HUMAN SERVICE ORGANIZATION

Characteristics and Environments of a Human Service Organization



Characteristics and Environments of a Human Service Organization

Introduction

The human service, nonprofit, charitable, and voluntary sector is important to our society. The labels used to distinguish these organizations from government and private-sector corporations reveal their merits: nonprofit, accenting altruism and disregard of self-interest; charitable, referring to reliance on donations and generosity; and voluntary, indicating the significance of volunteers as a primary resource. They are powerful generators of social value for certain, but they also create economic value. The human service organization that has been selected for this paper is an International Committee of Red Cross.

Business Description

International Committee of Red Cross (commonly known as Red Cross) was established in 1863 as a nonprofit social organization. Red Cross works under the head of The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, which is the world's largest humanitarian network (McLuskey, 2003). Main objective of the Red Cross is to protect life and health, assuage human suffering, and endorse human dignity. Red Cross supported the development of international humanitarian law (IHL) to make the basis for guiding its vision and mission (Suen, 2002). Red Cross has global operations, and present in nearly every country.

Organization's Vision and Mission

Mission Statement

The Red Cross, a humanitarian organization led by volunteers and guided by its Congressional Charter and the Fundamental Principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, will provide relief to victims of disaster and help people prevent, prepare for, respond to emergencies, and enhance the well-being of people at vulnerable times in their lives.

Vision

Red Cross works on the principles of impartiality, voluntary service, humanity, neutrality, independence, and unity. Vision of Red Cross is not limited to providing services, but provides value to the organization for long-term success in the industry. Vision statement of the organization is as follows. “Red Cross endeavor to rise and be the leader in community health services by providing a complete range of services in emergency healthcare management. Investing in leaders and staff, courage to earn admiration and respect, collaborating with global partners for a successful future will enable us to exceed industry standards by the participation of a visionary governing body” (Suen, 2002).

Organization Governing and Staffing

Red Cross has segmented its operations in five regions. These include American region, African region, Europe and Central Asia region, Middle-East region, and Asia and Pacific region. Regional segmentation is followed by segmenting the region in country divisions. Red Cross has divided its five region operation in 80 countries to improve its performance. Red Cross currently employed 11,000 staff members across the globe, which includes delegates and specialized staff (ICRC, 2011). Red Cross organization governing bodies consists of a Governing Assembly, Executive Directorate Body, and an Assembly Council. Assembly is dominated by the President, two vice-presidents, Swiss national 25 co-opted members, and 15 national members. Assembly enables the Red Cross to monitor all ICRC activities across the globe. This provides provision to the Red Cross for enhancing the support level of the organization across the globe, and ...