Organizational Structure of The Salvation Army

The Impact of Organizational Structure

Introduction

The Salvation Army is an extremely decentralized structure which emphasizes on focusing on local/ domestic control. It has a rich history starting from 1865 and at the moment it is operating successfully in 126 countries and has a communicative command in 175 languages. To organize such a big network they have divided geographically into defined territories. The territories again get sub-divided into divisions. In larger areas, they have made divisions which help them in handling the entire region meaningfully. They have introduced THQ (Territorial Headquarters) which function as main administrative center. In the similar way, they have established headquarters on division levels known as DHQ. The organization is non-profit and is following somewhat similar pattern of organization structure of an army. That is why they are present on most of the top posts. Every territory has territorial commander who leads the division and receives direct orders from “Salvation's Army International Headquarters” in London (Holland & Ritvo, 2008). Below are some basic units:

Crops

This is their basic service and is known as crops community center. A few cities have numerous crops centers as compared to others. Their function is to provide people with local events which include religious festivals, family campaigns, counseling, day-care programs, activities for youth and other general issues prevailing in the operating society (Drucker, 2012).

Divisions

Crops community centers exist within the announced geographical territories encompasses a division. In the United States, 40 divisions are answerable to their respective territorial headquarters. The division deals the issues on a larger scale like rehabilitation programs and centers. They work under their commands of the divisions.

Territories

If we talk about the United States alone, it bears division of four territories as mentioned above. It has headquartered in the Central region in Des Plaines Illinois, in the Eastern region there is West Nyack, NY, in the Southern region they have Atlanta, Georgia and in the Western region they have Long- Beach in California (Drucker, 2012).

National

National Commander is the official leader of the organization and resides in National Headquarters, Alexandria. It serves as the connecting body which allocates all the available resources. It deals with all the levels itself to maintain the desirable accountability and fair allocation of resources.

Comparison with Kiva Microfunds and Human Rights Watch

To compare the structure I have taken one of the old organizations, Human Rights Watch and a little new one, Kiva. Human rights are a quite spread network of personnel and activities. They also have decentralized approach, yet, they do not have to depend on headquarters for the allocation of resources. Every person is motivated in his own capacity. They have to have strong legal advisors to see into any matter of concern. In other words, their spending is more onto finding law personnel to evaluate any situation. On the other hand, Kiva has less field work because they have their strategic partnership with banks and other monetary organizations who can give loans to people. They depend more on building strategic ...