BMAL 504-B07
Organizational Description
Teen Challenge New England and New Jersey, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit organization. They provide youth, adults, and families with an effective and comprehensive Christian faith-based solution to drug, alcohol, and other life-controlling problems in order to become productive members of society. Their program is long-term and residential. They are privately supported and depend on the faithfulness of individuals, churches, businesses, and foundations. Their corporate headquarters are located in Brockton, Massachusetts and they have eight campuses located throughout New England and New Jersey. According to a recent audit, over 80% of all revenue is used directly in programs helping needy people. They have a Board of Directors that provides accountability and financial oversight. Currently, they are able to serve more than 400 men and women at their various campuses. They currently have 71 employees.
According to Charity Navigator, a website that rates non-profits in overall performance, financial accountability, and transparency, Team Challenge New England and New Jersey, Inc. received 74.52 out of 100 on overall performance. As of FYE 2013, Charity Navigator also rates its financial ability at 81.64 and transparency at 69.00. In 2013 they received over $7.5M in revenue out of which, 11.2% went to administrative cost and 7.4% towards fund rising activities.
Change Process
In 2013, the Teen Challenge New England and New Jersey, Inc. Board of Directors hired a new president, Rev. Pasco Manzo. He has been able to provide the organization with a new strategic direction. Every process and every facet of the organization was reviewed for its effectiveness and efficiency from the finances to the curriculum used by the students. A new focus based on servant leadership that put the needs of the students first was implemented. Campuses that were not being effective in their mission were closed and sold so that the finances could be used elsewhere. One campus utilized car washes as a means to generate revenue however they were not very effective and did not align with the new direction, so they were sold. Dorms at the Brockton, Massachusetts campus are under much needed construction to renovate and also provide an additional 46 beds for new students. Financial and overall results of the new management changes have not yet been published.
It is a noble cause that the Teen Challenge New England follows. The organization is committed to helping the destitute people in the community and the young people who have a drug problem. The program offers a long-term solution that is based on Christian principles to the youth, adults, and families who are faced with drug, alcohol, and other life-controlling problems in order to enable them become productive members of society. As highlighted above, the Teen Challenge New England is funded through the contributions of well wishers. Although an audit revealed that over 80 of the revenue in the organization is direct towards programs that help the needy people, there is a concern that the rating of the performance of the organization in terms of financial accountability performance and transparency by the Charity Navigator showed that there is a lot of room for improvements.
More precisely, the financial ability of the organization was rated at 81.64, performance at 74.52 and transparency at 69.00. With the desire of the organization to attain a wider coverage, there is need to improve these parameters. For instance, it is recommended to increase the financial ability of the organization from the 81.64. This is because the attempts to attain a wider coverage will require more financial undertakings. This means that in addition to the contributions from the well wishers, businesses, Faith Based Organization and other partners, the Teen Challenge New England also needs to find other new and sustainable ways through which the organization can raise some more revenue to complement the contributions made by the partners. For instance, the organization received 7.5 million dollars in 2013 to fund its activities. Even though it is admirable that a large percentage of this money went directly to programs that serve the mission of the organization, there is more that can be done in order to improve the revenue at the organization. The change process initiated by the organization saw the closure of campuses that were not aligned with the new direction of the organization and those that were not effective in achieving their mission.
While this is effective in the financial perspective in that the sale such campuses releases funds that can be re-purposed into other areas of need within the organization, it is worth considering the value in reshaping these campuses and aligning them to the mission and new direction of Teen Challenge New England (Domanski, 2009). This is certainly plausible given that the new president did not record any resistance to change from the board members and the directors of these campuses. Reshaping the campuses towards the new mission of the organization is based on the concept of value management as argued by Domanski (2009). Additionally, rather than selling campuses which were not efficient in achieving their mission or implementing the revenue-generating activities with efficiency, such campuses and income generating activities could be remolded into embracing the values of efficiency as is part of the new organizational direction.
For instance, rather than sell the campus which used the car wash business as a revenue generating activity, the campus could have been reformed in order to run the income generating activity with increased efficiency. Even though the sale generated the revenue required to renovate other campuses, the sale also took away the income generating activity that could have complemented the contributions to the well wishers. Reforming the campus would have retained the value as well as the income generating activity. The concept of reform can be picked from the sentiments of the new president in the interview where he says that some of the campuses had the capacity to generate even more income. For instance, the new president in carrying out his investigations found out that some of the centers had the capacity to perform two large scale fundraising events annually although they were only doing one fundraising event. In this instance, it is wiser to reform the organizational management in this center to embrace effectiveness and opportunity utilization rather than sell it.
In order to ensure that these changes are sustainably implemented, it is vital to underscore the importance of a shared vision in the organization (Martin et al., 2014). A shared vision is important for the sustainable implementation of the recommended changes towards organizational efficiency. This is arguably a resource for the organization as explained by the new president in the interview. The president argued that there was no resistance to change in the organization due to the fact that he was able to earn the trust of the board members and the fact that the new changes in the direction of the organization were agreed upon by all the members of the board. Another element of sustainability in the organization is the action by various campuses to start or acquire income generation activities. For instance, the Vermont men’s campus recently purchased a mechanics garage that they will be able to use to raise funds for the program.
Diagnosis of Current Situation
The current situation in this organization is that there as an abject lack of efficiency. The inefficiency in the organization costs the organization in more than one ways. Firstly, as a non-profit organization which is aimed at helping both the young and old and families who are faced with drug, alcohol, and other life-controlling problems in order to enable them become productive members, it is vital that the resources are used in both a transparent and efficient manner. The inefficiency in the organization has resulted in the poor utilization of resources. For instance, some campuses had been accumulating debts from mortgages of buildings that were no longer aligned to the mission of the organization. Other campuses had almost abandoned the spiritual elements in their programs.
Some centers were only conducting one chapel service a week and it was increased to at least three services a week. Some students were working too many hours and were unable to really focus on the spiritual aspect of the program, so their hours were cut back. This is regrettable, especially because a spiritual foundation is important in residential programs designed to assist people with drug and substance abuse programs. The spiritual elements in these organizations help impart good principles while giving them the grounding to rehabilitate positively (Chu, Sung & Hsiao, 2012). There is a lack of innovativeness and creativity in many of the campuses as seen in the reliance on the funding to run the operations programs. Barrett, Balloun & Weinstein (2005) argue that creativity is very important in any non-profit organization. Creativity has a direct influence on the performance of the non-profit organizations. Some of the campuses had income generating activities, but they remained underexploited. It is important that this is reformed in to order to complement the donations from the well wishers and also further advance the mission of the organization.
Recommendations
The change in the strategic direction of the organization is a welcome move. While the organization was functioning in the yester years, the overhaul of the organizations management had been long overdue. An obvious recommendation is to improve the efficiency of the organization. As highlighted earlier, it is vital for the figure reported in performance, transparency and financial ability of the organization to improve. While improving the efficiency of the organization is a broad recommendation, simpler steps are required in order to achieve this. In this regard, it is recommended for the organization to reform its organizational culture. The current organization culture has resulted in lax standards in the organization as a result of which the buildings have been left in a state of disrepair in some campuses. An organization culture that embraces responsibility in leadership is required.
Such a culture will elevate managerial and leadership effectiveness in the various campuses. Effectiveness in management is required in order to guide the organization towards the achievement of the mission (Hamlin, Sawyer & Sage, 2011). Other recommendations include the uptake of income generation activities by the various campuses in order to boost the income that comes from donations and contributions from well wishers. It is also vital that these income generating activities are managed in a transparent and efficient manner.
Implementation Plan
In implementing the changes required to steer this organization in a different strategic direction, the first step is changing the organizational culture. In order to achieve this without acrimony and also to ensure that the changes are sustainable, it is vital to include the entire corporate community (Liu, Eng & Ko, 2013). This requires the input from all the directors in the campuses and the members of the board. Unless there is a plan to be proposed to the corporate community, the new president should enquire from the corporate community about the best way to alter the organizational culture and to align to the new direction. Such inquiries are important because in addition to gaining diverse perspectives on the topic, they also evoke feelings of ownership among the corporate community (Hancock & Epston, 2013).
The second step involves the presentation of the recommendations to the directors of all the campuses. These recommendations feature a list of actions that they are required to take and also institute in the campuses in order to bring them close to the new strategic direction. It is in this meeting where the directors will register the commitment to change by signing performance evaluation contracts based on the new recommendations. The performance contracts outline new criteria upon which the performance of the campuses will be evaluated internally in order to measure efficiency among other parameters. The use of contracts is a move to ensure that the directors take responsibility for the leadership of their campuses in a manner that complies with the strategic direction (Malik, 2014), and also with the mission of the organization.
Summary
The Teen Challenge New England is an organization that is based on sound principles. Helping the community rid itself of the drug and substance problem and other life-controlling problem will go a long way in converting the youth and old people who are affected by productive members of the society. The use of Christian foundations in the residence programs serves to equip the targeted population with the requisite life skills and tools to enable them function productively when they return to the society. This underscores the social importance of this organization. It also highlights the reason for which such an organization cannot be run down by the management problem of inefficiency.
This calls for organizational change in both culture and strategy. It is vital that the new president oversaw the birth of this change in strategy and direction in order to make the Teen Challenge New England a functional organization that is sensitive to the prevailing dynamics of the contemporary society. The calls for change in the organization culture also coincide with the changes in the leadership style that have been implemented by the incoming president. The servant leadership principle adopted aligns very well with the recommendations made by this paper and his taskforce. It is through such changes that the organization will remain, not only relevant, but also steadfast in the path to helping the young and the old who have drug and substance abuse problems become productive members of the society.
References
Barrett, H., Balloun, J. L., & Weinstein, A. (2005). The impact of creativity on performance in non-profits. Int. J. Nonprofit Volunt. Sect. Mark., 10: 213–223. doi: 10.1002/nvsm.25
Chu, D. C., Sung. H., & Hsiao, G. Y. (2012). Religious Conversion and Treatment Outcome: An Examination of Clients in a Faith-Based Residential Substance Treatment Program. Journal of Drug Issues, 42(2), 197-209. doi: 10.1177/0022042612446584
Domanski, J. (2009). Value management in non-profit organizations - the first step. Foundations of Management, 1(1), 83. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/v10238-012-0006-y
Hamlin, R. G., Sawyer, J., & Sage, L. (2011). Perceived managerial and leadership effectiveness in a non-profit organization: an exploratory and cross-sector comparative study. Human Resource Development International, 14(2), 217-234. doi:10.1080/13678868.2011.558318
Hancock, F. & Epston, D. (2013). A Narrative Enquiry Approach to Strategic Planning in Community Organizations: A Ritual of Legacy in Transition. International Journal of Narrative Therapy & Community Work, 1(2), 46-57. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=a235b082-2c65-4ce7-8038-55ce064a363d%40sessionmgr4002&vid=22&hid=4112
Kong, E. (2008). The development of strategic management in the non-profit context: Intellectual capital in social service non-profit organizations. International Journal of Management Reviews, 10: 281–299. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2370.2007.00224.x
Liu, G., Eng, T., & Ko, W. (2013). Strategic Direction of Corporate Community Involvement. Journal of Business Ethics, 115(3), 469-487. doi: 10.1007/s10551-012-1418-z
Malik, S. (2014). Strategic Change and Organizational Reforms: Case of a Pakistani University. Journal of Research and Reflections in Education, 8(1), 34-47. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=a235b082-2c65-4ce7-8038-55ce064a363d%40sessionmgr4002&vid=18&hid=4112
Martin, J., McCormack, B., Fitzsimons, D., & Spirig, R. (2014). The Importance of Inspiring a Shared Vision. International Practice Development Journal, 4(2), 1-15. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=25&sid=a235b082-2c65-4ce7-8038-55ce064a363d%40sessionmgr4002&hid=4112
