MANAGING IN COMMUNITY ORGANISATIONS

Managing in Community Organisations



Managing in Community Organisations

Introduction

The idea of managing community organization has only recently come to the attention of practitioners and academics. Academics in the field of development studies who have shown an increasing interest in analyzing community organization management have often been ill equipped for the task. Opinions among people working in community organization seem to run from complete dislike of anything to do with managerialism to the uncritical acceptance of Western management and leadership principles.

For this purpose, I visited the community organization Saxon Weald . Saxon Weald Homes is housing based association which is based in Horsham that is managing over 5,000 properties in Hampshire and Sussex. The purpose of the firm is to improve the quaility of life for its customers and fulfill the needs for retirement and shared ownership purposes. For this purpose, we contacted Sue Towe, who is the resident involvement adviser in Saxon Weald. Management of Saxon Weald encompasses many different approaches to managing people and organizations. Culturally, these approaches appear to be linked by an instrumental view of people in organizations as a means to an end. This distinguishes them from non-Western views that see people as an end in themselves. Concepts such as viewing human beings as resources reflect the Western view (Akingbola, 2004, 453-465).

Organizing, aside from pursuing the loftier goals of democratic justice, is also practical. Organizing is consistent with well-established management theory about how to solve problems and to develop good services and products—it's consistent with how to achieve the best practical results in virtually all fields of public policy and organizational management.

The management practices that we will be discussing are being practiced and implemented by Saxon Weald. All too often those in civic leadership behave in a way that assumes that policy makers with government authority can effectively devise policies without the intimate involvement of those closest to the problems they are addressing. Organizing works to allow the voices of those closest to the problems they face to speak to policy makers of Saxon Weald so that their advice can be followed.

Saxon Weald Management

What is formally referred to as community development is often informally called community building. The goals and objectives of Saxon Weald are the same for both concepts. In each case, Nonprofit organizations' roles are to provide a group of individuals, associations, and organizations with the skills and abilities they need and desire to create change within their defined community. An important component for the success of Saxon Weald in community development is the inclusion of the community in the determination of need and the assessment of desire (Block, 2001, 100-107). The basic functions of management of Saxon Wield are as follows;

The Role of the Professional Organizer

Specific people organize community groups. We may call them organizers, leaders, coordinators, directors, or facilitators, but it is their work that counts. Community groups succeed on the skills and understanding of those who build and lead them.

The role of the organizer in Saxon Weald is ...