People Leadership and Organizational Development in Non-Profit Organizations
By: Mahmoud Mansi
– Founder & Chairperson on NGOs Today
Leadership, development, innovation, agility, and change management are all trigger words in the worlds of business, politics, economy and personal development. Today in organizations management has completely transformed and is still taking new forms, which eventually impacts the employee, the organization, and therefore the society. Are all organizations transforming and developing on the same pace? Is it the same importance to apply this development in profit organizations that produce services and goods that we all love to consume as applying it in non-governmental and non-profit organizations?
organizations that show concern towards community development are focusing on limited initiatives.
By: Mahmoud Mansi
– Founder & Chairperson on NGOs Today
Leadership, development, innovation, agility, and change management are all trigger words in the worlds of business, politics, economy and personal development. Today in organizations management has completely transformed and is still taking new forms, which eventually impacts the employee, the organization, and therefore the society. Are all organizations transforming and developing on the same pace? Is it the same importance to apply this development in profit organizations that produce services and goods that we all love to consume as applying it in non-governmental and non-profit organizations?
organizations that show concern towards community development are focusing on limited initiatives.
Corporate and profit organizations directly impact the economy of every country through providing new jobs, giving salaries and healthcare insurances, manufacturing products or offering services, and creating local and global demand and supply. On the other hand, non-profit and non-governmental organizations impact the economy in a different way through offering services and awareness campaigns that are relevant to the environment, heritage, healthcare, poverty, mental wellness, and humane initiatives like gender equality and animal rights for instance. These may impact the economy in an indirect way but their impact can be stronger than the for-profit organizations, below is a table of comparison that highlights the impact of profit and non-profit organizations on the economy:
Profit Organizations / Corporate
- Focus on higher productivity and providing better lifestyle to people through their products and services
- Work on the “wants” & creating new “needs”
- Encourages people to become financially independent
- Tangible impact
Non-Profit Organizations & NGOs
- Focus on spreading awareness towards essential and vital causes and values that might “prevent” expected and unexpected crisis
- Cover basic yet vital “needs” and “rights”
- Encourages people to volunteer and give to the community and stand for what they believe in
- Intangible impact
Profit Organizations / Corporate
- Focus on higher productivity and providing better lifestyle to people through their products and services
- Work on the “wants” & creating new “needs”
- Encourages people to become financially independent
- Tangible impact
Non-Profit Organizations & NGOs
- Focus on spreading awareness towards essential and vital causes and values that might “prevent” expected and unexpected crisis
- Cover basic yet vital “needs” and “rights”
- Encourages people to volunteer and give to the community and stand for what they believe in
- Intangible impact
In order to have a sustainable economy, the focus should be on both; the corporate and the non-profit organizations in terms of people and organizational development. There is a clear gap between the management system in multi-nationals and other profit organizations on one hand and the not for profit organizations on the other hand in terms of training employees, management consulting services, education, and the management system. Furthermore, below is a detailed comparison between the management systems in profit and non-profit organizations:
Tasks & Responsibilities
Training
Human Resources
Workforce
Budgeting & Revenues
Budgeting Expenditure
Salary System
Salary System
Furthermore another study which was based on surveying students aging between 17 and 22 reveals the common perception of youth about working in both types of organizations:
Profit Organizations / Corporate
Non-Profit Organizations & NGOs
Work Motto
You work for “yourself”
You work for the “community”
Experience & Personal Development
Corporate training, induction and years of experience
Assigned projects, communication and connections
Career Path & Recognition
The more employees work the more they make money and get promoted in the future
People gain good experience but in return they don’t get sufficient monetary compensation but they get a verbal and moral one
Management Style
Less concerned about employees’ wellbeing, and more focused on productivity and profit
Care about giving a valuable experience to people
The gap between the corporate and non-profit world is due to several reasons, mainly it is concerned with the lack of:
- Awareness in the NGO world towards investing in people and organizational development
- Budget and funding which is mainly spent on project resources
- Mastering consulting tools to create development initiatives that can directly impact the business results and measuring the return on investment (ROI)
- Research papers and best practices that address management in NGOs and non-profits
- Academic and professional courses and certifications that are tailored on non-profit organization workplace
The change will emerge from industry leaders who want to make a difference and take chances to transform the mindset and management system in NGOs & NPOs, same as the change in the corporate world emerged from “managers” and “employees” who decided to do things differently, then it evolved to success stories, case studies, and eventually a trend that impacted the concerned industry.
Solutions to empowering management efficiency, agility and effectiveness in non-profit organizations:
- Having more publishing platforms, media outlets, seminars and conferences that are purely concerned with managing non-profit projects and organizations
- Working with educational and training experts in order to create professional and accredited courses and workshops that are tailored for NGO leaders, employees and volunteers
- Working with management consultants in order to develop and tailor systems and initiatives that are related to human capital management, quality control, risk management, product innovation, organizational structure, people management, teambuilding, and agility
- Assigning specific funding opportunities that are solely focused on people and organizational development
- Setting clear organizational excellence standards by the government for NGOs & NPOs in terms of quality management, work efficiency, innovation, and employee satisfaction
- Documenting successful management case-studies and best practices that occurred in NGOs and NPOs to be published and shared with professional from the same field
- Organizing competitions and awards for NGOs & NPOs that are related to leading people, developing the organization and innovation in management