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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

1.0

INTRODUCTION

NGOs typically attempt to facilitate the development process of groups and communities using a variety of interventions (Jain, Rao 1998). NGOs provide important services throughout the world. As constituents of the third sphere or the civil society, they fill up the gap between the government and the people. Generally, government works at a larger scale and cannot cater to the specific needs of the people due to its generalized view. Government agencies also lack problem-solving approach. The NGO’s are more efficient and effective because their overheads are small as they work on small scale, are value driven and their commitment to work and action is high.

They range in size from small, local organizations to large national and

international ones. They cover areas of health and welfare, research, education, sustainable livelihoods, disaster management, natural resource management, social organizations, and development The NGOs work with people, for people for improvement of their lot, their interventions are closer to the client group. Cohesion Foundation Trust (CFT) is an NGO registered in 2001 under Bombay Public Trust Act (1950) working for the development of underprivileged of the districts where government and developmental organizations have not been able to reach. Its focus is on developing human resource through capacity building and natural resource management. The organization is working mainly on the projects that aim at capacity building of women and is associated with land and water resource related activities and disaster mitigation. The mission of the organization lays emphasis on bringing out changes by maintaining transparency and accountability in its work. The vision of the organization is to build strong grass root presence with long-term commitment and develop professional approach.

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

Cohesion started working in 1996 with a group of professionals as a support organization in development sector. In 1990 it got registered as a non-profit company and started an implementing unit in different areas of Western Gujarat with long-term involvement to develop the area. Having been continuously neglected by the government and developing agencies, this area needed immediate attention due to its harsh geographical conditions, disaster-proneness, and fast rate of degradation of land and water resources. These conditions formed the criteria on the basis of which Cohesion chose to work in this area. The main funding agencies with which CFT is associated are Concern Worldwide, Save the Children Fund, United NATIONS development Programme (UNDP), Water and sanitation management Organisation (WASMO) and various government agencies like Ministry of Rural Development, prime Minister National Relief Fund (PMNRF) and Department of Women and Child Development. The CFT actively participates in the activities conducted by the network of different NGOs working in the area. CFT is a founder member of the networks Namely, Disaster Preparedness Response Group (DPRG) and some other networks. A Board of Trustees heads the organization. The Board meets once a year to review the progress of the organization. CFT has an advisory board of professionals of different backgrounds. They work as resource persons. Cohesion works through Self Help Groups of women, called Mahila Vikas Mandals (MVM’s). The MVM’s are encouraged to do savings and to form a revolving fund, through which timely financial help is extended to the members of the groups. CFT lays special emphasis on the contribution of the members to ensure the full involvement of the stakeholders. This approach ensures the capacity building of the beneficiaries.

The

MVM’s also help in identifying beneficiaries for different projects. The projects are implemented through the MVM’s.

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

“Employees are considered to be the most valuable asset of the organization” (statement of the CEO). Cohesion introduced a salary structure with all the benefits within one year of its registration. The CFT ensures development and skill building of the employees by giving them the opportunity to take part in training programs according to the need of the projects. The CFT has special focus on maintaining a favorable sex ratio in the organization. The organisation manual of CFT includes separate clause for women employees in its organization manual. It ensures a competent and congenial environment for women. Employees are hired through campus placements, networking, advertising through newspapers, recommendations and with the help of placement agencies. The candidates are recruited by a committee and hired on contract for eleven months if they meet the job requirements. The new employee has to work on probation period for six months and is confirmed rejected after review of his/her performance. Each employee is guided and monitoredby his/her Reporting Officer.

2.0

THE PROJECT

The project title is, “Strengthening Relationship between the Head Office and Field Office”. The project was to be taken as a pro- active step towards building up better relationships between HO and FOs. The effectiveness and efficiency of an organization depends on the level of communication and co-ordination among the different units. The HO, FOs and different units should be aware of the expectations, priorities and requirements of each other. A defined reporting system, well defined roles, smooth communication, good interpersonal relationships, healthy work culture good leadership and timely conflict resolution help to build strong working relationship between different parts of the organization.

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

2.1

Context

An organization is a consciously coordinated social unit, composed of two or more people, who functions on a continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals (Robins, 1990). Here, two important concepts, which can be the basis of a good relationship between different units of an organization, are ‘conscious coordination’ and ‘functioning on a continuous basis’. The organization has to incorporate awareness in its functions to identify the needs and to adopt a problem solving approach to fulfil the needs of the different units. This approach has to be on a continuous basis with the aim of achieving the goals of the organization. In the case of an NGO like CFT, the relationship between the head office and the field office are determined by both internal and external factors. The internal factors include routine work, finance, administration, human resource management, marketing and project related matters. The external factors comprise dealings with funding agencies, donors, well- wishers and communities with whom the organization works. The success of the organization depends on how well the different units coordinate and communicate on these matters to provide timely and appropriate support to each other. To substantiate the need of such study, a question was asked in the survey-“ do you feel that the relationship between the head office and the field office needs improvement”, the responses were Diagram 1: Need for the study on relationship between the FO and HO

relation needs improvement

7%

17%

21%

comp agree agree disagree com disag 55%

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

The response of 55% staff was that relation needs improvement and 17% were in strong agreement of this view. Overall, 72 % people felt that the relation needs improvement. 2.2 The Organisation: CFT has its Head Office in Ahemdabad and three field offices in three districts namely, i

Kutch (Taluka-Rapar)

ii

Rajkot (taluk-morbi)

iii

Patan (taluka-Santalpur)

Kutch is about 350 kilometers Rajkot is 250 kilometers and Patan is 150 kilometers from Ahemdabad. There are no direct train routs available for these places. From Ahemdabad it takes around six, four and three hours by bus to reach Kutch, Rajkot and Patan respectively. Buses are frequently available for these places. A Board of Trustees heads the organization. The Board meets once a year to review the progress of the organization. CFT has an advisory board of professionals with different backgrounds who act as resource persons. The CEO reports to the Board of advisors. The total number of employees in CFT is 39. The head office has eight employees apart from the CEO. The field offices Rajkot, Kutch and Patan have six, nineteen and four employees respectively. The average age of the employees is 25 years, sex ratio is 1:4 and average salary is Rs. 5150. The hierarchy at the Head Office is structured as follows: CEO Finance Officer, Programme Manager, Technical Co-coordinator, Marketing CoordinatorOffice assistant, Asst. researcher Driver/Messenger. (Appendix: 2)

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

The Different Hierarchy levels at field offices are: Area Manager Accountant, Cluster coordinator, Thematic Co-ordinateCommunity Mobiliser, SurveyorsDriver/Messenger. (Appendix: 3,4,5) Table 1: The Number of Employees at Different Levels 1st level

2nd level

4th level

4

3rd level 3

Head Office

1

Rajkot

1

4

-

1

Kutch

1

4

12

2

Patan

1

3

-

-

1

The number of technical staff is six and professionally qualified personnel are three in number. There are five Masters in Rural studies and fourteen Bachelors of rural studies. Only four fourth grade employees are under graduates. The average experience of the employees is 3.9 years. Table 2: The Experience of Employees Years of experience No of employs

0-1 3

1-3 18

3-5 9

5-7 4

>7 5

There are six levels of hierarchy in the organisation. The top most level consists of the CEO and the Senior Executive and the lowest level is that of the support staff. The management of organisation is divided in two units-Support unit and Program implementation units. The finance Manager, Research and Monitoring Manager and the HRD manager form the support unit and Programme manager, Technical and Marketing Coordinator form Programme implementation unit. The post of the senior executive is vacant in the organisation; as it is not needs because of the small size of the organisation. At present the head office does not have any senior

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

executive and project manager. The staff of the support unit and the coordinator looks after the matters related with the projects running in the field.

Table 3: The Levels of Hierarchy in The Organisation Grade I II

Designation CEO, Sr. Executives Finance Manager, R&D Manager, HR Manager, Project Manager, Technical

III IV V VI

and Marketing Coordinator R and D officer, HR officer, Finance Officer, Area Manager Assistants, Cluster Coordinators, Thematic Coordinators Accountants, Cashiers, Community Mobiliser, Surveyors Driver, Messengers

Project- wise multi-disciplinary teams are formed, who work for the implementation of the projects. Each team has a team leader, who coordinates and guides the team through weekly and monthly planning and reviewing. There are cluster teams who undertake regular activities along with the projects under progress in the area. The regular activities are related with the capacity building of the communities with whom CFT is working and maintaining relationships with the support agencies. The organisation had an informal setup till March 2003. All these activities were need based, till March 2003. During December 2002 to March2003, formats for reporting and other activities like leave, voucher, traveling allowance etc. were introduced. The hierarchy was defined and the organisation manual, which was accepted in March 2003, defined the roles. The manual was formed by a committee, which had representations from the field offices.

3.0

OBJECTIVE

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

1. To develop an understanding about the factors determining the relationship 2. To identify the areas of improvement 3. To suggest ways of improvement in the relationship 4. To do a proactive assessment of the future relationship.

4.0

METHODOLOGY

The study was conducted in two stages. The first stage of the study was exploratory in nature. It was focused on developing an understanding of the organization structure and it’s functioning. This stage involved extensive visits of the field offices, detailed discussion of the staff and people from associate organizations and interacting with some members of the Mahila Vikas Mandals (MVMs; the women’s SHGs. The second stage of the study was mainly focused on interviews with the employees, their views about the communication, reporting, reward system with the help of a questionnaire for climate survey and assessment of their expectations from head office and vice versa.

4.1

Tools used in the study

The tools used in the study were observation, to understand the culture and environment of the offices, formal and informal interviews of the staff with the help of a checklist, review of secondary data – literature from the library and internet, study of the office records, group discussions of the staff, short written exercises.

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

It also involved the assessment of their future needs by future planning exercise. The employees of the three field offices and the head office were covered in the study. The views of the members of the Board of Advisors and few ex- employees were also taken in the study.

4.2

Plan of study

The study was focused in two parts; the study of present situation and the future a. the first phase was to assess the present relationship and factors affecting the relationship. The second phase was aimed at planning for the future requirements of the future. 4.2.1

Study of the present situation

First an understanding was developed of the overall context and structural configuration of the organization and the different design patterns of field offices and the head office and the jobs performed by them by visiting the offices, examining the records, interacting with the staff and the people related with the organization in different ways. It helped in examining how these offices are linked together so that the organization acts as an integrated system. The inter unit relationship were examined in terms of interaction between them and the direction, frequency and amount of resources and information transferred among them. It also helped in identifying the factors affecting the relationship. 4.2.2

Study as a proactive step

The second step was taken as developing a futuristic view of the organization. The approached was to assess the shape of the future of the organization and accordingly generate ideas about the changes taking place in the future and the corresponding changes in the relationship and roles of the field offices and the head offices and changed requirements of the two parties.

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

5.0

6.0

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY •

Short span of study

•

Staff was busy, as work in the field has to be completed before the rainy season.

•

Documents in the FO’s were in Gujarati.

•

Language barrier in communication

THE ORGANISATION STRUCTURE

The organisation has six levels of hierarchy. The head office has four levels of hierarchy. There is low horizontal differentiation in this organization as there is homogeneity in the work performed by different staff members. There are no clear departments except the Finance Department. . The organization has high vertical differentiation with respect to its size. The span of control in CF is low as the organization is working in only three districts. The span of control is very low in Morbi (6 employees), Varahi (4 employees) and the head office (8 employees). It is relatively high in Rapar. The team strength in Rapar is 19 because it has been getting comparatively more projects and funds from the beginning. The nature of activities carried out in this organization does not have much scope for high formalization. The regular reporting system and HR related activities, like sanction of leave, promotion, recruitment etc. are formalized. The maintenance of logbook for use of vehicles and phone indicates formalization. The monthly and annual reporting of activities is done in a definite format. The financial reporting is also standardized. The head office came into existence in 2001 after the three field offices. It was to carry out the supporting and facilitating role for the field offices. The CEO, who is the first level of control, heads the head office. The finance officer, marketing coordinator, DPRG coordinator, research and monitoring coordinator directly report to the CEO. The assistant finance manager is in–charge of the Administration and HR.

Areas in charges are

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

appointed to look after the matters related with the field offices. The area in charge reports to the CEO about the field offices. The field offices have four levels of hierarchy. The Area Manager (AM) heads the field office. The second level is that of Cluster Coordinator (CC) and the Thematic Coordinators (TC). The Cluster Coordinator looks into the implementation work of the clusters. There are Community Mobilisers (CM), one male and one female and one Surveyor in each cluster. The TM and CM report to the AM. The Thematic Coordinator works on certain themes and provides conceptual input to the teams. There are Livelihood Coordinators; who explore new possibilities for income generating activities, prepare concept reports to be used in developing proposals and guide the teams for developing understanding and process of implementation. The technical coordinators prepare drafts of the construction work like pond bunds, Rain Roof Harvesting Structures, farm bunds, etc.; and carry out monitoring and supervision on the sites. The Village Institution Coordinator helps the teams in developing the skills to help the MVMs in capacity building. The main activities performed by the HO are •

Preparing proposals with the help of the field offices

•

Negotiations with the funding agencies

•

Maintaining relationships with funding agencies, donors and support organizations, banks and government agencies

•

Coordinating the works and resources of the field offices

•

Image building of the organization

•

Preparing strategies for the organization

•

Guiding the Field offices

•

Handling the emergencies of the field offices

•

Conflict resolution

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

•

Providing resource and technical help to field offices

•

Capacity building of the field offices

Works undertaken by the Field Offices are •

Planning and execution of the projects

•

Preparing first draft of the project proposals

•

Prepare reports of the projects

•

Capacity building of the village institutions

•

Creating awareness about sanitation, health and gender issues

•

Maintaining relationship with local agencies, networks and government agencies.

The FO s depend on the HO for

7.0

•

Preparation of project proposals

•

Reporting to the funding agencies

•

Funds

•

Guidance to implement new projects

•

Administrative and HR related matters

•

Policy making

•

Coordination between the three offices.

•

Resource distribution in the organisation

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Relationship between the FO and the HO can be of the form of economic dependence, social dependence, dependence as a source of support and guidance. Also, HO can act as source of common culture.

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

7.1

Financial Dependence:

The field office gets funds for the project from the HO. In most of the projects, the funding agencies release funds to the HO and which in turn transfers the funds to the field offices. The HO also pays the salaries of the employees. The field offices send monthly financial reports to the HO. The HO does the auditing, maintains the final account, prepares the final report and sends the report to the funding agencies as and when required. The organisation does not have any corpus. So it has to depend on the projects for the payments of salaries of the employees. The project expenses include 5 to 15% of the projects cost for the administrative expenses, salaried included. So, the organisation is dependent on the project funds to run the offices. The head office plays an important role in attracting the projects from the funding agencies for different areas. The inception of projects is done in two ways. Either funding agencies invite proposals on specific subjects and areas, or the organisations sends proposals to funding agencies. Most of the projects are of the first type. For NGO to take the initiative, it should have a strong relationship with the funding agency and strong grass root presence. The interaction of funding agencies with the organisation about policy-related issues is through the HO. So, the FOs heavily depends on the HO for getting proposals. This issue has great importance in the relationship between HO and FOs. If one area gets more funds or projects than the other, then the other offices feel neglected. The FOs also has a certain role to play in this matter. If the FO leadership is innovative enough and engages in considerable amount of networking, they can take the initiative and prepare proposals on their own. But this requires skill as well as full support from the HO. The acceptance of proposals has made considerable impact on the two FOs. In Morbi, there

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

are no projects at present. Consequently, the staffs are uncertain about their future. They feel that their office has not been given adequate attention. In March 2004, it was decided at the HO that the CCs would be paid on the voucher basis. Earlier, they were being paid by bank drafts. This was done because of the lack of funds as few projects are running and the team strength is large. But this decision was not communicated properly, and the staff refused to take salary. Though this issue was solved with the help of HO, it has left an impact on the staff. They feel that they have lost their permanent employee status, and have been reduced to temporary employees. So, they have developed a feeling of job insecurity.

7.2

Cultural Dependence

Culture is defined as a system of shared meaning; the philosophy that guides employees together, communities and other organisations working in the same field(Robins,1990). Culture has a very strong influence on the behavior of the employees. Strong culture is taken as a substitute to formalization. This becomes more important in the case of an NGO, as the nature of, size, structure and financial constrains limits the extent of formalization. During discussions with the staff, it became obvious that the staff shared better relations in the past. It may be because of two reasons. The first can be that before March 2004, the CEO was directly involved in implementation activities. He extensively visited the FOs and freely interacted with the staff at all the levels. Towards the end of 2003, there was a shift in this approach. The CEO strategically withdrew from regular involvement in the matter of the FOs. This was intended to develop capacity in the fields, and the felt need to concentrate on policy-level work and exploring opportunities in other areas. Another reason can be cited as the decrease in the projects as well as funds in this area which, in the wake of the 2001 earthquake, was till recently flooded. Now the CEO visits the FOs at the interval of three to four months.

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

The second reason was the implementation of the organisation manual. Earlier there were only team leaders and team members. But now new levels have been created, and the first and second levels have been given the decision-making power. This has resulted in a feeling of being segregated in different levels. Also, the distance between the FOs and the HO has increased. These changes in the organisation will take time to gain acceptance, especially in the case of staff that have been working with the organisation for a long time. The recent issues of payment by voucher and medical benefit have also contributed to the shift. There is also a difference in the culture of the HO and the FOs. The HO has more formal setup. The employees working in the HO have an authoritative approach towards the FO. So, there is a feeling of first level and second level in the FOs. But if the role of HO in facilitation and support is considered, the HO should have a friendly approach toward the FOs. Culture implies the existence of certain dimensions or characteristics that are closely associated and interdependent within the organisation. There are ten characteristics, that when mixed and matched tap the essence of an organization’s culture (Robbins 1990). The organisation can develop a strong culture by paying attention those characteristics. Some of the key characteristics of the culture relevant to this topic are: 7.2.1

Direction

The direction of the organisation is the degree to which the organization creates clear objectives and performance expectations(Robins,1990). Initially, the employees of the CFT got direction from the leadership, that is, the CEO. CEO regularly visited the offices for guidance, monitoring and review. The dependence of the field offices on the CEO reduced as the teams gained confidence. March 2003 onwards, organisation manual was implemented, and further reduced the dependence of

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

the field team on the CEO. Now the organisation follows the manual for the direction in the functional matters. CFT team and the concerned funding agency jointly decide the guidelines for the projects. The CEO gives indirect support and guidance to the teams. The matter related with direction can be understood in two parts – project-related matters and other non-project matters. The teams get satisfactory direction the mater related to implementation. This is also reflected in the good performance of the teams in the field. Also, the teams have developed enough experience, which has reduced their dependence on the leadership. But the situation is different in other matters related with the administration and human resource management.

The lack of clarity in community Mobilisers (CMs) can be justified as they perform the line functions. But the lack of clarity at the level of CC and AM can be problematic. Most of the people in the first and second levels of the organisation are not clear about the policies of the organisation regarding administration and HR. This can be a reason for lack of clarity about these maters at the CMs level. It can also be seen as a gap between perceived system and actual system.

7.2.2

Integration

The integration in the organisation is decided by the degree to which the units within the organization are encouraged to operate in a coordinated manner. CFT has defined the mode of interaction between the field offices and the head offices. But since the rules and regulations are new, there is a little confusion between the offices about decision making and reporting. The lack of integration also becomes obvious when the employees express the feeling that they do not get the benefit of the experience of each other.

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

7.2.3 Management Support The management support is indicated by the degree to which managers provide clear communication, assistant, support to their subordinates. There is a feeling among the field staff that they are not getting the same support that they were getting before the new reporting system was implemented. The discomfort is more between the second level field staff. The percentage of field staff who had this feeling is 62.One reason can be that they have lost direct contact with the CEO; which was available earlier. The other reason is that the field office leadership has not been able to develop confidence among them. The staff who are satisfied by the present system are either new or have good relation with their reporting officer. 7.2.4

Reward System

Reward system refers to the degree to which the rewards- salary increases; promotions are based on employee performance, criteria in contrast to seniority, favoritism and so on. CFT does not have any reward system. Its performance appraisal system is yet to be implemented. The salary system is purely on the basis of seniority. There is no system, which can differentiate between the good and the not so good worker. So people feel that their work is not getting recognition. The people who can present things nicely get recognition. This feeling is present at all the levels. The survey results show that strong feeling about the lack of reward system. The mean values of the responses in Organisation Climate Survey for Appreciation was 2.87( Qn no-21), for reward it was 2.72(Qn no 20), for salary based on performance it was 2.3(Qn no 22), and for criteria of promotion it was2.33(Qn no19).all these values are more than 2, on the four point scale. The mean values are skewed towards the dissatisfaction

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

The staff at all the levels in CFT feels that they do not get appreciation from higher-ups or among their peers for their hard work. After successful completion of projects, no one takes notice of their effort or mentions their contribution in the work. They feel that reward need not be monetary. Even few words of appreciation or a letter of congratulations for successful completion of the work is enough for them. The staffs also have a feeling that there is no incentive for better work and working more than the others as the people who do not work properly get the same salary and increment as others. They strongly feel that people working better than others should get more increments. Though the organisation manual carried directions about promotions, staffs lack clarity in this matter. Some were also of the opinion that those who are liked by the top management get promotions, though it is said that the recruitment team is following procedures mentioned in the organisation manual. Though these issues are related with human resource management, they have an impact on the relations between HO and FO, as the decisions regarding these issues are taken at the FO level. After the formation of the core team, these issues are to be addressed in the core meeting, but this process is not clear to the staff of the FO. It is possible for the situation to change once the core team starts working in its full capacity.

7.3

Delegation of power

The CFT has been able to make effective grass root presence as its team was given full independence. The grass root work, i.e. working with communities in the villages to satisfy beneficiaries by providing timely help and guidance; is like providing service. To provide service on has to go out of way and take decisions, which are situational, and context specific. CFT team has been given this independence to handle the situation. So they have made excellent impact on the communities they are working with. The SHGs

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

formed by CFT are performing better than SHGs formed by other organizations. Also the MVMs are developing as a means of empowering women; who are playing active role in solving problems of the villages. The SHGs are successfully carrying out saving and credit activities and provide support to the members in income generations activities. But the same independence becomes problematic when the question of documentation, review and monitoring arises. It was evident by the comment of an official in Varahi “ CFT does is excellent in fieldwork but lacks in reporting and documentation”. As the processes and decisions taken are not documented, it causes confusion and misunderstanding. Which further results in loss of information, delays and interpersonal conflict. The system has become person specific at each level. So it has to depend on the persons conducting different activities. It results in loss of information and generates extra pressure at the time of making reports.

7.4

Communication

No organization can succeed over the long period without well-defined system for exchange of information. In small NGO’s like CFT grass-roots settings, communication usually occurs naturally, because board members, higher officials and staff are in constant communication. As organizations grow, however, that kind of proximity erodes. As paid administrators become part of the mix, board members become less involved in day-today matters. And as organizations grow further, members of the executive staff may not be aware of every decision being made, and the board and its officers may be aware of even fewer decisions. Thus, constant communication takes on critical importance so that people can be fully aware of the day-to-day happenings. The information function of communication provides technical data for rational decisionmaking and policy formulation. There are many sources of management of information.

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

The staff of organization helps management through the generation of information in areas of particular organizational importance. Financial information is most important in this respect. Without the basic information sources it would be difficult to make policies in fundamental areas such as finance, implementation and planning. 7.4.1 Communication System: The formal mode of communication in the organisation is through postal communication or courier and E- mail. The incoming mails are generally reports from the field offices, communications froe funding or support agencies related with the project requirement, their programmes, training programmes or workshops organized by them, bio-data of people seeking job, annual reports, brochures of organisations etc. The incoming mails are received at the reception table and their entry is made in the inward register. The letters are sorted out and letters bearing the name of the staff are handed over to them. If it is for the CEO or regular communication from organisations, it is filed and kept for comment of the CEO. The CEO overlooks the file and gives his comments on the letters and directs what is to be done with the communication. After this, the letters are filed in different files like circular, reports, recruitment or files of the support organisation. If there are in formations, which are to be shared, the letters are circulated or posted on the notice board. If the CEO feels that some in formations are useful for the FOs, copies of it are dispatched to the FOs. If there are internally generated in formations, they are communicated orally, like the date and time of meetings, visits etc. Communications from funding agencies or support organisations are also done through email. The organisation receives mails on regarding projects and programmes from funding agencies. Concerned people check the males on line; if the information needs processing or sharing, its printout is taken and filed.

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

If there is some urgent communication staff from field offices visit the head offices and necessary details are exchanged. The staff from the head offices also visits the field offices when required. The communication between the HO and the FO in need based. The timely and regular communications are related with monthly reports, financial details, and minutes of the monthly meetings. The financial reports are according to the requirement of the funding agency and are generally urgent. The outgoing letters are few, and again need based. Between the HO and the FO the communication is related to the reporting or written information if needed. Most of the times in formation are exchanged on phone. The communication with funding agencies and support agencies are regarding reports, project proposals or fund raising activities. The study of the office records show that there is a big gap between the inward entries and outward entries between the FO and the HO. the outward entries is only 20% of the outward entries. It indicates that there is a •

Lack of feedback

•

Loss of accountability

•

Less paperwork, loss of information

This results in work pressure and strained relationship as frequently mentioned by the staff. The staff of the FOs said that they never get to know about the information sent by them. Some data’s never returns back to FOs; so they avoid sending their data to the FOs. The more complex an organization becomes the more management has to depend upon specialized staff and information technology for decision making data. The two important issues arising from these dependencies are organization design for achieving optimum communication effectiveness and use of information technology. To enhance communication effectiveness the information can be broken down into small packages, which are readily accessible for decision-making.

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Cohesion Foundation: Strengthening Relations between Head Office & Field Offices

7.4.2

Communication pattern

Communication pattern decides the degree to which the communications are restricted to the formal hierarchy of authority. Communication through the formal hierarchy is new in the CFT. The formal hierarchy was implemented in March 2003. This change will take time in getting accepted. The reasons for this can be the natural tendency to resist change, lack of trust on immediate seniors, feeling of distance with the leadership etc. The

way

of

communications

are-telephonic

communication,

face-to-face

communication, postal communication, written communication in form of circulars, memos, meeting minutes, notice board and communication through Internet etc. The main of inter office communication is telephone. Most of the decisions are taken and conveyed on the phone. Around 90 percent employees have cellular phone. Written communication is used only when necessary. Other decisions, information or progresses are shared by the routine circulars, and meeting minutes. The head office has a clear role in imparting these characteristics in the organization. It decides the mode of relationships between the head office and the field office. The more the field offices get directions in these matters, the more clarity and maturity will develop in the relationship. The employees of an organization identify themselves with the organization they are working with. It was evident while talking to the staff. Many of them said that they felt good when people talk about the quality work done by CFT. They say that the experience gained in CFT has high value in job market. Head office contributes to this social value achieved by the organization. The survey results show that the employees are not comfortable with the level of communication in the organisation. The mean value of the response of the employees on

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the four point Likert scale was 2.5 when asked, if they get timely information and 2.3 when asked if the information received was sufficient.(item no-4,questionnaire ii).When asked if they are satisfied with the communication on matters related with different issues, the mean value was: Finance-2.1, administrative and HR-2.2, project related matters-1.9 (item number 1, questionnaire ii) When asked if HO gives timely response and vice versa, the mean value was 2.1. These results show inclination towards negative response .It indicates that there is enough room for improvement in communication. 7.4.3

Filtering Problems

One of the main barriers in communication is filtering. Filtering is the conscious manipulation of facts to color events in a way favorable to the sender. It often occurs in upward communication, because this direction of flow carries managerial control information. Management evaluates performance as a result of what it hears via the upward channel. The motivation, then, to misrepresent the true situation is strong. Also filtering may happen in lateral and diagonal communication, when individuals in negotiating their transactions with others may present their terms in the light of the best facts and data possible to support their position. The 75% employees of the Rapar Field office said that this office has the problem of filtering. Only good information is passed to the head office; the problematic issues are stopped from reaching the head office. The employees of the other two offices (70%) also suggested the same view. At present the organisation is small, every one can interact with each other, so this issue has not created any problem so far. This issue may become a problem when: 1) The distance between top and lower echelons of the organization widens, 2) the organization grows in size and complexity and 3) the operations of the organization disperse geographically. So this problem has future implications when the organisation grows.

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7.4.4

Feedback

Effective communication is two ways process, between the sender and the receiver. The information from inward and outward register shows that there is more upward communication. It indicates that feedback in regular communication is lacking. It also indicates that telephonic and face-to-face communication is more frequent. Too much dependence on paperless communication shows informal structure and results in loss of information Four out of six (67%) cluster coordinators and 80% community mobolisers feel that they do not get any feed back for their communication to the head offices. They also do not know, what is being done with the information.

7.5

LEADERSHIP

Leadership is the ability to influence a group towards the achievement of goals. The leadership is main role of a manager in organizations. Leadership has crucial role in deciding the nature of the relationship between the field offices and the head offices. The employees in the FOs as well as the HOs frequently mentioned that the leaders that are CEO and the finance officers and the area manager of the Rapar team take time in decision making. After the implementation of the organisation manual, the CEO does not take decisions; the core teams or the head of the units takes the decisions. But this change has not been communicated properly so people think that matters are kept pending and decisions are not being taken. The core team is yet to be established as decision making body and start active functioning. So there is no visible decision making. Also, the people taking regular decisions lack problem-solving approach.

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The FO does not have defined system, so the role of the Area Manager and the Unit in charges becomes important. In other words the system is person specific, rather than system specific. Also, the same is true about the in charges if the FOs, the project leaders and unit in charges in the HO. Mintzberg identifies ten different roles of the managers under three categories: interpersonal, informational and decisional roles. Some of them relevant with this topic are:

7.5.1 Interpersonal Role These roles arise directly from the formal authority the manager has and involve interpersonal relationships. This role has an impact on the culture of the organisation. 7.5.1.1 Leadership Role Head of units should use the powers delegated to them. If they carry out their role effectively, they can reduce expectations and dependency on the head office. It will also help in developing role clarity. The response of the employees on the question about the clarity in matters related to finance was 2.4, administration &HR was 2.3 and about project related matters was 1.9. The exercise done on the expectations show that the employees at the field offices expect the HO to address their issues, if the FO does not treat them satisfactorily.The leadership has crucial role in relationship building as the expected communication is of the level of child parent level, as the FO staff expect the HO to fulfill their needs. It clearly shows that the relation will take time to mature. If the issues are not handled carefully, it may create a rift in the relationship, which will deteriorate the performance of the staff.

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7.5.1.2 Liaison Role In this role manager ensures contact with the head office and outside agencies. He works as a public relation officer to keep his office fully alive to the outside developments and makes the presence of the head office felt, which gives a sense of security and belongingness to the subordinates. While talking to employees it was obvious that they are feeling insecure about their future, and sense of belongingness is gradually eroding. So leadership will have to take initiatives to restore security and belongingness.

7.5.2

Informational Role

The manager acts as an information portal due to his status and contacts with the head office. The manager can use this information to the subordinates to bridge the spatial and functional difference between the head office and the field office. 7.5.2.1 Disseminator Manager acts as a link point between the head office and the field office. He disseminates the required information to and fro from the head office. It is clear that this role is not being followed properly in the Rapar office. Because of that people are feeling distance from the HO. 7.5.2.2 Spokesman Role

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This role involves the manager representing his office and its problems to the head office and influences its decisions. Both these roles are related with the way information is handled by the manager in a successful manner.

7.5.3 Decisional Role By the virtue of the position and authority vested in the post, the manager continuously makes decisions regarding strategy, investments, allocation of the resources, solving problems. . If the manager commands full trust of the subordinates this role helps him to help his team in fulfilling its goal. But if the subordinates do not accept the manager as their leader, they doubt their intentions and feel that the manager in serving his means by passing the interests of the team members. The situation in the Rapar office is that of lack of trust on the leadership. The staff feel that their needs are not being taken care of and the AM can use his power against them if he feels that they are going against him.

7.5.3.1disturbance Handler Managerial role involves crisis management. If they are good in their task, head office has less concern about the activities of the field offices. If managers have tendency to ignore the situation, until they reach crisis proportions, they risk intervention of the head office or reaching out of the field staff to the head office. This is obvious from the fact that the staff of the Rapar office feels that their problems are not being addressed and this information is not reaching the HO. While the people at the HO tell that they are aware of these issues; and cannot do any thing, as these are only perceived problems. 7.5.3.2 Negotiator The manager acts as a negotiator with the head office and various agencies in contact with the field office on the behalf of his subordinates and the organization.

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All these roles are linked with each other. Some of these may be routine roles and some are informal and decisional role.

Affect the relationship with the head office. If the

manager fails to deliver his/her role, the head office will also fail in fulfilling the needs of the field office and vice versa. The recent example of the disturbance related with the voucher payment is an example where the leadership failed to deliver this role. Also, the event had a far-reaching impact on the motivation of the field staff in all the three offices.

7.6

DELEGATION OF POWER

The actual structured decision in the organization is made by a group of members with power, i.e., the dominant coalition. This group may do not hold authority in top management position. The dominant condition is made up of individual’s divergent interests, making whole consensus difficult. A group with critical information expertise or any other resource that is essential to the organizations operation can acquire the power to influence the decisions. The climate is a joint function of the organizational structure and organizational processes. (Lawler, Hall, Oldham). Climate is related to organizational performance and job satisfaction. Climate can be seen as a moderator between a set of structural and process variables that has impact on performance and satisfaction. From the time of registration of Cohesion Foundation Trust to 2003, till the adoption of the organisation manual, the CEO took main decisions in the organisation. Though the CEO consulted the concerned team before taking any decision, yet the decisions were in command mode. After the adoption of the organisation manual major policy-level decisions are to be taken by the core team, consisting of the CEO, all senior staff at HO, who also head different units or lead projects, and two representatives of the three field offices. The representatives of the head offices are the area managers/ unit in-charge and

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a senior staff of the office. If the team feels the need to include some more members, they invite the person to the core committee. For example, it was felt by the team that the thematic coordinator of the Rapar team could play an important role as she is looking into the strengthening of villages. Therefore, she was included in the core team. The core team meets every three months. Decisions are taken by consensus. If a person is not convinced on a certain issue, the related matters are explained to her and an effort to build consensus is made. Though it was not possible to attend any core team meeting, but on the basis of the regular meetings, the way of conducting the meeting can be explained. Generally the CEO plays an important role in conducting the meetings. He facilitates the meeting, but the meeting is not presided over by anyone. He sits at the side of the table with all other team members. This indicates that the CEO is trying to make himself accepted as a normal team member. One person takes the responsibility of jotting the points on the board, one writes the minutes of the meeting, and one reads the agenda of the meeting. The team members play these roles voluntarily. Each agenda point is discussed one by one and written down on the board. This forms the final agenda of the meeting. After this, all the agenda points are discussed one by one. The CEO explains the matters to everyone, encourages everyone to speak on the matters, and seeks the comments of the persons who are associated with the matter being discussed. If there is any dispute between the team members, he tried to clarify the matter. The CEO tries to build consensus, and if no objections are raised or full consensus is achieved, decisions are taken. These decisions are communication by circulation of the minutes of the meetings. According to “Likert’s System of Management Leadership” the in CFT is trying to inculcate Democratic leadership as it is trying to build a setup, which has •

Complete confidence and trust in subordinates in all the matters

•

Subordinates feel free to discuss things about the job with their superior

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•

And superiors always seek subordinates for ideas and opinions and always tries to make constructive use of them.

There is however, a difference in the perceived and the actual way of decision-making. Though the organisation is trying to build a democratic set-up, the instillation of democratic values will take some time. So far only three meetings of the core team have been held in the last 16 months. The study of the minutes of the core team meeting circulars and other office records, and during conversation with the staff it was revealed that no policy-level decisions have been taken so far in the meetings. On the basis of observation of the regular meetings, it was found that the team lacks conceptual and behavioral maturity. Rather than discuss, the team members would react on the issues raised. Also, the discussion was more of one to one instead of participative in nature. Often the CEO had to intervene and explain the matter to the person concerned. The team members were totally ignorant about most of the issues, and the explanations took a long time. Most of the meetings overshoot and run for several hours. However, the decisions related to projects are taken in the regular meeting and successfully carried out. Decisions at the field level are also taken in the weekly and monthly meetings. Decisions related to implementation, like which activities to carry out in which area, who will take responsibility and dates of activities are decision in regular meetings. The major decisions are taken in the monthly meetings of cluster coordinators (CCs), thematic coordinators and the area managers. The cluster coordinators discuss the matters in their cluster teams and represent teams in the monthly meetings. If there is any major issue, for example, the selection of the members of the committee to form organisation manual, then a general meeting is called. In meetings, generally everyone participates. This procedure of decision-making indicates that intended leadership has participative role at the field level as the organisation setup has •

Leadership that has substantial but not complete confidence and trust; but wishes to control decisions.

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•

Subordinates who feel free to discuss things about the job with their superior.

•

Superiors seek involvement with subordinates; get their ideas and opinions and usually try to make constructive use of them.

But according to the staff of the Rapar team, this participation is on a decline. The staffs feel that the view of a small group of people is given more importance, and if any one expresses view against the general trend, these people take it personally. This group has a tendency to oust the people who go against them. If a person raises objections, he/she finds it difficult to work in the team and as a consequence either leaves the organisation or is transferred. So, the staffs avoid speaking in the meetings. The staff in all the three field offices expressed this view. 17 out of 25 staff members at both the CC and CM level expressed such views.

7.7 CONFLICT Conflict can be both due to individual characteristics of the employees and derived from the structure. The first is related with interpersonal relation. The relationship between the head office and the head office are related with the structural sources of the conflict. Some sources relevant to the topic are

7.7.1 Mutual Task Dependence The task dependence can be in the form of assistance, information, compliance, or other coordinative activities to complete their task effectively. The head office and the field office have mutual dependence in preparing proposals, financial assistance, guidance in new projects, preparing reports etc. The head office has to send reports to the funding agencies, provide information to the donors and support

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agencies. HO depends on the FO for the data required to prepare the reports. The FOs has their commitments with the communities they are working with. So their priorities lie in the fieldwork. Also, at times they are not aware of the urgency for the data’s; so they pay more attention to their routine works. When HO demands the reports at short notice, they feel overburdened and their regular schedule gets disturbed. Moreover, the field staff lack skill and do not have clarity in these matters; which results in inefficiency in recording and documentation. It is clear from the findings of the survey (Q-9. a,b,c). The mean value for clarity in financial matters is 2.4 administrations and HR it is 2.3 and in project related matters it is 19. It shows that there is enough room for improvement in this matter.

7.7.2 Low Formalization Rules and regulations reduce conflict by minimizing ambiguity. High formalization establishes standardized ways for the offices to interact with each other. Role definitions are clear so that people know what to expect from each other. Though formalization has been introduced in CFT from last one year it will take time to gain ground. Most of the processes are still informal. People are not clear about the job, decision-making, rules and structure, as it is evident from the results of the climate survey. The overall mean value for satisfaction is 2.24 (qs no 1to 9) and it is near 2 in questions 1 to 4.

7.8 Results of Climate Survey Climate survey is a tool, which helps in assessing the feelings of the employees about their organisation. It may be possible that the perceived climate of an organisation may be different from the actual climate. This survey helps in identifying this gap, if any. The survey involves getting the response of the employees on a four point Likert’s scale on a questionnaire. The point one represents complete agreement and point four

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represents complete disagreement. The lower the mean value of the responses the more positive is the response. The questions are about five factors of the climate. The five factors are- structure, responsibility, reward, risk and warmth and support. Structure represents the rules, regulations and procedures in the organisation. The positive inclination of the response represents an informal atmosphere. Responsibility represents freedom to work and knowing ones job. Reward represents the feeling of being rewarded for a job well done and perceived fairness of the pay and promotion policies. Risk is about taking calculative decisions. The warmth and support defines the general good fellowship in atmosphere and perceived helpfulness of the managers. Figure 2: Climate Survey (i) 3 2.8 2.6

Structure

2.4

Responsibility

2.2

Risk

2

Rew ard

1.8

Warmth & Support

Morbi

Varahi

Rapar

Head Office

Overall average

The results show that the mean value for structure is highest in Rapar. It indicates the discomfort of the employees about the style of leader ship and the control mechanism exercised to control a big team. The score for responsibility is highest in Morbi, which may be because of shortage of projects in the area. The value is lower than the overall average in Rapar , which again

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can be explained by the constant availability of project for the area, which gives work satisfaction to the staff. The lowest score on risk in Morbi can be attributed to the strong leadership in the field office. The mean value foe the reward lies between 2.2 to 2.4 in all the four offices, which indicate the general feeling of the lack of the reward system. The value is highest in Rapar, which can be related to the big size of the team and feeling of lack of recognition .the score for warmth and support has a big gap from the overall mean value in Rapar. Which explains the extent of discomfort brewing in the teams due to problems related with the local leadership style. Figure 3: Climate Survey (ii)

3 2.8

Morbi

2.6

Varahi

2.4

Rapar

2.2

Head Office Overall average

2 1.8 Structure

Responsibility

Risk

Rew ard

Warmth & Support

Almost all the values for the head office are lowest among all the four offices. Which indicates the cultural gap in the HO and the FO. The values on all the factors, except responsibility are highest for the Rapar office, which indicates that the Rapar office is having highest discomfort among the employees. The over all average is lowest for warmth and support, it indicates that generally people find the work environment congenial in the organisation.

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8. CONCLUSION The main issues of concern in the CFT are related with the communication coordination, leadership and culture. Issues related with communication and coordination is normal in the NGOs. It can be associated with the nature of work done by the NGOs and their financial and human resource constraints. The works require flexibility and dynamism, which limits the extent of formalization. The NGOs have to depend on donations and project funds for their administrative and human resource management related requirements. As the project funds keep fluctuating, the organizations cannot have a permanent management set up. This has implications on retention of human resource. The NGOs have to manage their work force on minimal cost. The growth of organization also depends on the amount of work undertaken by the organization, which in turn depends on the projects floated by the funding agencies. So, generally retention of work force becomes difficult for organizations, as there is high turnover in search of better opportunities. The field staffs of CFT have gained experience through proper guidance and personal development opportunities available in the organization. But they have a feeling that their growth is hampered by recent developments in the organization. Also, their potential has remained underutilized and their work is not being recognized. The study results indicate that the attempt of formalization has created rift between the staff. Which has affected the work culture of the organisation. The recent development related with the payment system and formation of core team has added to the confusion. The confusion is less at the SM and CC level but is deeper at the CM level. This indicates that leadership has problem in delivering its role. Their problem can be explained on the basis of ‘Henry and Blanchard’s Situational Theory’. According to this theory successful leadership is achieved by selecting the right leadership style, which is contingent on the level of the followers’ readiness. The problem of leadership in Rapar can be seen as reluctance in accepting the leader, i.e., the AM. The staffs in the FO see the leader as lacking in leadership quality due to his reserved personality and technical background. So the

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problems related with communication and coordination get associated with the problem of leadership. The problem in communication and conflict resolution is related with the new set up of the organization. The recently introduced formalization will take time to get acceptance. So the issues need extra attention with a very sensitive approach. Moreover, dissatisfaction is also there in the line function staff. This is important as the performance of the organization depends on these people. If the organization fails to address their problems it will have direct effect on the efficiency of the organization. Lack of monitoring and reward system has added to the dissatisfaction at all levels. As the vertical hierarchy has increased, people have developed the feeling that their work is not getting recognition and they do not get credit for their work. The cumulated effect of all these issues results in increasing the rift between the HO and the FO.

9. RECOMMENDATIONS 9.1 Pro-active approach To shape the future of an organization with focus on developing professionalism, CFT will have to take up change activities that are planned or purposeful. The objective of planned change is to keep the organization current and variable. The organizations are open systems and they depend on their environments. The environment is dynamic so the organizations must develop internal mechanisms to facilitate change. The changed efforts should be pro-active and purposeful. The change can be •

At the individual level in which managers attempt to affect an employees behavior by training, socialization and counseling

•

To change the group behavior by using interventions such as sensitivity training, survey feedback and process consultation

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•

To introduce structural change by using techniques that has impact on the organizations structural systems. The techniques used for this purpose can be changing authority patterns, excess to information, allocation of rewards, technology etc

The implementation of the intervention has two parts - what is done and how it is done. What requires three phases •

Unfreezing the status quo

•

Movement to a new state

•

Refreezing the new state to make it permanent

The How refers to the strategies used by the agent to implement the change process. 9.2 SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis helps in identifying the areas of strengths, which are to be nurtured by the organisation, and the weaknesses indicate the need to improve.the opportunities give direction for the future and threats help in developing a mechanism to prepare contingency plan for the organisation. SWOT analysis will help in taking strategic decisions. Strengths •

Clear mission and vision

•

Strong grassroots presence

•

Practical approach in field

•

Committed staff

•

Good team in terms of knowledge, skills, experience

Weaknesses •

Slow decision-making

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•

Lack of documentation

•

Low motivation

•

Lack of reward system

•

Problems in maintaining coordination between HO and FO in project implementation

•

Dissatisfaction among the field staff

Opportunities •

Can make wider presence

•

Adoption of new concepts

•

Govt. policies promoting the role of NGOs

•

Interlinking with banks, govt. agencies

•

Networking with smaller NGOs

•

Opportunities for capacity building

Threats •

Competition from other organisations

•

Saturation in certain areas (for e.g., wells, rain water harvesting, bunding, sanitation etc)

•

Shortage of funding especially for administrative support

9.3 Suggestions

More responsibility to be delegated to area in-charge. Ad-hoc arrangement of second-level leadership should be formalized. Role negotiation between field staff and head office staff. Training for Management of change; sensitization, empathy. Orientation for new recruits.

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Develop feedback system for strengthening communication. Develop an appraisal and reward system. Develop a monitoring and review system.  Exposure visits with collaborating organisations to learn about their systems and processes. Need to strengthen capacity related to accounting, reporting and documentation, project planning, implementation, proposal writing and decision-making.  Training in the head office and all the three offices: to facilitate same culture in all the offices

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