may lead to a well paying job in similar organizations.
VOLUNTEERS IN NFP AND NGOS: BARRIERS TO VOLUNTEERING
Recent studies show that voluntary services have declined drastically. The perception that volunteering is charitable and has no monetary benefits has prevented individuals from volunteering their services in charitable organizations. The most significant barrier against volunteering is lack of time. Individuals who could be willing to volunteer are committed in their families or in other activities (Boraas, 2003). The notion that volunteering requires a long-term commitment is another challenge. However, most individuals dismiss voluntary work because it has no monetary benefits.
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Economic conditions and needs have severely affected voluntary work. Voluntary work has no monetary benefits yet economic conditions are worsening. There is high demand for money, which dictates the preference for individuals to work in paying institutions. The impact of economic changes has forced employees to multi-task with various employers. Such employees hardly find time to volunteer in charitable organizations.
Voluntary work is associated with lots of risks and costs. Some organizations work in hardship and risky areas. Volunteers are exposed to risks of injury, death, financial loss or legal action. These risks discourage potential volunteers from joining charitable organizations. Thomas (2007) observed that, technological advancement has impacted on voluntary work. Potential young volunteers spend most of their time operating gadgets. They prefer to try out new things and very entrepreneurial. The young generation lack commitment in voluntary work because it is very involving and have no substantial benefits.
Odenheirmer (2011) suggest that, charitable organizations should implement strategies to reduce the barriers to volunteering. Organizations should reimburse volunteers out of pocket expenses and should be able to provide incentives such as transport allowances among other incentives. Allocating roles according to individual’s preferences and interests is another strategy.
Adequate training and support should be provided to volunteers as well as their needs should be considered. In the case of organizations administering charity in risky areas, insurance covers should be secured for volunteers. The covers will shield against any losses and damages that may arise due to the nature of the work.
Charitable organizations should initiate programs that will facilitate successful volunteers to be absorbed in to long-term career opportunities. This strategy is very effective in attracting and retaining volunteers. They will be able to gain professional experience in their line of careers giving them competitive advantage as compared to the other potential recruits.
This strategy addresses their long- term objective of professionalism and career development. Organizations that implement these strategies are advantaged in volunteer retention. When volunteers are motivated and satisfied, the retention rates will be high (Courtney, 2001).
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In conclusion, volunteers are very important resources in the community. They constitute the major work force in charitable organizations. The fact that they are not entitled to any monetary benefits does not authorize any neglect, mishandling, harassment and frustrations on the volunteers. Organizations should adopt appropriate attraction and recruitment strategies in order to draw many volunteers. Proper motivation and retention strategies should be employed to reduce volunteer turnover rates.
REFERENCES
Allahyari, R. A. (2000). Visions of charity: Volunteer workers and moral community. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Boraas, S. (2003). Volunteerism in the United States. Monthly Labor Review, 126(8), 3-21
Brudney, J. L. (1999). The effective use of volunteers: Best practices for the public sector. Law and Contemporary Problems, 62(4), 219.
Choudhury, E. (2010). Attracting and managing volunteers in local government. The Journal of Management Development, 29(6), 592-603. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02621711011046558
Courtney, R. (2001). Strategic management for voluntary nonprofit organizations. New York: Routledge.
Elshaug, C., & Metzer, J. (2001). Personality attributes of volunteers and paid workers engaged in similar occupational tasks. The Journal of Social Psychology, 141(6), 752-63. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/199837239?accountid=45049;
Farmer, S.M., & Fedor, D.B. (1999). Volunteer participation and withdrawal. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 9(4), 349-368.
Johnson, J. A. (2007). Getting and staying involved: What motivates volunteers in a non-profit organization? Capella University). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 111-n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/304720694?accountid=45049;
Nagabhushanam, M., & Sridhar, M. (2010). Voluntary Organizations – Growth, Trends and Challenges. Vilakshan: The XIMB Journal of Management, 7(2), 143-166.
Odenheimer, M. (2011). Integrating Volunteers In- to Long-Term Sustainable Development. Journal Of Jewish Communal Service, 87(1/2), 81-87.
Ralph, C. (2006) “Recognising current competencies of volunteers in emergency service organisations”, Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 18 Iss: 7/8, pp.451 – 463
Thomas, C., Newell, J. N., Baral, S. C., & Byanjankar, L. (2007). The contribution of volunteers to a successful community-orientated tuberculosis treatment centre in an urban setting in nepal. Journal of Health Organization and Management, 21(6), 554-72. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14777260710834346
Vitner, G., Shalom, V., & Yodfat, A. (2008). Training volunteers for the elderly in israel. Industrial and Commercial Training, 40(4), 216-225. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00197850810876271
Zullo, R. (2011). Labor unions and charity. Industrial & Labor Relations Review, 64(4), 699-711.
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