tkit1 - organisational management

OrganisationalManagement

T-kit

Some of you may have wondered : what does T-kit mean ? We canoffer at least two answers. The first is as simple as the full version inEnglish : “Training Kit”. The second has more to do with the sound ofthe word that may easily recall “Ticket”, one of the travelling documentswe usually need to go on a journey. So, on the cover, the little figurecalled “Spiffy” holds a train ticket to go on a journey to discover newideas. In our imagination, this T-kit is a tool that each of us can usein our work. More specifically, we would like to address youth workersand trainers and offer them theoretical and practical tools to work withand use when training young people.

The T-kit series has been the result of a one-year collective effort involv-ing people from different cultural, professional and organisationalbackgrounds. Youth trainers, youth leaders in NGOs and professionalwriters have worked together in order to create high quality publica-tions which would address the needs of the target group while recog-nising the diversity of approaches across Europe to each subject.

This T-kit is part of a series of 4 titles first published in the year 2000,to be followed by more in subsequent years. It is one of the productsof the Partnership Programme on Youth Worker Training run by theEuropean Commission and the Council of Europe. Besides the T-kits,the partnership between the two institutions has resulted in other areasof co-operation such as training courses, the magazine “Coyote” anda dynamic internet site.

To find out more about developments in the partnership (new pub-lications, training course announcements, etc.) or to downloadthe electronic version of the T-kits, visit the Partnership web site :www.training-youth.net.

Welcome to the T-Kit series

Council of Europe publishingF-67075 Strasbourg Cedex

© Council of Europe and European Commission, July 2000

Reproduction of material from this publication is authorisedfor non-commercial educational purposes only, provided the source is quoted.

This document does not necessarily express the official view of the European Commission orthe Council of Europe, their member states or the organisations co-operating with the institutions.


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Coordination T-kit series:Silvio Martinelli

Editors of this T-kit:Silvio Martinelli, Jonathan Bowyer

Authors of this T-kit: (see also last page)Jonathan BowyerArthur MurphyPaola BortiniRosa Gallego Garcia

Editorial CommitteeBernard Abrignani

Institut National de la Jeunesseet de l’Education Populaire

Elisabeth HardtEuropean Federationfor Intercultural Learning

Esther HookwayLingua Franca

Carol-Ann MorrisEuropean Youth Forum

Heather RoyWorld Association of Girl Guidesand Girl Scouts

SecretariatSabine Van Migem (Administrative support)Genevieve Woods (Librarian)

Cover Page and Spiffy CharacterThe Big Family

A special thank is also due to:Patrick Penninckx for having co-ordinatedthe launch of T-kit series, provided continuoussupport and ensured the link with the otherprojects of the Partnership Agreement.Anne Cosgrove and Lena Kalibataite for thecontribution given in the first phase of theproject.

All the publishers and authors that havegiven permission to reproduce theircopyrighted material.

Last, but not least, all the people that indifferent capacities, at different momentsand in different ways have contributed tomake all this possible!

European Youth Centre Strasbourg30 Rue Pierre de CoubertinF-67000 Strasbourg, France

Tel: +33-3-8841 2300 – Fax: +33-3-8841 2777

European Youth Centre BudapestZivatar ucta 1-3

H-1024 Budapest, HungaryTel: +36-1-2124078 – Fax: +36-1-2124076

Council of EuropeDG IV

Directorate of Youth and Sport

European CommissionDG Education and Culture

Unit D5: Youth Policy and ProgrammeRue de la Loi, 200

B-1049 Brussels, BelgiumTel: +32-2-295 1100 – Fax: +32-2-299 4158


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Introduction

................................................................................................................................ 7

1. Environment : the context and cultureof European Youth Organisations ................................................................................ 9

1.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 9

1.2 The historical context ......................................................................................................... 11

1.3 Organisational culture ........................................................................................................ 12

1.3.1 What is culture ? ............................................................................................................ 121.3.2 Organisational styles .................................................................................................... 14

2. Managing self ..................................................................................................................... 19

2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 19

2.2 Personal awareness ............................................................................................................. 19

2.2.1 Learning to learn ......................................................................................................... 192.2.2 Experiential learning and learning styles ................................................................... 192.2.3 Emotional learning ...................................................................................................... 232.2.4 Learning to think ......................................................................................................... 242.2.5 Prejudice ....................................................................................................................... 25

2.3 Managing your personal resources ................................................................................... 27

2.3.1 From competence to professionalism ............................................................................ 272.3.2 Self-motivation ............................................................................................................. 282.3.3 Managing time ............................................................................................................. 292.3.4 Managing stress ............................................................................................................ 322.3.5 Managing communication ........................................................................................... 352.3.6 Managing change ......................................................................................................... 36

3. Managing people .............................................................................................................. 43

3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 43

3.2 Teams and leaders .............................................................................................................. 43

3.2.1 Teamworking and leadership ...................................................................................... 433.2.2 Motivating people ......................................................................................................... 493.2.3 Empowerment ............................................................................................................... 513.2.4 Responsibility ............................................................................................................... 51

3.3 Training, development and assessment ............................................................................ 51

3.3.1 The learning organisation ........................................................................................... 513.3.2 Learning styles .............................................................................................................. 533.3.3 Assessment of performance and work review ............................................................... 53

3.4 Coaching, mentoring and counselling .............................................................................. 54

3.4.1 Coaching ....................................................................................................................... 543.4.2 Mentoring ..................................................................................................................... 563.4.3 Counselling ................................................................................................................... 58

Contents


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4. The management of processes .................................................................................... 61

4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 61

4.2 Managing the organisation ................................................................................................ 614.2.1 Management structure ................................................................................................. 62

4.3 Systems management ......................................................................................................... 64

4.4 Organisation development (OD) ........................................................................................ 65

4.5 Decision making and policy development ........................................................................ 66

4.6 Communication and information ...................................................................................... 67

4.7 Knowledge and learning .................................................................................................... 69

4.8 Strategic planning ............................................................................................................... 714.8.1 Why planning is important ? ........................................................................................ 714.8.2 What is strategic planning ? ......................................................................................... 714.8.3 Strategic planning steps ............................................................................................... 72

4.9 Financial management ....................................................................................................... 764.9.1 Budget ........................................................................................................................... 764.9.2 The balance sheet .......................................................................................................... 784.9.3 The income and expenditure statement ....................................................................... 784.9.4 Cash flow statements .................................................................................................... 78

4.10 Contracting ....................................................................................................................... 78

4.11 Terms and conditions of employment ............................................................................. 78

4.12 Managing external relations ............................................................................................ 79

Appendix 1 : Historical and contemporary perspectives of management ........ 81

Appendix 2 : Organisational management T-KIT evaluation ............................... 85

Appendix 3 : References and further reading ............................................................. 87


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This T-kit seeks to encourage the developmentof well managed youth organisations acrossEurope through the provision of a theoreticalfoundation and practical application of organ-isational management techniques.

It has been produced with the aim to serve:

• Trainers and multipliers in the field oforganisational management

• “Managers” (i.e. Secretary Generals, Interna-tional Co-ordinators, Executives, Presidents,etc.) of small and medium sized non-gov-ernmental youth organisations.

Both the words ‘managers’ and ‘management’may seem sometimes a bit alien to the jargonused in youth organisations. However wewould like to emphasise that management isnot only a business practise, any volunteerorganising a day trip is managing time, peopleand resources. So it is important that individ-uals identify themselves with the concept ofmanagement.

This T-kit does not attempt to offer the solu-tion to all youth organisation’s problems. Inthe same way that organisations and individ-uals are unique, solutions are too. So thereare not miraculous recipes, however we offertechniques and methods that can be adaptedto your organisation’s reality and help it toimprove its quality.

A publication of this size does not have enoughspace to cover in depth all the topics relatedto organisational management. For this rea-son the authors have had to be selective intheir choice of topics developed. The selec-tion of topics for this T-Kit and their groupinginto 4 chapters is the result of great discus-sion amongst the authors who themselvesbring wide experience of managing and man-agement theory. Other T-kits are plannedfor the future on specialised themes such usfund-raising, and a complementary bibliog-raphy is offered on different topics in thispublication.

The T-kit is divided in four main sections whichcan be read independently and which alsoare interconnected; thus demonstrating theholistic approach to managing organisations.Each section includes some theoretical back-ground, analysis and specific exercises to assisttrainers in their work.

Chapter 1 describes organisations as systemsrelated to the external environment and able todevelop a specific internal environment calledculture. The use of the word “environment”is intentional as it is intended to help thoseinvolved in management to consider first thecontext of youth organisations and their rolein today’s society.

Chapters 2 and 3 are devoted to people, theorganisation’s greatest resource: Chapter 2is about management of self – an essentialprecursor to managing others. It covers thediscovery of one’s potential as manager andleader and understanding how we learn. It alsoconsiders the importance of relationships inmanagement.

Chapter 3 is about management of people.Management is not seen as the controllingfactor in organisations but rather a functionfocussed on the mission of the organisation.Management enables the purpose to be definedand fulfilled by adapting to change and bymaintaining a balance between the various,and frequently conflicting, pressures of work.

Chapter 4 goes into the management of processor the “non human resources” within and out-side the organisation. Processes are treated asdynamic elements within the life of an organ-isation – continually changing, responding anddeveloping.

The word organisation comes from the Greekword organon which means tool or instrument.The information that the following chapterscontain will hopefully help youth organisa-tions to be effective as tools to meet the needsof young people across Europe.

We hope you will enjoy reading this T-kit.

Introduction


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There are many terms used to name anddefine youth organisations but most of themdo not seem to be broad enough to includetheir full variety. In fact definitions seem toconstrain this diversity, which actually is oneof the most prominent characteristics of youthorganisations. However it could be interest-ing to review the contents of some of thosedefinitions, as most of them emphasise keyaspects which will help us to identify theplace youth organisations have in societyand the role they play.

a) They are often volunteer organisations:although some might have paid staff, thehigher decision making bodies (governance)are formed by volunteers.

b) They are non-profit organisations: whichdoes not mean that they cannot have eco-nomic profit, it means that any profit will beinvested in activities which will contribute tothe accomplishment of their mission.

c) They are non-governmental organisations,which means they are not part of the publicadministration, however this does not meanthey cannot be supported (e.g. financially) byit. 1

d) They are youth organisations: they are agroup of people who come together in orderto achieve a shared value, with a common struc-ture and organisation. Young people play aprominent role in a least one of the followingelements:

• Young people are responsible for the run-ning of the organisation. That means thatthey are not necessarily the beneficiaries.Those could be cultural heritage, the envir-onment or elderly people.

• Young people are the beneficiaries of theorganisation’s activities. However the organ-isation’s activities maybe organised byadults.

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1. Environment :The context and cultureof European Youth Organisations

1.1 Introduction

1

Suggestions for training

One could think that obviously all those involved in a youth organisation shared thesame knowledge and opinion about it, but in many cases this can be far from true. Thisfirst exercise should provide the group with the opportunity to discuss the differentideas each of them have about the organisation. As a result the group will establishsome common understanding and vocabulary about the organisation ; one which isshared by everybody.

• Ask the group to review the above definitions and discuss the characteristics theirorganisations fulfil and in which ways. After that they should be encouraged to finddifferent characteristics which might be more specific to their organisation.

• To help the group to consider all important aspects the following list can be distributedto help with the discussion, making sure participants relate them to their organisation.

– Objectives– How long established– Level of formalisation – Internal structure– Field of action– Target group– Geographical importance– Continuity of activities– Type of activities– Relations with other organisations

1 a, b and c from Domenech, Alfred Vernis et al. (1998)


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If we could compare the different definitionsand roles of youth organisations across Europeit would be easy to realise that there are greatdifferences in opinion from one country toanother. This not only influences a great dealthe role they play in society but also the way

they can play it. It is important to be aware of thedifferent scenarios in which youth organisa-tions work in Europe, as all those differenceshave an impact in how they can be managed.

These questions do not have just one rightanswer, the task is for the group to decidewhich situation they are immersed in.

Another influence comes from the fact thatyouth organisations do not exist in the vacu-um. They “live” in a specific environment whichhas an influence on them. For this reason youth

organisations need to be constantly updatedabout the developments in their environment,so changes will not take them by surpriseor pass unnoticed. For example a new publicprovision of a certain service might put an

end to the problem the youth organisation istrying to solve with its work, failure to antici-pate that and to act inline with it will meanthat the purpose of the organisation does notexist anymore and sooner or later it will haveto dissolve or re-invent itself. For instancea greater sensitivity to a certain issue, whichcould be the central work of the youth organ-isation, might open new opportunities for it

What we would like to stress here as a keyissue for those in management positions inyouth organisations is that they need to be able

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• Once there is agreement regarding the main characteristics that define a youth organ-isation, we should move one step forward and find out about the role the organisation hasin society. The following questions may help participants develop their understanding :

– are youth organisations creating a space or filling a gap?

– are they carrying out some work that should be done by governments? or are theygiving answers and alternatives to particular problems that affect our societies andyoung people in particular?

– which is the real contribution on awareness raising and defence of rights performedby youth organisations?

– are there any other actors in society developing this work already? If so, is it done inthe same way? or where are the differences?

– do youth organisations offer opportunities for young people to have an active role insociety?

– why is it that some people volunteer and others don’t ?

– is voluntary work a fashion that will dieout or is it a genuine way of partici-pation for young people?

– do youth organisations promote andpractice values and attitudes that areimportant for society?

– are youth organisations representativeof young people in Europe or do theyonly represent a minority of peoplewho participate in them? Can thereforeyouth organisations be considered truespeakers for young people or are theynot entitled to play that role?


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to read the reality which surrounds them asthe only way to be proactive and to developthe organisation in line with the present andfuture needs of society.

1.2 The historical context

Once we know where we are, it is importantto know how we arrived here. Many of thecurrent aspects and practices of organisationshave their roots in their own history. For thisreason they have to be known and under-stood by at least the people involved in man-aging practices within the organisation. Some

times a certain way of doing things might notbe easy to understand without the historicalbackground and this might have an effect onhow new volunteers see the work in the organ-isation. The fact that something has alwaysbeen done in a certain way is not a guaranteeof quality, so we should analyse this if we areto improve our organisations.

Before we can start any planning; before ques-tioning why things work or don’t work in theorganisation; before any decision can be made,managers need to spend some time under-standing their own organisation. The lessonsof history can be incorporated into the com-mon knowledge and be used for future plan-ning.

It was mentioned at the beginning of this sec-tion that what a youth organisation is now has

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• Gather information about the organisation’s history by producing an “Identity card”for the organisation. This exercise guarantees that all people involved in manage-ment have the same background knowledge about the organisation. The ID cardshould include at least the following information :

Name of organisation

Field of action

Date of foundation

Number of members

Structure

In chronological order list key events is the life of the organisation

In chronological order list key events outside the organisation that had an influence on it.

Lessons from history : Keys to stabilityand growth (internal & external)

Lessons from history : Recurring themesthat show causes for instability

Outside perceptions of the organisation

Participants should be asked at thebeginning to be as objective as possible,especially with the last three questions.The likely subjectivity of answers to thesethree in particular needs to be taken intoaccount.


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its roots in its own historical development. Wehave looked into that with the previous exer-cise, it is time now to come back to presenttimes and start studying in a more detailedway our organisation today. Now we proposeto look into the organisation’s current pro-grammes and related infrastructure. The wayof doing so could be by preparing an organi-sational profile. The following three steps showhow to do it.

Step 1: List all specific programme activitiesand services i.e. counselling and support, hous-ing, information, speaking engagements atcorporations, public policy updates, etc. Notecurrent levels of activity and scale of currentprogrammes including, for example, data suchas number of clients served, cost per unit ofservice, geographic locations serviced etc.

Step 2: group these programme activities andservices according to common outcomes, cate-gories, similar services, or the like. Think ofthese groupings as goals.

Step 3: Prepare an infrastructure profile. This willinclude information on basic management andoperation functions that support the currentprogramme, such as personnel management,fund-raising, marketing, facilities and financialmanagement and the board of directors.

This information will include current paid andvolunteer staffing levels for all programmesand for the entire organisation, as well as thesize of the board of directors.

Also briefly summarise sources and use offunds, analysis of financial condition, and otherrelated organisational management data. Chartsand diagrams are useful visual to help presentthe data. 2

So far we have worked on the concept of organ-isation: first we tried to decide what a youthorganisation is, then we considered its role incontemporary European society, and thirdlywe have focused on discovering some keyaspects of our own organisations.

So, the first term in the title of the next sectionnow seems clear but what about the secondone?

1.3 Organisational culture

1.3.1 What is culture?

There are many definitions for this word. TheLongman dictionary of contemporary Englishdefines culture as “the customs, beliefs, art,music, and all other products of human thoughtmade by a particular group of people at a par-ticular time”.

Very frequently culture is just related to folkor art. However if we look at the concept in abroader way we may recognise some otherelements such as sense of humour, gastrono-my or even family relationships. If we try toexplain it in a very simple way maybe we couldsay that culture is a particular way a group ofpeople has of doing things.

And there the analogy is not difficult; youthorganisations are groups of people who per-form certain tasks in a specific way.

The problem here is that some of the elementsthat we might consider part of culture are notas obvious as some others. The following dia-gram suggests that in fact only one tenth ofcultural components are obvious or, 90% ofculture is subconscious. Culture in this senseis seen as an iceberg where only part of it canbe seen but obviously all of it has to be takeninto consideration.

Now that we are about to involve ourselvesin studying the culture of our organisation weneed to be cautious. It is important to alwayskeep in mind that we must look beyond theobvious, otherwise we will miss 9/10 of theelements which form our culture.

Many authors have written about organisa-tional cultures; identifying certain patterns ofbehaviour in which most organisations couldeasily identify themselves.

There are aspects of culture that are very rel-evant if we are to manage an organisation.We have to take into consideration that eachculture reacts in a different way to the same

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2 Michael Allison and Jude Kaye (1997)


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issue, and equally important, we have to con-sider that individuals can fit or not in a certainculture. This latter observation has clearimplications for groups of people who cometogether to achieve a common purpose.

The authors of this T-kit feel that the last def-inition matches with their concept of culturefor youth organisations. It is a straight for-ward and practical definition which we hopewill help those involved in organisations tounderstand the culture of the body to whichthey belong.

1.3.2 Organisational styles

Now that we have in mind what we mean byorganisational culture we are ready to analysesome of the basic organisational “styles” asCharles Handy names them. These descrip-tions will help us to identify the culture ofour organisation which in turn will help usanswer the following questions:

– why are things done in a certain way inour organisation?

– what are the advantages and disadvan-tages of doing things in this way?

– depending on their own personality whypeople fit or don’t fit in our organisation?

The answers to all these questions are an essen-tial base if we as managers are looking fornew ways to develop our organisations.

The following description is a summary basedon Handy’s classification of four main cate-gories of organisational cultures:

The Club Culture

The spider’s web is the best image to describethe organisation as the key to the whole organ-isation sits in the centre, surrounded by everwidening circles of influence. The closeryou get to the spider the more influence youhave.

The “organisational idea” in the club cultureis that the organisation is there to extend theperson of the head, or even the founder. Ifthey could carryout every task the organisa-tion would not exist, the organisation is thereactually because they can’t. So the organisa-tion should be an extension of themselvesacting on their behalf, a club of like-mindedpeople.

Some advantages of this culture are:– The organisation is productive

– The objectives of the organisation will beachieved one way or another

– The work is efficient and supervised

– The system can be maintained and theorganisation can do anything.

– Their great strength is the ability torespond immediately and intuitively toopportunities or crises because of the veryshort lines of communication and becauseof the centralisation of power.

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1Suggestions for training

Use the following definitions of organ-isational culture to stimulate debate.What definitions would group mem-bers prefer to use?

• Trompenaars “.... the essence ofculture is not what is visible on thesurface. It is the shared ways groupsof people understand and interpretthe world.”

• Morgan gives different definitions :“When we talk about culture weare typically referring to the pat-tern of development reflected in asociety’s system of knowledge, ide-ology, values, laws and day-to-dayrituals”.

• Wilkins defined it as “the taken forgranted and shared meanings thatpeople assign to their social under-standings”

• Ouchi and Jackson have quite astraight forward definition “howthings are done around here”

He also says that “Organisations aremini-societies that have their owndistinctive patterns of culture andsubculture. Such patterns of belief orshared meaning... can exert a deci-sive influence on the overall abilityof the organisation to deal with thechallenges it faces.”


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The role culture

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The task culture

The Role Culture

The Task Culture The person cultureThe Person Culture

The club cultureThe Club Culture

Fig. OM-2 : Handy’s classificationof organisational cultures

Source : Handy, Charles (1990) Understanding Voluntary Organisations, p. 86, 88, 90, 92, ISBN 0-14-01438-6.Reproduced by permission of Penguin Books Ltd.


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However it also has some disadvantages:– Production doesn’t necessarily meet the

needs.– Decisions are made arbitrarily– Pressure can never be released– Causes resentment, anger, a desire for

revenge on part of losers– Puts people in a defensive position– Personal needs of members are not satisfied.

The best image is the kind of organisationalchart many organisations have. It looks like aPyramid of boxes. Inside each box is a jobtitle with an individual’s name in smaller typebelow, indicating who is currently the occu-pant of the box; but of course the box con-tinues even if the individual departs.

The Role Culture

The underlying “organisational idea” is thatorganisations are sets of roles of job-boxes.Joined together in a logical and orderly fash-ion so that together they discharge the workof the organisation. The organisation is a pieceof structural engineering, with role piled uponrole and responsibility linked to responsibili-ty. Individuals are “role occupants” with jobdescriptions that effectively lay down therequirements of the role and its boundaries.From time to time the organisation willrearrange the roles and their relationship toeach other, as priorities change, and thenreallocate the individuals to the roles.

Advantages:– The roles, tasks and functions are well

defined and respected.– The work is of good quality.– Financial and hierarchical relations are well

defined and well respected.– Members feel they are taken into consider-

ation.

Disadvantages:– Difficulties in facing unforeseen problems– Time consuming, few people can influence

the structure– Rejection of unplanned/unforeseen activities– Delay in decision-making.

The Task Culture

The task culture evolved in response to theneed for an organisational form that couldrespond to change in a less individualisticway than a club culture, and more speedilythan a role culture.

The “organisational idea” of this culture is thata group or team of talents and resources shouldbe applied to a project, problem or task. In thatway each task gets the treatment it requires-it does not have to be standardised acrossthe organisation. Also, the groups can bechanged, disbanded or increased as the taskchanges.

The task culture is the preferred culture of manyprofessional people, because they work ingroups, sharing both skills and responsibilities.

Advantages:– Members feel they have accomplished

something they are motivated to succeed.– People are competent, specialised, rational,

independent and analytical.– The causes and consequences of a problem

are analysed in detail, as are the possiblesolutions.

Disadvantages:– Difficulty to mobilise the energy of mem-

bers towards managing everyday tasks, toarouse public interest and distribute infor-mation.

– Difficult to make oneself understood– Difficult to obtain the consent of people

when a change is required.

The Person Culture

The person culture differs greatly from thethree previous ones as it puts the individualpurposes first and makes the organisation theresource for the individual talents. The mostobvious examples are those professionals (i.e.doctors, lawyers, architects) who, for their ownconvenience, group themselves in practice.

The “organisational idea” behind this cultureis that the individual talent is all-important andmust be serviced by some sort of minimalorganisation.

The individual professional in these organisa-tions see the management as lower in statuswith few if any formal means of control overthe professionals. The professionals tend toprefer such terms as practice, chambers orpartnership.

Advantages:– Personal needs (security, self-esteem, etc.)

of the members are satisfied to a certaindegree

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– Relationships between people are close andfriendly, frank and respectful.

– Intellectual and emotional integration ofmembers is a target

Disadvantages:– Difficult to obtain results immediately or

to implement decisions– Causes loss of time and diverts energy form

the objectives and problems which arise.

After this short description of the differentstyles of culture identified, it is important tosay that in some cases organisations are actu-ally a mixture of some of them rather than apure model of one of the styles. The reasonan organisation has a certain style is deter-mined by many factors, often not by choicebut rather, by chance or evolution.

Although we do not explain them here, eachstyle has a “type of person” which fits with it.Important research is currently being carried out to identify the personal characteristicswhich fit with each organisational culture. Cooke

and Laferty produced “The OrganisationalCulture Inventory”, "which is a quantitativeinstrument that measures twelve types ofbehavioural norms that describe the think-ing and behavioural styles that might beimplicitly or explicitly required to “fit in” and“meet expectations” in an organisation orsub-unit. These behavioural norms specify theways in which all members of an organisa-tion […] are expected to approach their workand interact with one another”. It also has aninfluence in the different ways individualslearn, an aspect which is further developed inthe section on personal awareness. Althoughthe study carried out by Cooke and Lafertyexceeds the scope of this publication we want-ed to emphasise the importance of culture inorganisations.

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• Ask the group to consider the currentrelevance of Handy’s classification oforganisational cultures. Do currentorganisations have anything newto add to this ? What impact does astrong values base, or volunteeringpolicy have on the culture of anorganisation?


• Following the descriptions of culturegiven above, ask the group to identifythe culture of their own organisa-tions. A first step can be a review ofthe main characteristics of each type.The group should be able to agree onwhich culture/s their organisationhas most in common with. Thereafter,they should analyse the advantagesand disadvantages of their cultureand relate them to the reality oftheir organisation. The group hasto be aware of the fact that cultureis not a static element ; it evolveswith the organisation due to bothinternal and external influences.


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2.1 Introduction

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A young person is often in a management posi-tion within a youth organisation not becauses/he wants to be a manager, but because s/hehas the opportunity to serve the organisationfor a limited period of time. It is therefore com-mon that such a person has not had manage-ment training beforehand. Often this situationis the first time the person to has had to for-mally manage something.

In this section we will consider the need tomanage oneself in this new situation; copingwith new duties, new people, new emotions.Usually the main reaction is to do things; try-ing to start performing as soon as possible. Inthis T-kit we suggest you to take a minute tothink about yourself, your history, your waysof dealing and relating with others and espe-cially with your way of learning. At the end ofyour management period in the organisation,you will discover that learning has been oneof the main outcomes- both in terms of skillsand attitudes acquired and in terms of devel-opment of your own potential.

2.2 Personal awareness

2.2.1 Learning to learn

There are different definitions of learning, relat-ed to knowledge and abilities or skills. There isno one best method of learning. Learning mightbe described as gaining a new awareness aboutone’s potential; manifested in new knowledge,new capacities, new attitudes, new skills andespecially in the combining of all these intowhat might be called professionalism.

Learning is not only an intellectual activity. Toooften in formal schooling, pupils are taughtstudy methods based only on the use of intel-lect. Being taught can be considered a passiveactivity while learning is active. In teaching,the focus is often the teacher, while in learn-ing it is the learner. There is a significant dif-ference. Where is the focus in training? Arewe like teachers? Peter Vall says that todaybecause we use modern technologies and more

comfortable seats, we tend to believe that wedo not reproduce the formal school settinglearning environment. Where is the differencebetween a formal education setting and the onewe propose?

In non-formal education, the term learning ispreferred to teaching. Personal learning andlearning how to learn become then the focus ofself-development. The environment and otherpeople are extremely important in learning asthey form the context and bring extra meaningto the learner.

In today’s society intellectual capital hasreplaced the more traditional meaning of cap-ital needed for success in business or in life.Learning to learn is based on the recognitionthat there are different ways of learning involv-ing the whole person including elements ofintellect, emotions, body and thinking abilities.

2.2.2 Experiential learningand learning styles

Peter Honey and Alan Mumford have identi-fied different learning styles. Their theorysays that each person learns from specific sit-uations. Being able to apply different learningstyles implies that the person is able to learnfrom a variety of situations and experiencesthus maximising their learning opportuni-ties. In some settings then, training becomesan opportunity to reflect on our own experi-ence and learn from it.

Honey and Mumford have developed a learningstyles questionnaire presenting 80 situationalstatements aimed at helping you focus on your

2. Managing self


• Collect sayings from different culturesabout learning, teaching, educationand training (include the EuropeanUnion definition of life-long learn-ing).

• Classify and check them.

• Confront differences and similarities.


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behaviour. The responses to the statementsare processed to provide an assessment of yourpreferred learning style. The originators thengive an explanation of the four different styles,the situations best suited to those styles andsuggestions for dealing with situations whereless preferred styles would be more appropriate.You should be aware that this questionnairehas been developed in the USA and some state-ments may be culturally sensitive.

Honey and Mumford developed Kolb’s expe-riential learning circle, here transformed intoa spiral to stress continual development.

According to this theory, what is important isnot what happens to you, but what you do with

what happens to you. Experiential learning isseen as a 4 step process. It does not matterhow long it takes, the most important is to gofrom the experience phase to the thinking itover, to the critical analysis and generalisationto come to planning of the use of the newlyacquired competence.

Stage 1 – Doing and experiencing is part ofeveryday life but it can also be anarranged opportunity.

Stage 2 – Observing and reflecting on whathas happened to you.

Stage 3 – Concluding from the experienceand generalising.

Stage 4 – Applying the newly acquired compe-tence or planning a new experience.

DoingReflecting

Doing Observing

Development of new competence

Fig. OM-3 : Learning (circle/spiral)

Source : Honey, Peter and Mumford, Alan (1992) The Manual of Learning Styles, p. 3, ISBN 0-9508444-7-0.Adapted version.


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Activist – strengths

Flexible and open minded

Happy to have a go

Happy to be exposed to new situations

Optimistic about anything new and thereforeunlikely to resist change

Reflector – strengths

Careful

Thorough and methodical

Thoughtful

Good at listening to others and assimilatinginformation

Rarely jump to conclusions

Theorist – strengths

Logical “vertical” thinkers

Rational and objective

Good at asking probing questions

Disciplined approach

Pragmatist – strengths

Keen to test things out in practice

Practical, down to earth, realistic

Businesslike – get straight to the point

Technique oriented

Weaknesses

Tendency to take the immediately obviousaction without thinking

Often take unnecessary risks

Tendency to do too much themselves and hogthe limelight

Rush into action without sufficient preparation

Get bored with implementation/consolidation

Weaknesses

Tendency to hold back from direct participation

Slow to make up their minds and reach a decision

Tendency to be too cautious and not takeenough risks

Not assertive – they are not particularly forth-coming and have no “small talk”

Weaknesses

Restricted in lateral thinking

Low tolerance foe uncertainty, disorder andambiguity

Intolerant of anything subjective or intuitive

Full of “should, ought and must”

Weaknesses

Tendency to reject anything without an obviousapplication

Not very interested in theory or basic principles

Tendency to seize on the first expedient solutionto a problem

Impatient with waffle

On balance, task oriented not people oriented.

Fig. OM-4 : Learning styles strengths and weaknesses

Source : Honey, Peter and Mumford, Alan (1992) The Manual of Learning Styles, p. 47-48, ISBN 0-9508444-7-0.


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The four learning styles: activist, reflector, the-orist and pragmatist are linked to the four stagesof learning.

For each stage there is a preferred learning style.A preference for the activist style equips youfor stage 1.A preference for the reflector style equips youfor stage 2.A preference for the theorist style equips youfor stage 3.A preference for the pragmatist style equipsyou for stage 4.All-round learners, or “integrated learners” areclearly best equipped to manage all four stages.However, most people develop learning stylepreferences that assist with some stages andhinder others. Those style preferences verysignificantly affect the sort of activities thatpeople learn best from.

• Activists learn best from experiences where:There are new experiences, problems, oppor-tunities from which to learn.They can engross themselves in short “hereand now” activities such as business games,competitive tasks, role playing exercises.They have a lot of the limelight, high visibility.They are thrown in at the deep end with a taskthey think is difficult.

• Reflectors, on the other hand, learn bestfrom activities where:

They are encouraged to watch, think, chewover activities.They are allowed to think before acting, toassimilate before commenting.They have the opportunity to review what hashappened, what they have learned.They can reach a decision in their own timewithout pressure and tight deadlines.

• Theorists learn best from activities where:They have time to explore methodically theassociations and interrelationships betweenideas, events and situations.They are in structured situations with clearpurposes.They have the chance to question and probethe basic methodology, assumptions or logicbehind something.They are intellectually stretched.

• Pragmatists learn best from activities where:There is an obvious link between the subjectmatter and a problem or opportunity on thejob.

They are shown techniques for doing thingswith obvious practical advantages currentlyapplicable to their own job.

They have the chance to try out and practisetechniques with coaching, feedback from acredible expert.They can concentrate on practical issues.

Once you know your preferred learningstyle(s) it is important to be clear about therelative strengths and weaknesses of eachstyle. Selecting appropriate learning opportu-nities essentially involves finding activitieswhere strengths will be utilised and whereweaknesses will not prove too much of hand-icap. The table on page 21 will help with youown assessment.

Your preferred learning style has implica-tions for you as a manager, learner and train-er; most importantly you need to developyour under-developed styles so that you canlearn in as wide a range of situations as pos-sible.

It is important to remember that you tend to useyour preferred learning style(s) while training ormanaging. To work well with people with dif-ferent learning styles it is important to use a mixof activities in line with the 4 learning stylesso that you can provide opportunities foreverybody.


• Distribute the Honey and Mumfordlearning style questionnaire* and thescoring sheet without the definitionof the learning styles.

• Group people according to the resultsobtained from the questionnaire

• Ask each group to identify experi-ences where they have learned bestand create a profile of learning styleby choosing only common elements.

• Compare them with the learningstyles identified by Honey andMumford.

Please note that in many cases peopledo have more than one preferred style.

Subject to copyright. You can find the questionnaire inHoney, Peter and Mumford, Alan (1992)


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2.2.3 Emotional learning

Experiments on the working of emotions andtheir failing have given attention to the factthat emotions are important in social life asthey influence our attitude towards ourselvesand others. Even though there is no agree-ment about the origin of emotions, there is agrowing evidence that fundamental ethicalstances in life stem from underlying emotionalcapacities. There are three main approachesin studying emotions: biological, cognitive andconstructivist.

The biological approach gathers emotions inbasic categories that are anger, fear, happiness,love, surprise, disgust and sadness. Emotionsare universal as they are biological propensi-ties to act. The hypothesis of the facial feed-back says that our feelings are strengthenedby the awareness of our expressiveness andthen smiling strengthens our feeling of joy(Ekman).

The cognitive approach says that each emo-tion comes with a general sense of excitementand then we classify them according to socialconventions. Therefore we learn which emo-tions are allowed in which situations. The bio-logical propensities are shaped further by ourlife experience and our culture. Emotions arealso ambiguous and the choice of naming themis based on the consensus of others (Schachter).

The constructivist approach then affirms thatemotions are only social performances gov-erned by rules for proper emotional expres-siveness.

The studies above have not yet solved thedichotomy between head and heart; somepoint to the pre-eminence of heart, some not.There are acts of the emotional mind andacts of the rational mind. In a very real sensewe have two minds, one that thinks and onethat feels. These two fundamentally differentways of knowing interact to construct ourmental life. The two minds operate in tightharmony for the most part, intertwining theirvery different ways of knowing to guide usthrough the world. These minds are semi-independent faculties, each reflecting theoperation of distinct, but interconnected,circuitry in the brain. In many or mostmoments these two minds are exquisitely co-ordinated; feelings are essential to thought,thought to feeling. But when passions surgethe balance tips.

Goleman suggests that in the human brainthere is a meeting point between thought andemotion, a crucial doorway to the deposit forthe likes and dislikes we acquire over thecourse of a lifetime. Cutting oneself off fromemotional memory means that emotionalreactions that have been associated with it inthe past are no longer triggered – everythingtakes on a grey neutrality. That means that weoften make mistakes as we do not rememberthe emotions linked to past actions. Thereforefeelings are indispensable for rational decisions;they point us in the right direction, where drylogic can then be of less use. Emotional learn-ing send signals that streamline the decisionby eliminating some options and highlightothers. The emotional brain is involved inreasoning as is the thinking brain. The emo-tional faculty guides our moment-to-momentdecisions, the thinking brain plays an execu-tive role in our emotions.

The old paradigm held an ideal of reason freedfrom the pull of emotion. The new paradigmurges us to harmonise head and heart. In addi-tion as we explore the connection betweenbody, mind, and spirit, we find that our emo-tional and thinking states influence us physi-cally, and vice versa. Just observe your bodylanguage-when you’re feeling uplifted, yourbody feels light and your energy is more “up.”When you’re depressed, you feel heavy andyour energy is “down.” When you’re feelingvulnerable, your shoulders cave forward, yourarms tend to cross your body for protection,and so on.


• List the feelings that your cultureallows you to express.

• Think of the feelings your cultureforces you or expects you to expressin given situations.

• Describe how you are allowed toexpress your feelings.

• What differences exist in expressingfeelings between genders?

• Compare such outcomes with othercultures.


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2.2.4 Learning to think

Is thinking a skill? Can we learn how to thinkand how to use our thinking possibilities? Youhave two possible answers according to whatyou believe. The first one is to consider think-ing as a matter of intelligence determined bygenes and measurable with IQ tests. The sec-ond one is to consider thinking as a skill thatcan be improved by training and practice.The two opposing views can be combinedrather simply by using De Bono’s definition“thinking is the operating skill through whichintelligence acts upon experience”.

This definition implies some considerations:Intelligence can be a trap in the developmentof thinking skills. A highly intelligent personcan take a view on a subject and then use hisor her intelligence to defend that view. Themore intelligent the person the better thedefence of the view. The better the defencethe less that person sees any need to seek outalternatives or to listen to anyone else. A sec-ond aspect of the intelligence trap is that aperson who has grown up with the notionthat he or she is more intelligent than thosearound wants to get the most satisfaction fromthat intelligence. Reward for intelligence is toprove somebody else wrong.

Practice is not automatically followed byimprovement. There is a need to pay direct

attention to the methods of thinking. Think-ing is not on the school curriculum becauseeducation gets caught up in the tradition trap.Those making decisions have experience andvalues based only on the past. Informationis given priority because it tells what to do.Thinking is considered impossible to teachseparately, but only linked to other subjects,thus denying its own value.

Critical thinking is the most known way ofthinking. It comes from the Greek meaning“judging”. It is articulated in three phases:analysis, judgement and argument. If we lookat science and technology, the successescome not from critical thinking but from the“possibility” system that creates hypothesisand visions.

Perception is the most important part of think-ing. Perception is the way we look at theworld. What things we take into account. Howwe structure the world. It seems now likelythat perception works as a “self-organisinginformation system”. Such a system allows thesequence in which information arrives to setup patterns. Our thinking then remains trappedwithin these patterns.

Thinking tools are as necessary as tools forany activity. The tools are “attention directingtools”. Without them attention follows the pat-terns laid down by experience and we remaintrapped.

Think of a coloured map. If you need to locatea motorway, your attention will be attractedby the line in the colour you know represents amotorway. Now you are in a room. Somebodyinvites you to close your eyes and asks you toname all the green objects in the room. Prob-ably you will have difficulty in naming all ofthem. These examples show that thinking ismore functional when it is directed.

Difficulties arise as we use different levels ofthinking such as logic, information, sensitivityand creativity at the same time. This causesconfusion in ourselves and in communicat-ing with others. For instance, if when makinga decision we let out thoughts evaluate whatwe would like to do, what should be avoided,our feelings, etc. we could find ourselves in adeadlock.

Edward De Bono has suggested six thinkingroles which he describes in terms of six colouredhats:


• Ask people to lay down on the floorby creating a chain. The contact pointis head against belly. The person withthe head on the belly of anotherperson will feel the movement ofthe belly and it is automaticallyprovoked to reproduce the samemovements.

• Ask the person starting the chainto laugh and you will experiencethat everybody will start laughingone after the other like dominoesfalling down.

• Put people in pairs, ask them to sim-ulate feelings using different expres-sions. Create a vocabulary for theexpression of feelings.


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The white hat – expresses number, data, objec-tivity, the known. It is not allowed to expresspersonal opinion. It is just allowed to listenwithout discussion. What is said is not alwaysvalid for everybody, it is just an indication tobe considered as such, in a neutral way.

The red hat – allows expression of emotionsand feelings without justification and withouta logic base. We do not need to guess otherpeople feelings, we can ask about it. The pos-sibility to freely express feelings allows us toturn emotions on and off in just a few seconds,without denying, hiding or modifying them.

The black hat – expresses the negative-logic;whatever logically cannot function in the givensituation. It can be considered pessimistic butit is logical and not emotional. It explains whysomething cannot work and highlight risks,dangers and gaps in a given situation or project.This way of thinking confronts past experi-ences, puts them in relation to the presentand values the possibility of future mistakesor failures.

The yellow hat – expresses positive thinking,optimism and is constructive. It evaluates thepositive aspects of an idea, project or givensituation. You should find as many good rea-sons as possible to support your optimisticdeclaration. Should your idea not be fullysupported by your declarations, it is anywayworth expressing them.

The green hat – expresses the creative think-ing without considering prejudices, logic,critiques or interpretations. Its aim is to lookfor alternatives behind what should logicallychosen. It is a moving idea; jumping from oneto another. It provokes us to get off the usualthinking patterns.

The blue hat – serves to control the thinkingitself. It identifies the necessary thinking toexplore the topic. It organises all the otherroles, focusing on what is needed to deal withand to classify all aspects of the given situa-tion, by asking the appropriate questions. Itperforms the co-ordination role, supervisingand summing up, solving the conflict andgetting to conclusions.

The hats are tools and rules at the same time.This classification of thinking is a model butremember that the map is not the territory!The exercise below will help to clarify the useof the model.

2.2.5 Prejudice

Before talking about prejudice it is necessaryto define attitudes as a tendency to make aquick positive or negative reply to a specificobject or group of objects. In an attitude thereis the content (the object) and a value judge-ment, either positive or negative, towards theobject. Attitudes are persistent. As prejudicehas such characteristics, thus it can be consid-ered an attitude. There are three main aspectsof prejudice:The cognitive aspect: the total of concepts andperceptions towards an object or group ofobjects.The emotional aspect: feelings towards anobject or group of objects.The behavioural aspect: actions towards anobject or group of objects.

We can define a prejudice as a specific positiveor negative attitude in dealing with a personwhen such person belongs to a specified cat-egory of people. When the prejudice is trans-lated into a specific behaviour we can talkabout discrimination.

Discrimination can have two negative effects:(a) an attack to the self-esteem (when you feelinferior, you think that you have no value) and(b) looking for self-failure as commitment tosuccess is proportional to the perceived prob-ability of success.

Discrimination can also be positive: This is animportant element to consider in a manage-ment environment: we behave according toexpectations and thus we fulfil prophecies byvalidating the prejudices.


• Individually or in a group identify aproblem, a situation or a project.

• Wear the hats one after the otherand assume the role given.

• Freely express yourself (protected bythe role).

• Do not argue with the others (peopleand/or roles).

• Wear the blue hat and come to con-clusions.


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There are 4 elements of social influence in amanagement (or training) situation:• The emotional environment – the positive

consideration towards some people

• Information – the higher degree of informa-tion released to some

• Change in behaviour – more attention givento those we love most

• The degree of feedback – a clearer and con-stant judgement given to the preferred col-leagues (or trainees).

There can also be institutional discrimination:Research has shown that the effect of discrim-ination varies according to the place in history.

Today there is more understanding about manygroups of people and social influence haslessened its pressure towards some of them.There is also more awareness about one’s rightsand less fear about claiming them.

As prejudice is expressed in behaviour, changein behaviour does not always correspond tochange in attitude. Often change is difficultbecause prejudice is socially accepted and seenas a way to recruit new friends or to build posi-tion.

Prejudice is normal, degeneration is not nor-mal. Problems arise when we want to imposesomething such as our good ideas, traditionsand so on. The degeneration of prejudice islinked to the power you have and the use youmake of it in management or training situations.

You will find out that there are stages in deal-ing with prejudice.

The first step is the “ist” situation – to recog-nise and to acknowledge that prejudice existsin ourselves and in other people.

The second step is the “non-ist” situation – torefrain from behaving according to and tak-ing distance from prejudice.

Third step is the “anti-ist” situation – to active-ly invite other to recognise their prejudice andto change their behaviour.

From ist to anti-ist is a long journey.

For further reading you can also consult theT-Kit on intercultural learning.


• Divide the group in pairs and give to each person a role takenfrom discriminated category of people. In turn one persontakes the role of the discriminated person or the role of a per-son against the discriminated one. One person has the role toattack and to say all sort of stereotypes against and the otherhas the role of defending her/himself. It should last around5 minutes per round. Questions for the debriefing :

• Did you change your behaviour?

• How did you feel when you were attacking ?

• How did you feel when you were discriminated against ?

• Were you better equipped in defending yourself or in attacking?


• Identify the prejudices towards acategory of people you belong to.

• Classify them as positive and nega-tive, intentional and non-intention-al, covertly and overtly.

• List those you reinforce by sayingthem or behaving according to them.

• List those you oppose and how youexpress your opposition.

• List what you do to convince othersnot to say or behave according to theprejudices you are against.


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2.3 Managing yourpersonal resources

The first part of this section has allowed youto become aware and acquainted with thediscovery of yourself and your potential. Thispart will go into techniques on how to man-age your personal resources.

2.3.1 From competenceto professionalism

Essence can be described as what is “one’sown”; the potential with which we were born,rather than what we have acquired throughour education, our ideas or our beliefs. Theenvironment both physical and human andthe relations in the environment provide uswith the opportunities that if taken, can helpin developing our potential and thus becom-ing “competent”.

The relevance of some competencies variesby time to time. It is therefore very importantto identify the competencies necessary to ourstage of development through an attentiveanalysis of what is happening around us.

Competence is the combined result of values,skills, attitudes and knowledge and experience.Values are the behavioural responses or actionsaccording to the moral beliefs held by an indi-vidual or an organisation. Skills are the abili-ties that enable you to do something. What youhave in your mind that comes out of yourhands. Attitudes are about thinking something,this thinking makes us feel something and wereact accordingly. Knowledge is about infor-mation and understanding is about the abilityto manipulate and apply knowledge. Anotherway to describe competence is that it is theresult of knowing, doing and being.

Le Boterf suggests that however we describecompetencies, they do not have a life in them-selves. They are nothing if not linked to anindividual that makes them alive. It shouldalso be said that there is a difference betweenacting competently and the resources neces-sary for doing so. Resources can be external –data, individuals, organisations – or internal –knowledge, skills, qualities, experiences, emo-tions, etc. professionalism is then the ability

to combine resources for competent actions.Human beings do not think according to alinear structure or just with logical operations:metaphors and analogies have a role. Humanbeings react to signs with a no fixed a priorimeaning and with an unlimited number ofmeanings. Therefore we cannot control theconditions favouring the combined knowledge.The real professional competence lays in thehighly probable forecasting. There is no onesingle way to be professional in front of a givensituation. Different behaviours can be all goodor bad. Professionalism lays in the ability todescribe complex pictures and situations bypicking up the key elements to interpreter itwithout reducing or simplifying it. The richerthe image is, the higher the professionalism.

In such a complex situation as the reality oftoday, planning can be replaced by navigating.In order not to fall into a sort of wandering, it isimportant to fix some key points. In that sensemanaging and training are not about controlbut they become a way of giving meaning, senseof direction and motivating. As we cannot bein control of our life, this philosophy helpsyou to recognise what you can and cannot.

There are some tools you can use to make ithappen, e.g. personal development plans (set-ting personal objectives), empowerment plans(guided taking of responsibility) or self-eval-uation plans like mapping competencies asdescribed below.

• Identify your best competencies (knowledge,skills and attitudes).

• Put them on the “Competencies’ map” andscore them (0=nothing, 1= very low, 5=verygood).

• Note the peaks and troughs.

• Identify a job or task you need to perform andlist the competencies needed for it.

• Compare your map with the competenciesneeded.

• Look at the gaps.

• Identify opportunities for improvement.

• Do it again after a while and look at the dif-ferences in listing and scoring competenciesor compare it with those of your colleaguesto seek for complementarities.


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2.3.2 Self-motivation

Youth activities are mainly done in groups.Decision-making is a group process in youthorganisations. Structure always involves com-mittees. Meeting is always a source of emotions,pleasure and workload. Preparation and imple-mentation of the decisions is often delegatedto one person. Everybody relies on her/him forthe daily management of the organisation.Motivation comes along with group activities,but it is not always present in working alonewhen you feel the pressure of the entire organ-isation on your shoulders and especially you donot have anybody next to you to share your

thoughts with. Self motivation is a skill essen-tial in your work as difficulties sometimes areseen as insurmountable because everythingseems out of our control.

Motivation is the force that drives you to dothings. It is linked to emotions, needs andexpectations. The concept of need that moti-vates people has been the foundation of mostmotivation theory. In our society, for most ofus, most basic needs have been met – food,clothing, somewhere to live. There are mid-dle-level needs – job security, a reasonablewage, reasonable working conditions. Higherlevel needs will motivate people in a lastingway.

These are the needs to belong to a group, socialstatus, the need to be in control of one’s life,the need for self-fulfilment and pride, the needfor personal development. Further notes onmotivation in the work place can be found inthe section on Managing People.

Often youth workers and volunteers complainthat their middle level needs are not fulfilled,but they stay and keep on doing their job. Isthe voluntary world different from other organ-isations as far as motivation is concerned? Inthe business sector people tend not to staywith an organisation unless middle level needsare fulfilled.

Try to think about the elements that encour-age you to perform better. Praise is a powerfulmotivator. If nobody is around you, praiseyourself, aloud. Sometimes it is enough to say“well done!” or reward yourself by doing some-thing you especially like.

Pavlov introduced the expectancy element intomotivational theories. His studies proved thata suitable reward – praise, a bonus, approval ofcolleagues – after the required performancewill soon lead to expectations that a suitableperformance will bring its own rewards. Inthe same way an unsuitable performance canlead to expectations of disapproval, loss of abonus, etc.

The studies of Mayo and Herzberg showed thatmotivation stems from the consideration givento people and their involvement in the decisionmaking process. The feeling of being “impor-tant” or necessary to the organisation is a highmotivation factor.


Self development plan

• Identify maximum 5 aspects of yourlife you do not want to renounce.

• Identify maximum 5 aspects of yourlife you are not satisfied with.

• Try to link them and identify possiblepaths to get to your self developmentplan.

SWOT analysis

• Identify your Strengths.

• Identify your Weaknesses.

• Identify Opportunities offered by theenvironment.

• Identify the Threats offered by theenvironment.


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You also have the power to increase your ownmotivation. You can follow these steps:• Realising your own worth – write a five

line description of yourself, emphasisingyour good points. Most people find thisextremely difficult as culture teaches us tobe modest! Try to find 10 good points. If notyou might like to try the diary method.Record each day in a small pocket diarythat you carry with you, three events thatyou really enjoyed. It will help to remindyou about your ten good points!

• Realising that you can change things – isquestion of moving from the duty stage tothe will stage. “I do things not because Iam obliged to but because I want to”.

• Thinking positively – first of all believethat you will succeed. Failure is an adultconcept, children are not afraid of mistakes.Identify an aspect you would like to change,write it down and then identify the barri-ers to this change and write them down.Are you sure that these barriers are insur-mountable.

• Setting your goals – write them down andremind them to yourself! Decide on themeans to achieve them and set a time scale.

Do not hurry this process and remember thatmotivation is infectious!

2.3.3 Managing time

Time management is one aspect of good man-agement and is one of the most importantelements in self-management. It is importantfor everyone and especially for those whohave responsibilities for others.

What is time?• Time is our most important resource and

it is important to utilise it fully• Time is the only resource we cannot

increase. Once it is gone it cannot beregained.

• Everyone has the same amount of time, allthe time that is available is 24 hours eachday. The way we use it is the only thingthat differs.

• Stealing time from others is inexcusable.If you create respect for your own time youwill respect other people’s time. Alwaysbeing late for appointments or meetingsmeans that you are wasting other people’stime while they wait for you to arrive.

• At different moments of the day, points inyour life, time seems to pass at differentspeeds. When you are absorbed in yourwork or having a good time it goes quickly.When you are bored or frustrated it passesslowly.

There are some basic principles in time man-agement. They can help you in identifyingcriteria to improve your time management.• Planning – Learning to plan each day, week,

month, year is the first step in learning tocontrol your workload. This also enablesyou to start being realistic about how muchwork you take on, how much time it willtake and what it will involve.

• Prioritising – Learning to distinguishbetween urgent and important tasks andassessing which aspects of your workshould take priority is essential when try-ing to manage your time.

• A good working system – Learning to estab-lish a daily routine, dealing with paperworkeffectively, telephone calls, communicationwith colleagues and filing, all play an impor-tant part.

• Using your diary as a tool – Your diaryplays an essential part in managing yourtime and should include plans, action lists,important notes and any other relevantinformation concerning your job.


• Ask yourself this question “What orwho motivates me?”

• List

who and what in separate listsand group them.

• If the who list is bigger than the whatlist, start there.

• Identify some areas where you feelthat you could be motivated by thewho identified.

• Help them to motivate you. In thisway, helping them to the right atti-tude towards you, you can greatlyincrease your own motivation.


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• Brainstorm a list of everything you would need in order to complete a task.

• Arrange the task list into priority order in a time sequence.

• Decide who will complete the task.

• Estimate how long it would take tocomplete each task, given your existingworkload.

• Establish any additional resources youmay need.

• Set a deadline for each task.

• Transfer tasks into a daily task list inyour diary.

• Learning to say NO – One of the reasonswe become overloaded is that we have anautomatic tendency to say “yes” when peo-ple ask us to do things. Learning to say NOis one of the golden rules of time manage-ment. Nothing is so important that wecannot take a few minutes to assesswhether or not it would be realistic for usto agree.

• Am I the right person for the job? – Oftenwe agree to do something without assessingwhether or not we have the skills, knowl-edge or confidence to do what we arebeing asked. We often just feel guilty andsay “yes”. It is useful to assess whether ornot the task fits in with your overallresponsibilities or is in line with your jobdescription.

This exercise, if it becomes a daily exercise,will help you in rationally using your time.You should not forget that the concept of timechanges according to latitude. In some culturesbeing late is unacceptable, in others is allowedor expected. Therefore our perception of timeis not the same everywhere. Time is also linkedto the concept of quality, power and to expec-tations.

In whatever latitude you live, it is importantfor you to be aware of your way of using your

and other people’s time. Only if you use yourwork time properly will you have time to rest!

Irish poem

Take the time to work,for it is the price of success.

Take the time to think,it is the source of strength.

Take the time to play,it is the secret of youth.

Take the time to read,it is the seed of wisdom.

Take the time to be friendly,for it brings happiness.

Take the time to dream,for it will carry you to the stars.

Take the time to love,it is the joy of life.

Take the time to be content,it is the music of the soul.


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The telephone bothers me when I am in a meeting or preparing an importantdocumentTelephone conversations are almost always unnecessarily longMy assistants or colleagues interrupt my activities to tell me their problemsor to have a chatVisitors or vendors interrupt my personal work by turning up without warningWorking meals and receptions make me feel heavy and sleepyMeetings last too long and are too frequentThe agenda of meetings is non existent or badly preparedThe computers break down too oftenThe secretaries are overworkedMy assistant calls me up during the weekends and during my family holidaysI have a mountain of matters on my desk to deal withI find it difficult to establish and meet deadlines except when under pressureI have too many papers on my desk, the mail and other reading take toomuch timeI put off to the last moment the important tasks which demand a greatdeal of concentration from meI can’t clearly define my objectives and priorities. They are confused andchangeableI deal too often with secondary mattersI don’t make a daily work planI don’t delegate a part of my responsibilities to othersI have a tendency to want to do things too well. I get too involved in detailsI often have to resolve problems which others could deal with just as compe-tentlyAdd up the points obtained in each column

Multiply the total in each column by the value which is allocated to it

Calculate the general total

True

Fig. OM-5 : A method to identify your thieves of time

The following questions should help you to control your timeat work and to identify your thieves of time

Alw

ays

Oft

en

Som

etim

es

Rar

ely

From 0-30 points :

You are letting yourself be robbed every dayby the thieves of time. As you do not planyour time they are stealing your capital oftime.

From 31-40 points :

You try to install a security system to protectyourself from the thieves of time. But the sys-tem does not work sufficiently or regularlyenough for you to really succeed.

From 41-50 points :

You manage your time well enough but younotice some problems and weak points in yourcontrol system through which the thieves couldattempt an armed attack on your capital of time.

From 51-59 points :

Your capital of time is not likely to fall into thehands of the thieves. Congratulations, you area model for all those who want to learn tomanage their time.

= = = =

= = = =

=

X0 X1 X2 X3

Acknowledgement of above diagram is made on an “await claim” basis. The copyright holder has not been traced.Any information enabling us to contact the copyright holder would be appreciated


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2.3.4 Managing stress

Stress occurs when there is an imbalancebetween a demand made on a person and theresources available to respond to the demand.The demand may be real (i.e. things outside theperson’s control). Likewise the resources maybe real (facts) or perceived (what you think,feel, imagine, etc).

Resources include:

• Physical ability: health, fitness and strength.

• Intellectual ability: capacity for complexthinking and problem solving.

• Emotional ability: accurately identifyingfeelings and constructively meeting needs.

Good stress can have a positive impact on aperson. This form of stress is achieved whenthe brain and body feel challenged and wantto extend in order to respond to the situation.This is caused when a person is feeling asthough s/he:

1. Has ideas of possible solutions to the chal-lenge (“Look at all these possibilities!”);

2. Has the resources (internal and external)to solve the challenge (“I can do it!”);

3. Has some control over what’s happening("I have choices!");

4. Has had sufficient rest between his/herchallenges.

The severity of stress is the amount or levelof stress that is felt as a result of a stress or –event or situation causing you stress. Thereare certain factors which influence the degreeof stress that is experienced, these have animpact on the person’s well being both phys-ically and psychologically.

The Factors are:

• Characteristics of the stressor

• Your perception of the stressor

Each event or situation has certain character-istics that determine the severity that the stres-sor may or may not have on us. The charac-teristics of the stressor and the severity ofstress which result, include the following:

• Significance – how critical and importantthe event is to the individual (deaths, fail-ing an exam, break-up with boy/girlfriend),and how much change will have to bedealt with. The greater the significanceand change, the higher the impact of thestressor.

• Time length – if a stressor is continuedover a long period of time, it will result inhigher stress levels. For example, tiredness:insufficient sleep over an extended periodof time will result in higher stress than thatcaused by just one night of bad sleep.

• Cumulative Effect – This is when stressorsare built up over a period of time withoutappropriate mechanisms to reduce or releasethe build-up. For example, a long series oflittle irritations and annoyances could resultin a massive blow-out between two people.

• Multiplicity – A number of stressors atone time will result in higher stress levels.For example, a fight with one’s parents,final exams around the corner and loss ofa loved one will be experienced as muchmore stressful than if each of these eventshappened separately.

• Approaching deadline – if a demand hasbeen made a few weeks or months inadvance of the deadline, the degree of stresswill increase as the due date approaches.For example, if you are given a projectassignment two months in advance, it willprobably seem to far away to get workedup about. As the deadline approaches, andthe work has not been completed, yourstress level will increase until you do some-thing about the project.

Each person perceives a potential stressor dif-ferently. How a person perceives the stressor,and the amount of stress it invokes dependson your self-concept, your body’s stress toler-ance, your age, and your external resources.This section examines these in detail.

Self-conceptThis is based on the “Theory of InterpersonalNeeds”. It states that each person has the fol-lowing emotional needs:

• The need to discover our unique identityas well as to be included (feel valued andimportant) because of this unique identity.


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• The need to have the power to control orinfluence what we do and what happensto us

• The need for connecting with others andfeeling liked and loveable.

Because we have these needs that only otherpeople can meet, important people in our livescan influence who we become and how we endup feeling about ourselves. When these needsare met in healthy ways, we feel valued forbeing ourselves, competent, useful, admired,loved and supported. The result is a positiveself-concept and self-esteem. When these needsare not met, we end up feeling worthless, uselessor unlovable. The result is a negative self-con-cept and lack of self-esteem.

Your self-concept acts as a filter, and resultsin you seeing the outside world in the sameway as you feel inside. Poor self-concept (i.e.minimal feelings of worth toward yourself) mayresult in the perception that you are inca-pable of overcoming a challenge. When facedwith a situation that needs to be dealt with,you feel anxiety and fear because you are notsure whether you will be able to handle thesituation correctly, or even if you will knowhow to handle it at all!

If you feel loved and positive about yourself,your strong feelings of self-worth and beliefin your ability will give you that extra boostof strength to cope in the face of a stressor!Positive self-concept provides you with inter-nal resources that you can call on when deal-ing with a demand. It enables you to respondto stress.

Body Stress Tolerance

This refers to the amount of stress that yourbody is able to withstand without totally break-ing down. This has to do with your physicalresources: how healthy your body is. This isdetermined by how fit you are, how muchsleep you get and how well you eat.

Age

Each developmental stage that a person goesthrough has its own set of stressors.The infant’s main developmental task is toestablish a sense of self and to have his/hersocial/emotional needs met by family as men-tioned above.

The preteen and teenage years move the focusfrom family to peers in the form of social lifeand school. Many teenagers are stressed as aresult of pressure to be “cool” and to succeed.

Socially, friends and popularity can become abig stress if the young person does not haveas many friends as s/he wants. S/he may adoptbehaviours to look (and feel) cool and popu-lar. At school, internal and external pressuresarise.

Adult stressors are qualitatively different butstill huge in number. A single person has towork out finance-management, living security,work and time for socialising.

With a family, these are all multiplied becauseone has to worry about oneself, spouse andchildren. There are so many responsibilitiesthat adults have, and it is these pressures,frustrations and conflicts that result in highstress levels.

The retired person has five main situationsthat induce stress: loss of health, status, work,independence and friends, with increaseddependency on others (financial, physical,emotional).

At different times in one’s life, some stressorswill have a greater impact than others becauseof the person’s situation, needs and life expe-riences.

External Resources

When you have to deal with a stressful situa-tion, it can decrease the amount of stress youfeel if you have one or more people to shareyour feelings with. It is much harder to copewhen you feel as if you are all alone and haveto deal with a situation by yourself.

Until now we have been talking about stres-sors but we need also to consider the meliors– positive indicators, the exact contrary of thestressors.

Meliors are experiences that help in creatinga status of well-being and happiness, increas-ing a vital inner force. Probably memories ofsuch events are present in your mind. Eachperson and each community should identifyand recall “their own meliors” as they willhelp the life of the community


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• You may want to print this page andkeep it for future reference! Put it inyour journal or diary to refer to itwhen you are feeling intense emotions.It was designed for school or collegestudents but the applications for man-agers in European Youth Organisationsare obvious.

n Manage and plan your time so workand “play” time is balanced.

n Look at how you use time: do notwaste optimal/prime thinking and cre-ative time watching TV or reading thenewspaper, rather save those for thetime of day when your brain is leastenergetic.

n Don’t procrastinate when it comes todoing homework, projects and study-ing.

n If you are prone to procrastination,organise a “study-buddy” and youeach check up on each other everyhour or so

n Set bite-size goals and time limits soyou can see your progress and keepmoving forward.

n Drink as much water as possible (goodfor brain functioning).

n Take a break, try to laugh with some-body (not at somebody).

n Always ask questions when you needfurther explanations.

n Understand that sometimes you willnot be able to do all that you want todo (i.e. sometimes school work needsto take the place of partying!)

n Be active outside, breathing fresh air,as much as possible (need oxygen foreffective brain functioning).

n Write down all that you need to dobefore you start, it enables you to havea full picture of what needs to be done!

n Exercise to circulate blood with oxy-gen, helping nutrients get to brain.Also, exercising uses up the increasedadrenaline, sugar, etc. that has beenreleased due to stress

n Eat healthy food, it helps you grow“smarter” brains!

n Talk to people you trust to get the stressout of your system

Fig. OM-6 : A checklist to help you manage stress


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2.3.5 Managing communication

Everything we do tells something about us –words, actions, gestures, way of looking, etc.Not only words have symbolic or convention-al meaning but everything has a meaning givenby the culture and the context in which it isused. Sometimes we do not use the samesymbols or when we do we wrongly assumethat the interpretation of symbols will be thesame.

In communicating, feelings, perceptions, pastexperience, history and expectations have a

bigger role than words as they provide noiseor interference to the means of communica-tion; distorting or reinforcing the message itself.

In communication there are always the sendersand the receivers. The receiver role is to inter-pret the message sent by the sender and tosend back a confirmation message. It is there-fore essential that sender and receiver use thesame code, composed not only of words, butalso gestures and symbols. Attention shouldthen be paid not only to the words but to allcommunication system around you.

Johariwindow

Knownto self

Unknownto self

Knownto others

Unknownto others

Open

Tell

(dis

clo

sure

)

Ask(feedback)

Hidden

Blind

Unknown

Acknowledgement of above diagram is made on an “await claim” basis. The copyright holder has not been traced.Any information enabling us to contact the copyright holder would be appreciated.

Fig. OM-7


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Any communication, in order to be effectiveshould consider the following elements:

• Contents – what you want to communicate

• Media – what is the best method of commu-nicating in this situation (spoken, written,images, simulation, exercise).

• Significance – what is the meaning for eachparticipant and for the group

• Direction – is the message given with pos-sibility of reply or is just a communication.

• Effect – check it with the feedback and thenadjust the communication.

This will help you to move from a linear com-munication system into a circular one.Consider now the context – physical and socialenvironment, interpretation of the participants,identity (roles and functions) of themselvesand of the others, previous events and expec-tations.

The context will allow you to better understandthe communication because it allows pre-defined behaviour according to shared rules.The Iceberg model detailed in section 1 clari-fies this further.

In a multi-cultural environment it is importantto double check the messages given. Oftenwhen speaking a foreign language we use thesame words with different meanings as we tryto adapt them to our own native language.Asking questions becomes a useful tool formaking sure that you have understood andthat your message is understood properly.Giving feedback is an art not only a tool for abetter understanding.

The Johari’s Window, named after the firstnames of its inventors, Joseph Luft and HarryIngham, is one of the most useful modelsavailable when describing the process ofhuman interaction. A four paned “window”divides personal awareness into four differenttypes, as represented by its four quadrants:open, hidden, blind, and unknown. The linesdividing the four panes – grouping aspects ofour self which are known or unknown to usand known or unknown to others – are likewindow shades, which can move as an inter-action progresses.

Some degree of self-disclosure benefits rela-tionships, increases self-esteem and leads to a

more stable self-image. By changing what is inone pane, you change what is in the others. Ifyou seek feedback from people, then you willlearn things about yourself that you didn’tknow before, but others were aware of. Thus,those things are shifted from the Blind Paneinto the Open Pane. If you give other peoplefeedback about yourself, you will shift thingsfrom the Hidden Pane to the Open Pane. Thisall involves self-disclosure, a willingness toput your trust in others. It involves taking risks,as we reveal things to others which we havekept private up to now.

In our society there are various limitations onself-disclosure: people of higher status gener-ally reveal less about themselves to people oflower status; women generally reveal more towomen, than they do to men.

Self-disclosure is often seen as an indicator ofpositive mental health. It implies trust in othersand self-acceptance, it reduces the need fordefensiveness and the potential for embarrass-ment. It shows self-confidence and is oftenreciprocated. By revealing something aboutyourself, you are likely to encourage people toreveal something about themselves in return.You will also get to know who you are – youcan discover that features of yourself, whichyou find embarrassing or shameful, are con-sidered by others to be entirely acceptable; butyou will not learn that unless you’re willing toreveal something.

The process of enlarging the open quadrantis called self-disclosure, a give and take processbetween me and the people I interact with.Typically, as I share something about myself(moving information from my hidden quadrantinto the open) and if the other party is interest-ed in getting to know me, they will reciprocate,by similarly disclosing information in their hid-den quadrant.

2.3.6 Managing change

There are as many different ways of managingchange as there are kinds of change.Change is about uncertainty. Change manage-ment is the process of moving from the cur-rent state to the “vision” of the future andinvolves a degree of transition which may alsoresult in “pain”. In this chapter we are talkingabout personal change.


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There are different types of change.

• Change can be incremental as from man-ual recording of information (writing) tocurrent laptops with advanced capability.It has happened through several steps. Eachstep is incremental requiring skills trainingand capital outlay.

• Change can be of an even greater nature.Consider metamorphosis, for example,which requires a complete change of stateand represents a severe shock to the statusquo (in most cases requiring a sleepingphase to cope with the change).

Change evokes all kind of fears and uncer-tainties. Consequently we tend to change onlywhen we have to. It is difficult to get an organ-isation to change unless the people inside itcan see the reason for change, believe it to bevalid and accept it as necessary.

A catalyst has to be powerful if we are to facethe uncertainty of change. Often it is difficultcircumstances that prove the most powerfulcatalyst. People resist change for lots of dif-ferent reasons and to varying degrees. Thisresistance to change is often proportionate towhat they feel they are loosing and the uncer-tainty of the situation they face. Converselypeople tend not to resist doing things theyunderstand and which they know will benefit

them. What they do resist are things whichseem to be imposed, things which they donot understand and things which are beyondtheir control or influence.

Key questions you could ask yourself:What are the key internal catalysts for person-al change?What are the key external catalysts for person-al change?What are the main barriers to personal change?

The characteristics needed to succeed willchange and individuals, like organisations mustadapt over time. Certain characteristics areknown to identify those organisations whichare responsive to change. Organisations whichrecognise and tackle external influences andare responsive to change tend to demonstratecertain characteristics:• Access to information – if change is to be

effective and people allowed to becomemore involved in the pursuit of the aims ofthe organisation, they need to have accessto information.

• Ability to handle ambiguity – any organ-isation needs to learn how to operate inuncertainty. People need to be able to tol-erate not having all the answers, to learnto keep questioning and to be ready tochange course as new opportunities emergeand threats materialise.

• Being innovative – successful organisationsare those which release and harness theinnovative potential in everyone.

• Taking risks – the freedom to be risk-takersmust be part of the culture of the organi-sation. The “attitude to mistakes” needs tobe explored throughout the organisation.

• Team ethos – encouraging a corporatenessrather than individuality

• Flexible but robust systems – organisationswhich manage change effectively keep theirprocedures, policies and systems simple.

• Ability to handle conflict – organisationswhich are successful foster argument anddivergence and yet manage to bring thistogether as a creative process.

These characteristics can also be applied tosome extent to individuals. Our ability to acceptand implement change at a personal level, maycorrespond to one of the following stages:• Shock and disbelief – the feeling of surprise

or being caught “off balance” when some-thing unexpected happens. “Oh no, it can-not be true; are you sure?”

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Important – this exercise should onlybe done with a group who know eachother well and within which there isa high level of trust and sensitivity.

• In a group ask everybody to write ona piece of paper a small change s/hewould like to do in order to improveher/his life.

• Then ask people to swap the pieceof paper around.

• Then ask one person to read out thewritten statement s/he has found.

• Then ask everybody to clap if theywish to apply the proposed change.

• You will see that some statements willbe highly appreciated while othersnot.


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• Guilt/anger/projection – a feeling of frus-tration (why didn’t they tell us?). Guilt (Ishould have filled out that questionnaire).Because we cannot deal with anger andguilt over along period of time we tend toproject it into others. “They” become theenemy, and are responsible for the changeand resulting problems.

• Rationalisation – we begin to move beyondour feelings and start to use our heads. Beginto seek to understand the problems or tomake them rational, and to develop waysto cope.

• Integration – attempt to integrate the mean-ing of the change into our behaviour. Beginaction to implement the change.

• Acceptance.

There are then 4 further stages in the imple-mentation of change:• Awareness – acknowledgement that the

change is happening.• Understanding – involves openness about

the “pros” and “cons”; requires involvementin the process; must have open communi-cation; opportunities for education andtraining are provided.

• Commitment – occurs when people beginto value the change, and understand thatchange will make things better.

• Action – involvement in the developmentof implementation plans; clear definitionof roles and responsibilities.

Culture and people are inextricably linked. Achange programme will affect the way theorganisation and the people in it work. Peoplereact differently to change depending on theirown personal agenda, circumstances and under-standing of the process. It is easier to have anegative response than a positive one. Thoseopposed to change obviously need attentionbut even those in favour of change will beaffected and need to be managed properly.

Remember that organisations do not resistchange, people do!Unless the people in an organisation – at alllevels, from senior management to employees– are committed to the change, then it will fail.

This is not an option and without this commit-ment any project is doomed. Successful changemanagement is about taking the people withyou.

The change is not over when it is implemented.It needs careful attention all the way throughfrom the three big stages: unfreezing (accept-ing the need for change), moving (planning andimplementing the change) and then freez-ing again (celebrating and consolidating thechange). This sequence can be repeated manytimes. It is important to split big changes intosmall ones. It makes them easier to manageand gives a feeling of satisfaction and reas-surance as the stages are completed. It alsodemonstrates that change works! But remem-ber – when the process is repeated too often itgives a feeling of perennial instability.

Pasini and Donato provide us with some sug-gestions for the successful management ofchange of yourself.

1. Discovering the area you want to change.It is important to understand that we have dif-ferent attitudes in different areas of our lives.Identify the area you want to change and checkhow the environment you live in will let youchange.

2. Learning to dream.Changing implies dreaming something new,unknown, to be invented. Dreaming somethingbetter, imagining what you really would like.Only then do you need to identify the strate-gies to achieve it.

3. Do not expect change to start from the othersIt is too easy to assume that it is somebodyelse’s fault if you are dissatisfied. You need tofind the inner resources to change, withoutbeing pessimistic.

4. Creating dynamic relationshipsToo often we think in stable relationships. Eachof us change and it is because of that that wesometimes prefer to deal with strangers insteadof friends or colleagues. However, makingchanges along with others both requires andcreates dynamic relationships.

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Who are the people ?

It has become a cliché to say that an organisa-tion’s most valuable resource is its people –but it is still true. And our people need to bemanaged in a way which enables them to befulfilled in their work and to reach their poten-tial – for themselves and for their organisations.

The purpose of many European youth organ-isations is the development of people and soit is perhaps wise that we start with those onthe inside – be they paid or unpaid, volunteers,staff or Board members. Each person – whetherwe see them as groups or individuals – needsto be managed and led in order to reach theirpotential and to ensure that their efforts servethe organisation in the most effective and effi-cient way.

Each person brings talents and skills and knowl-edge and experience into their work. For thepurpose of this T-kit we will call this collec-tion “competence”. Each person has a uniqueset of competencies which can be applied indifferent ways and in different situations. Forexample, an unpaid Board member may bringyears of financial management experience, theskill to read and interpret balance sheets anda real talent for explaining figures to otherswith less experience. The down side might bethat this experience comes from a differentsector – the commercial world where the dri-ving force is profit – and the Board membermight have difficulty balancing that with thesocial objectives of the organisation. In con-trast the youth worker with the ability torelate well with young people on the streetand a natural talent in counselling, may havedifficulty keeping records of expenditure. Bothhave a unique set of competencies and bothhave a significant contribution to make tothe organisation. Managing people is aboutmaking the most of those competencies, foras much of the time as possible and ensuringthat they continue to develop.

This section of the T-kit is dedicated to theissues of managing people. A significant pro-portion is given over to the concepts of teamworking and leadership, as this forms the foun-dation on which much of the other material isbased. Having answered the question “who arethe people?”, the following chapters attempt toanswer the question “How do we manage them?”

Throughout the section suggestions are madefor discussions or brainstorming titles. In somecases a list of possible answers is also included.

3.2 Teams and leaders

3.2.1 Teamworkingand leadership

Most if not all European youth organisationsare made of people who work in teams. Thesynergy created by people working towards acommon goal enables much more to be accom-plished than would be done by individuals whodid not share the same vision. Often however,our teams are geographically disparate and aremade of a mixture of paid and unpaid staff, fulltime and part time, young and old and – darewe say it? – competent and incompetent. Thisvariety brings both benefits and challenges.

3. Managing people

3.1 Introduction


What is a team?A group assembled for a specific com-mon purpose?Prepared to put the goals of the groupbefore their personal ones?

What makes an effective team?Communication and feedback skills ?Ability in group maintenance?Support for the leadership?The balance of relevant competencies?A climate of trust, openness and shar-ing?Full and willing participation?Commitment to team objectives?

What are the disadvantages of teamworking?Time consuming?Loss of individual identity?


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The purpose of this section is to provide sometools to enable us to get the most out of ourteams. You might start by asking the follow-ing questions, which can be turned into anexercise.

An important piece of work has been carriedout by Meredith Belbin in relation to the indi-vidual roles members of a team take on. Asindividual members and especially as leaders,we do well to understand the roles to whichwe are best suited. Belbin categorised “usefulpeople to have in teams” into 8 types asdescribed in the table below.

As can be seen, there are both strengths andweaknesses to each of these roles, as indeedthere are in any individual in a team. The cru-cial issue is that we understand and appreciatethese and that we can see where the gaps arein the composition of our teams.The roles people take in teams are frequentlyfluid and dynamic, and often change as theteam develops or the situation changes. In onesense, it is helpful to think of leadership as justone role that can be taken by an individual andthe same is true for management. The latter inparticular can be broken down into a number offunctions which might be shared between anumber of different people at different times.

The terms leadership and management areoften used to mean the same thing, when inreality they are two distinct roles. Leaders areoften expected to be good managers and man-agers are often required to provide leadershipfor those they manage.One way to express the distinction is that“Managers do things right, whilst leaders dothe right thing”, alternatively, it is sometimessaid that leaders are responsible for effective-ness and managers are responsible for effi-ciency. The significant issues being those of

direction and focus for the leader and methodand application for the manager. For exam-ple, the leader would be the person who tookthe initiative for the development of a strate-gic plan, would introduce new concepts andencourage discussion and criticism of the per-formance and policies of the organisation.The manager would be keen to ensure thatthe agreed policies were adhered to, that indi-cators and measures of performance wereappropriate and were used. S/he would beconcerned with application whilst the leaderwould perhaps be more concerned with design.It is clear that the two elements – leadershipand management – cannot easily be separated.The reality is that some people in positions ofresponsibility have stronger leadership com-petencies than management competencies andvice versa. Another good reason for the teamapproach to running organisations.

Organisations come together to achieve a par-ticular purpose or task. Much of leadership isabout clarifying that purpose and uniting peo-ple in their commitment to it. John Adair hassuggested that the achievement of the taskdepends on the attention given by the leaderto both the needs of individuals, and to theneeds of the group (or team) as a whole.

As we lead – indeed as we manage – groups ofpeople, we need to consider the relative amountsof time and effort we put into these three areas(see OM 12). If we work hard on maintainingthe identity and the morale of the group butfail to attend to the individual needs of itsmembers then achievement of the task willsuffer. Likewise, if we give all our attention to

Suggestionsfor training

• Compare the Belbinteam roles (Fig. OM 11)with those of your team


• What are the different functions ofa manager?

Co-ordination

Encouragement

Motivation

Setting an Example

Recruitment

Target setting

Ensuring the job is done

Maintaining an overview


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Fig. OM-11 : Useful people to have in teams

Type

Company worker

Chairman

Shaper

Plant

Resource investigator

Monitor evaluator

Team worker

Completer finisher

Typical features

Conservative,dutiful and predictable

Calm, self controlledand self-confident

Highly strung,outgoing and dynamic

Individualistic,serious-mindedand unorthodox

Extroverted,enthusiastic, curiousand communicative

Sober, unemotionaland prudent

Socially orientated,rather mild, and sensitive

Painstaking, orderly,anxious and conscien-tious

Positive qualities

Organising ability, practicalcommon sense, hardworking self-discipline

A capacity for treatingand welcoming all poten-tial contributors on theirmerits and withoutprejudice. A strong senseof objectives.

Drive and a readinessto challenge inertia,complacency,ineffectivenessor self-deception

Genius, imagination,intellect and knowledge

A capacity for contactingpeople and exploringanything new. An abilityto respond to challenge.

Judgement, discretionand hard-headedness

An ability to respond topeople and to situations,and to promote teamspirit

A capacity for followthrough, perfectionism

Allowable weakness

Lack of flexibility andunresponsiveness tounproven ideas

No more than ordinaryin terms of intellector creative ability

Proneness to impatience,irritation and provocation

Up in the clouds, incliningto disregard practicaldetails or protocol

Liable to lose interest oncethe initial fascination haspassed.

Lacks inspiration or theability to motivate others

Indecisiveness atmoments of crisis

A tendency to worryabout nothing.A reluctance to “let go”.

Source : Belbin, R.M. (1981) Management Teams, Heinemann; reprinted by permission of Butterworth HeinemannPublishers, a division of Reed Educational and Professional Publishing Ltd.


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3the needs (or demands!) of one or two mem-bers of the group at the expense of groupcohesion and common understanding, the samewill happen. Furthermore, if we constantly focuson the task to be achieved, without attendingto building up the group of people as a team,or to the development needs of each individ-ual, then we can expect achievement to bedifficult to sustain and potentially off target.

As teams are fluid and dynamic, so leadershipneeds to be both flexible and dynamic. Theso-called ruthlessness of famous world leadersthrough history can perhaps often be interpret-ed as single minded commitment to a cause;a commitment which followers share and whichoverrides all other considerations. But in Euro-pean youth organisations at the beginning ofthe new millennium, democracy, shared deci-sion making and a team approach are crucialto the achievement of goals. While the phenom-enon of leadership by personality still achievesmuch; sustainable, empowering and inclusiveleadership is able to respond to a wider rangeof needs with a wider range of solutions.

Responding to need is the raison d’être formany, if not all our organisations. Needs areoften diverse and changeable and so leader-ship of our organisations needs to be bothresponsive and pro-active. The notion of lead-ership “style” can help our understanding here.If our leadership is to be dynamic and flexiblethen the leader needs to be able to read situa-tions – tasks, teams and individuals – and makedecisions about how they should be respondedto. A leader’s decisions will also create situations– new tasks, closer teams, better developedindividuals (or their opposites). How those deci-sions are made is a reflection of style.


• In small groups discuss a leader fromhistory and what it was which madethem successful or effective

Task functions

Defining the task – Making a plan – Allocating work and resourcesControlling quality and temps of work – Checking performance against the plan – Adjusting the plan

An effective leader

A) Is aware of task needs, team maintenance needs and individual needs of his groupB) Has the skill and training to meet those needs, in accordance with the priorities of the situation

Team maintenance functions

Setting standards – exampleMaintaining disciplineBuilding team spiritPraising, motivating,giving a sense of purposeAppointing sub-leadersEnsuring communicationwithin the groupTraining the group

Individual functions

Attending to personalproblems

Praising individualsGiving status

Recognising and usingindividual abilities

Training the individual

Taskneeds

Individualneeds

Teammaintenance

needs

Fig. OM-12 : Action centred leadership model

Source: Adair, John (1983) Effective Leardership : a Self Development Manual, Aldershot : Gower ISBN 0-330-28100-3


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An alternative presentation of this is :

Tells Sells Tests Consults Joins

TellsManager Thinks Plans DecidesGroup Submits Conforms Gives Assent

SellsManager Decides then puts decision to the

team to get agreementGroup Listens to ideas and gives assent

TestsManager Plans and puts various solutions

to the group and then decidesGroup Gives views on solutions then gives

assent to chosen solution

ConsultsManager Presents problems to group and asks

for possible solutions then decidesGroup Participates in the thinking and solv-

ing of problems but not in the deci-sion or control

JoinsManager Shares all decisions and controlGroup Shares control and becomes

a democratic body

Retained Authority Area

Shared Authority Area

• Positive direction• Creativity• Initiative• Flexibility• Open, honest relationships• Commitment, pride in the

team, team spirit• Maturity

• New goals• Atmosphere of Honesty,

Tolerance and Listening• Deeper relationships,

understanding each othersvalues and contributions

• Do task according toindividual and team abilities

• Establish ownteam disciplines

• Develop assertiveness

• Express feelings abouteach other

• Emotional• Lack of direction• Insecurity• People going

against expectations

• Who follows who• Poor listening• Feelings kept hidden• Shallow relationships• Inflexible• Status conscious• Do as others expect you to• Thinking of your own

needs and problems

PERFORM

NORM

STORM

FORM

Source : Tuckman, B. W. (1965) “Developmental sequencesin small groups” in Psychological Bulletin vol. 63, p.384-399. Copyright © 1965 by the AmericanPsychological Association. Reprinted with permission.

Source : Tannenbaum, R and Schmidt, W.H., “How to choosea leadership pattern” in Harvard Business Review,May-June 1973. Copyright © 1973 by Presidentand Fellows of Harvard College ; all rights reserved.

A number of writers have blended their descrip-tion of leadership style with their understand-ing of how teams develop. Their models canhelp in assessing the appropriateness of aparticular style at a particular stage in thedevelopment of a team.

Fig. OM-13 : How to choose aleadership pattern

In this model, distinct stages of developmentof a team can be seen. In reality, the stagesare never so distinct and the team may slidedown the pole some or all of the way in thecourse of its development and its achievementof “performance”.

Fig. OM-14 : Greasy PoleModel


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The model above indicates that authority ordecision making power, is transferred gradu-ally to a group as it develops the competen-cies – both in individuals and collectively – itneeds to carry out a task. The group which isperfectly capable and experienced in carryingout a task will not respond well to a “telling”(or authoritarian) style of leadership. Likewisethe team which has only just come together– even if it is made up of highly competentindividuals – needs to be given information anddirection early on so that it can progress towardsshared authority for decision making.

As with any other role or function in a team,leadership – of whatever style – requires thedevelopment of competencies; not least inchoosing which style to use and when. Theterm delegation needs some attention hereas it is used both as a style of leadership in itsown right, and as one of the skills applicableto many styles. Delegation, when used todescribe a style of leadership, implies thatauthority for decision making is handed overto team members. It requires a level of trust inboth leader and team, and a full understandingof the task and the competencies of the team.As a generic skill, delegation still requires trustand understanding; furthermore it requires theability to decide what tasks or responsibilitiesshould or should not be delegated.

Autocratic Style Democratic

Leader

Led

Task

Context


Some questions to ask trainees (indi-vidually, and collectively)

• Make two lists – one to describe thethings which happen in ideal teamse.g. communication, decision mak-ing, trust, support etc etc ; and oneto describe the types of people youneed in an ideal team e.g. leader,resource finder, time keeper, co-ordi-nator, worker. Compare these listswith the team you are currently apart of ; where are the gaps andthe repetition?

• What do you consider to be the keyskills and attributes of the idealleader in your organisation?

• In response to the slippery pole model(figure 3) choose a team which youlead and discuss what stage of devel-opment you feel it is at. What styleof leadership is most appropriate toensure development and achieve-ment of the task?

Fig. OM-15 : The “best fit” option

Reproduced by permission from B600 “The Capable Manager” The Open University, 1994.


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In conclusion then, we have considered teamsas dynamic developing groups and leaders asdynamic, flexible people within them. We haveseen the need for a balance of attention to begiven to the task, the needs of the individualsand the needs of the group as a team.

Elsewhere in this document we have consid-ered the context of our organisation; internally,in terms of organisational culture and externallyin terms of the Social, Technical, Economic,Political and Environmental context (STEPE)in which we work.

Leadership is crucial in all of this, and the mosteffective leadership will have found a “best fit”for the demands of the following four elements:The leader’s preferred style, the team’s preferredstyle, the style most appropriate to the task andthe style most appropriate to the context.

As we move into the next section we will con-sider issues and competencies which help tomake teams work.

In doing this we will build up a kit of manage-ment tools and discuss the choices managersmake in their use.

3.2.2 Motivating people

In chapter 2 we considered the concept of selfmotivation. In the following section we con-sider how we motivate others, particularly inthe light of some theoretical models.

If we select one thing from these lists e.g.Money, we can then consider how that itemcan be both a motivator and a demotivator.Herzberg presented the idea that some thingssatisfy us, but the absence of them does notnecessarily produce dissatisfaction. Likewise,some things dissatisfy but the absence of themis not necessarily satisfaction, rather no dissat-isfaction.

Motivating Factors = satisfiers = jobcontent = Maslow’s higher order needs

Hygiene Factors = dissatisfiers = jobconditions = Maslow’s lower order needs

Maslow presented his hierarchy of needs asin the diagram below, suggesting that onceone level of need is satisfied then a personmoves on to the next level of need.

Without the satisfaction of the lower order ofneeds (1, 2 and 3) then the higher ones willnot be relevant.

As we consider the people we manage it, wouldseem that effort first needs to be put into meet-ing the lower order needs – the dissatisfiers– Herzberg’s hygiene factors. Often, but notexclusively, our organisations can say thatthose lower order needs have been met andthat the role of the manager is to focus onmeeting higher needs such as achievement,recognition, self esteem, personal developmentand self realisation.


• How, as a manager do I ensure thatthose who work for me are havingtheir higher order needs met? Howdo I ensure that they are sustained?


By way of introduction to the subjectof motivation we need to ask the fol-lowing questions.

• In working (paid or unpaid) for yourorganisation, what is it that gives youpleasure and/or satisfaction, andwhat is it that gives you displeasureand/or dissatisfaction ?

• Think of other jobs you might do inthis or other organisations – what, ifanything, would change on your list ?


• Returning to your lists, which itemswould you classify as Hygiene factorsand which ones would be Motivatingfactors?


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Motivating Factors (higher order, growth needs)control quality of working life and the qualityof experiences at work. Some are inherent inthe job e.g. achievement of tasks; and otherscome from good management e.g. respect forand from other people, opportunities for devel-opment and challenging work.

Alderfer (in Handy, 1990) grouped Maslow’shierarchy into three sections – Existence needs(Maslow 1&2), Relationship needs (Maslow 3& part of 4) and Growth needs (part of 4, & 5).He stated that these needs are Chronic – alwaysthere, or Episodic – sometimes there. There aresome clear links here with the Action CentredLeadership model of John Adair, as outlinedin the previous section (Figure 12); Existenceneeds might be paralleled with Task needs,Relationship needs with Team needs, andGrowth needs with Individual needs.

McGregor’s theory X and theory Y suggestedthat manager’s styles fell into two categoriesdue to theories about people’s motivation towork. Theory X states that most people are lazy,are unable to discipline and control their work,prize security and avoid responsibility. Thuspeople need external incentives and to be toldwhat to do.

Theory Y states that all people find work nat-ural, accept self discipline, seek responsibilityand like commitments. Thus people can onlyrealise their potential if they are allowed touse their imagination and creativity.


• Consider your experience of manag-ing people and of being managed.How do you respond to the two the-ories? What evidence can you seeto support each one?


• Consider what effect style of leader-ship might have on the motivation ofyour team members. Do some stylesof leadership focus on Hygiene Factorsand some on Motivating Factors ?

Fig. OM-16 : Individual needs

Self-realisation

GrowthPersonal Development

Accomplishment

Self Esteem

Self Respect Status Recognition

Social

Belonging to group(s)Social Activities Love Friendship

Safety

Security Protection from danger

Physiological

Hunger Thirst Sleep Etc.

Source : Maslow, A.H. Motivation and Personality, © 1954.Reprinted and electronically reproduced by per-mission of Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NewJersey


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3.2.3 EmpowermentThe concept of empowerment is intertwinedwith all of this. Referring to the Tannenbaumand Schmidt model in the previous section(Figure 13), we can see that leaders (and/ormanagers) can retain or devolve power to othersthrough their style of leading (or managing).Empowerment need not necessarily imply thatthe power is handed over from one in authorityto a subordinate. Some thinkers would arguethat everyone has the power already and all the“empowerer” does is enable the realisation of it.In working with young people in particular, weneed to consider where we are withholding orover burdening them with power and where weare “disempowering” by not enabling their knowl-edge or abilities or creativity to come forward.

We return again to the idea that the purpose ofmany of our organisations is to enable young peo-ple to reach their full potential. An empoweringattitude to the management of those who workwith us is primarily about realising the full poten-tial of the human resource of the organisation.

Finally, we need to consider again the dynamismfactor. People and organisations change, as dotheir environments and contexts. This has toaffect motivation: Through past experience(upbringing, education, experience in and outof work); through their present situations (theindividuals own perspective and one’s ownview of the perspectives of colleagues); andthrough our perceptions of the future (prospectsin this organisation and outside, personal aspi-rations, paid or unpaid). The young volunteerwho has a stable family background, good edu-cation and the encouragement of peers andleaders will have a very different kind of moti-vation to the person without such encouragementand whose previous experience is of failureor rejection. Both may be well motivated, butthe combination and origin of the hygieneand motivating factors outlined above, may bevery different. Maslow’s highest needs centre onpersonal growth and the realisation of potential.An empowering approach, built on an awarenessof and commitment to meet the progressiveneeds of those we work with, is the route tomotivation in all parts of our organisations.

3.2.4 ResponsibilityIn a world where legislation is increasinglyused to highlight and define responsibilities,managers need to consider their responsibili-ties at several levels.

On a personal level we have the responsibilityto manage workloads: it is an irony that inmany values-driven organisations the assump-tion is often made that staff of any kind willautomatically take on greater and greater work-loads – “for the love of it”! We need to makeourselves accountable to friends and familyfor the amount of time we give to our jobs andfor the ways in which we allow work to affectour health and general wellbeing. This of courseis a consideration for the managers who eithercondone, by doing nothing to stop such work-ing practice, or positively encourage by simplyasking more and more of their workers.

At another level, managers need to considerthe issue of professionalism – both for them-selves and their staff. Lack of payment is noexcuse for unprofessional conduct and so thisapplies as much to volunteers and Board mem-bers as it does to paid staff. We need to con-sider the limits of personal relationships in thework place, issues of prejudice and discrimi-nation, health and safety and honesty andintegrity. At an organisational level, we needto consider the systems we have in place tosafeguard workers against accusations of mis-conduct in any of these areas. This will nodoubt have implications on financial and otherresources. There is much legislation aroundthese issues but the values of our organisa-tions should also have an influence on thecommitment we show to them.

At a higher level still, the nature of Europeanyouth organisations is such that we haveresponsibilities outside of our organisations too.We have to be accountable to funders and per-haps above all, to the people we exist to serve.The quality of services and information wedeliver will be a reflection of the seriousnesswith which we take all our responsibilities.

3.3 Training, developmentand assessment

3.3.1 The learning organisation

Many European youth organisations focus onthe development of young people in an holis-tic way. How this is done is a feature of eachindividual organisation. The emphasis givento the development of staff and workers willalso be unique to each organisation. The fact


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that many of our organisations are values dri-ven is sometimes at odds with the hard reali-ties of running programmes with very limitedresources. This can lead to compromise whenit comes to the amount of time and moneydevoted to learning. We can however, identifysome key features of organisations which wouldbe classed as “learning organisations”.

At the heart of this concept is the idea thatorganisations develop through the individ-ual, personal development of those who workin them. Some key principles are outlined inthe bullet points below.

• The benefit and value of continuing devel-opment is recognised by staff and volunteers

• All workers – paid and unpaid – are encour-aged to take responsibility for their ownlearning and development

• Organisational structures are both sufficient-ly well designed and flexible enough to allowfor personal growth and development

• A learning climate is encouraged in whichlearning from experience and feedback isfacilitated and in which mistakes are allowed

• Strategies and policies are developed thoughconsultation and as consciously structuredlearning processes

• Financial commitment is made througheffective budgeting, to support the learningprocess

There is a temptation, when encouraging learn-ing – especially in young people – to forgetthat the personal development is intended toresult in organisational development. Withoutclear organisational goals and mission, it isimpossible to assess whether or not personallearning will assist in meeting them; or indeedwhether it is justified to expend both time andmoney. Spending time and money for example,on language training course in Spanish will bedifficult to justify for people in organisationswhose primary area of work is in Belarus!

A further temptation is that we insist on train-ing courses as the only way in which we learn.The term “training and development” is recog-nised to include more than simply going oncourses and the word “learning” is becomingwidely used as a catch all for any experiencewhich, when appropriately facilitated, leadsto personal growth. As managers of learningorganisations we need to be open to seeingopportunities for our staff which will helpthem grow and consequently be more effec-tive in their jobs. This might relate to compe-tence – including knowledge and skills – or itmight relate to motivation or self confidenceor team working. It might also relate to theperspective from which an individual lookson a problem or on the organisation itself, forexample, a visit to another branch of yourorganisation – or even to an other organisationall together, may result in the member of staffseeing a problem differently and consequent-ly finding a previously overlooked solution.Examples of non-training-course learningopportunities include job shadowing, (wherea staff member or volunteer spends a periodof time along side another worker – literallybeing their “shadow”, either in the organisa-tion or in a different organisation, to see whatthat job entails and how that person does it),on the job training, conference attendance,learning sets.

Assessment of work performance is mentionedlater in this section but it is worth noting herethe value of both planning learning in the con-text of a regular work review and of record-ing and accrediting any learning which doestake place. Personal development logs are anideal tool for this.


• Ask your group to consider the lastthree occasions when they felt theylearned something. Ask them toexplain the value of that learning totheir organisations and to describethe process by which they learned.

• Who were the key players in the mostsignificant instances of personalgrowth or development in the lastthree years? What made them keyplayers ?


• Ask participants to consider theirorganisations in the light of theseprinciples. Where are the strengths,and where are the weaknesses ?What are the blocks and what arethe opportunities ?


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The reality of many European youth organisa-tions is that they are not learning organisations.There is too frequently a lack of induction intothe organisation itself and it is often the casethat paid staff work very much in isolation –sometimes at odds with their Boards of Man-agement. The ability to network – either withinyour own organisation or with others in sim-ilar ones – is a crucial part of the LearningOrganisation in practice.

3.3.2 Learning Styles

As we promote the idea of personal learning,we need to acknowledge that each individualwill have a preferred way, or style, of learning.Some people prefer to get at a subject by solvinga real problem. Others prefer to hear some the-ory and make generalisations before applyingit to their situation.

In the previous section on management of self,we introduced the concept of learning styles.In this section we need not reiterate the detailsbut we do need to consider the way in whichlearning styles of those we manage affect theway in which we manage them.

As managers do we get the most from activistsby letting them “jump in the deep end”?, or dowe ensure that the reflectors in our teams havesufficient time to absorb and consider infor-mation before they are pressed for decisions.Do we allow theorists to question things and dowe make the most of the pragmatist’s ability totransfer learning from one situation to another?

Likewise when we consider the type of learn-ing experience we encourage our people toengage in: Does the learning style match thelearning delivery? One advantage of the expe-riential learning cycle as described by Kolb, isthat it contains elements which are of relevanceto each of the four learning styles described byHoney and Mumford. Activists enjoy the doingphase, Reflectors find it easier to engage in thereviewing phase, theorists participate mosteffectively when allowed to draw out the keylearning points and Pragmatists are most ableto apply their preferred style in the applicationof the learning to a new situation.

3.3.3 Assessment of performanceand work review

If our organisations are to continually grow anddevelop through the growth and development

of our people, then we need a mechanism forreviewing this on a regular basis. Many com-mercial organisations use the concept of theannual appraisal as a tool within their “per-formance related pay schemes”. It is also usedthis way in some NGOs. The difficulty ariseswhen the focus of such an assessment is onthe past performance rather than on the futurepotential. The term “work review” is perhaps lessthreatening and provides a balance betweenthe two. The regularity and frequency of workreviews needs careful consideration: A fullreview annually, with a six month interimreview of progress towards agreed goals, is awell tried norm.

It is a sad reflection that Boards often let downtheir staff – and their fellow volunteers – bynot carrying out work reviews. Where the rel-evant competencies are not present in a Boardthen training should be sought, or outside helpfound to provide the service. Regular workreviews are a useful tool to check the relevanceand accuracy of job descriptions of staff andvolunteers. Job descriptions can also used toprovide an agenda for a work review. Workreviews are also useful as a tool for overcom-ing resistance to change as they provide anideal opportunity to consider the individual’scontribution to the development of the organ-isation at a strategic level.In assessing past performance, for whateverreason, a number of criteria may be useful toensure equality and agreement.

1. The assessment needs to be planned. – Theprocess needs to be clearly explained andtime given for planning and preparation.The plan also needs to include advice onthe kind of evidence which might be usedto demonstrate performance.

2. Performance needs to be measured againstsomething. – Targets set at the beginningof an assessment period need to have beenagreed from the outset and any changesnoted. The measures or standards againstwhich assessment takes place need to beclear and relevant to the job. Again thiswhere reference to the job description andperson specification can be useful. J.W.Humble was particularly associated withManagement by Objectives (MBO) and theimportance of Key Results Analysis (KRA).Criticism of his ideas were that the processof using a job description which listed themain responsibilities, lines of communica-tion, objectives and budgets as the basis for


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the setting of Key Results was too mechan-ical. The mechanism normally associatedwith the process meant that there was astrong preference for quantitative targetsand that these targets may not have led tothe business performance which was sought.Given that the whole process was linkedwith financial reward then it is easy tounderstand resistance to being “processed”in this way. The temptation for large organ-isations to adopt this or variations of thissystem, is obvious. Uniformity and objec-tivity as well as precision are all proposedas advantages.

3. Feedback must be clear and constructive.– Only the set and agreed criteria can beused to make judgements and all availableevidence should be used. Where further evi-dence is available but has not been collect-ed, opportunity to do so should be given.Where inconsistencies arise then theseshould be clarified and resolved. Giving andreceiving feedback can be very divisiveand it is essential that both are done withsensitivity and honesty. The idea of thehamburger – top and bottom made up ofpositive comment, praise and recognition,and the middle made up of points forimprovement – is a common approach tothis. Feedback needs to be well timed, accu-rate, specific, relevant and must point tothe future.

• The exercise given at the end of the sectionon coaching is an ideal way to practice andreceive feedback on your feedback!

In identifying further learning needs, the fol-lowing criteria may be useful.

1. Individuals should be able to identify theircurrent competence and their own longterm goals. The competencies required toachieve the latter should be established.

2. Learning opportunities should clearly matchthe learning need. The preferred style of thelearner should be taken into account andchoices made from as wide a range of oppor-tunities as possible.

3. Managers need to commit to continuedsupport. The assessment meeting shouldbe seen as part of an ongoing process inwhich the manager has a vital interest.Assistance in choosing learning experiences,preparing for them and reviewing theiroutcomes should be agreed and built intothe plan for the coming period.

4. A record of the performance assessment andthe plans and commitments for the futureshould be written and agreed by both man-ager and staff members.

The points above are intentionally written inthe formal style often used when introducingprocedures for work reviews or performanceassessments. The reality – perhaps more so inEuropean youth organisations – is that thebenefits of such a procedure are more or lesscontrolled by the quality of the relationshipsbetween staff and managers – be they paid orunpaid. Open and honest relationships and theability to give and receive feedback as a dailynorm will ensure that regular work reviews areprofitable and even enjoyable experiences.

3.4 Coaching, mentoringand counselling

3.4.1 Coaching

Coaching is a process which aids improvementin performance – traditionally we understand itbest in the context of sport. Here, performanceis about winning races or competitions, orexceeding previous records.

The coach is a person who enables improve-ment by using a selection of approaches,styles and techniques appropriate to thesport, the competition and the individualconcerned.

It is a feature of coaching that it normallyinvolves a one to one relationship, and this isalso true when applied to the world of work.


• Ask course participants to design aplan for a regular work review. Whatwould be the time scales? What ques-tions would be asked before andduring the review.

• Consider the outcomes of a regularwork review. How do we make themSMART (Specific, Measurable, Achiev-able, Realistic, Timed)?


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Directive Facilitative

Characteristics Characteristics

Coach identifies problem Coachee identifies problem

Coach decides on solution No telling

Tells Asks open questions

No Questioning Listens

Little Listening Coachee identifies solutions

Intrusive on coach’s time in long term Coachee owns the solution

Coachee may not “buy in” Coachee gains new skills

Becomes less intrusive,

saves long term cost and time

Useful Useful

– to solve an immediate, urgent or – to develop coachee’s confidence

Stressful problem – open up their potential

– when learner has no background knowledge– improve coachee’s perfor-mance

Effective Coaches :Operate flexibly along the spectrum to meet circumstances

Ineffective Coaches :Tend to operate directively but without sensitivity

Fig. OM-17 : Coaching spectrum

Reprinted by permission of Paul J.P. Hazell


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Coaching may result from the work reviewprocess or may be provided as a result ofother situations such as the start of a new jobor project. In the Action Centred Leadershipmodel mentioned earlier (figure 12), coachingapplies primarily to the circle marking theneeds of the individual. Indeed relationship isonce again a key word in the use of coaching.

As with leadership, coaching – which can per-haps best be described as one of the many toolsof a leader or manager – can be applied usinga spectrum of behavioural style; from directiveto facilitative.

The model below shows the importance ofrelationship within the coaching process. Trustenables a relationship which can then approacha number of objectives in a cyclical manner.

Feedback is an essential part of coaching. IfCoaching is about helping people fill the gaps intheir performance, then feedback is the lettingpeople know how well they have filled the gaps.

Giving feedback requires skill and is both theresult of and the reason for the trusting relation-ships mentioned earlier. As a practical checklist, consider the following:

1. Start and finish on a positive note – think offeedback like a hamburger, with positivecomments being the bun and items forimprovement being the meat in the middle.

2. Concentrate on facts and be prepared togive specific examples.

3. Think about your body language. Whatsignals are you giving through your pos-ture and eye contact (or lack of it)!

4. Make sure that feedback is given as soonas possible after the observations are made.

5. Using a facilitative approach will leave thecoachee the time to work on his or herown solutions. Open questioning will helpin this process.

Receiving feedback also requires skill, and per-haps most importantly, the desire to learn. Somepractical tips include:

1. Remember that the person giving feedbackis on your side. They may be taking a riskin talking this way.

2. Consider your body language. What signalsare you sending through your eye contactand body posture?

3. Listen carefully, seek clarification when nec-essary, don’t seek to justify or defend unlessasked to.

3.4.2 Mentoring

While coaching is generally seen as a tool usedby a manager, mentoring in common modernusage is often, but not exclusively, a relation-ship which happens outside of the manag-er/subordinate situation. The word comes fromGreek mythology where Ulysses entrustedhis son to the care of his old friend Mentor.Coaching and counselling are often used tomean mentoring, but it is hoped that this sec-tion will provide a sufficiently clear distinctionbetween the three.

In the introduction to David Clutterbuck’s book“Everyone Needs a Mentor” 1991 a great rangeof definitions are given. In brief, phrases like“mixture of parent of peer”, “a role model, aguide, a coach and a confidant”, “a protectedrelationship in which learning and experi-mentation can occur, potential skills can be


• Consider the issues, problems or taskswhich may benefit from coachingamongst staff, paid or unpaid in yourorganisation.

• Consider how important it is for thecoach to understand the technicaldetail of the job of the coachee. Howdoes this differ from other elementsof leadership?


• Choose an activity where a coachcan observe another member of thecourse carrying out a task (eg givinga presentation). Provide time to pre-pare and then set up a coachinginterview where a third member ofthe group can observe and give feed-back on the feedback !


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Coaching : The “TROOPER” Process

TRUST

RELATIONSHIP

OBJECTIVE

OPTIONS REVIEW

PLAN EVALUATE

Fig. OM-18 : Trooper diagram

Reprinted by permission of Paul J.P. Hazell


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developed and in which results can be mea-sured in terms of competencies rather thancurricular territory covered”.

Mentoring then is about personal growth whichdoes not have to relate to the job of the protégédirectly. It has the character of a long termrelationship in which an individual is encour-aged to explore, discuss, experience, discusssome more, and maybe draw some conclusionsalong the way. The trust and integrity are cru-cial once again, as is long term commitmentfrom both mentor and protégé.

Some people choose mentors from outsideof their organisations whilst others preferthe closer understanding of the organisa-tion brought by a colleague. Peer mentoringin young organisations, or those which areonly staffed by young people can be equallybeneficial. It can also be a mutually beneficialprocess – particularly if a staff member is men-tored by a volunteer or Board member.

Using this model, it is hard to argue againstpeer mentoring.

If the role of mentor is as described then thiswill help us in finding mentors – and converselyassessing our own suitability to become one.Clutterbuck provides a checklist. He suggestswe look for a mentor who:

1. Already has a good record for developingothers

2. Has a genuine interest in seeing peopleadvance and can relate to their problems

3. Has a wide range of current skills to passon

4. Has a good understanding of the organisa-tion; how it works and where it is going

5. Combines patience with interpersonal skillsand an ability to work in an unstructuredprogramme

6. Has sufficient time to devote to the rela-tionship

7. Can gain a protégé’s respect8. Has his or her own network of contacts

and influence

It is regarded as healthy practice that mentorrelationships have clear beginnings and end-ings. It is not uncommon for these relationsto develop into friendships which last for years.The original relationship is one of consider-able responsibility – frequently set up at therequest of the organisation and with the ulti-mate goal of benefiting the organisation.

Mentoring relationships in large commercialorganisations are frequently based aroundspecific pieces of work or clearly defined pro-jects. This perhaps gives a focus to profession-al growth. Where the mentoring relationshipuses the day to day experiences as dictatedby day to day pressures of work in a non profitNGO then the focus might be rather different.Once again we come across the concept ofpersonal growth for the sake of it – a part per-haps of the value base of our organisations.The mentoring relationship can aid personalgrowth across as wide a spectrum of life asboth mentor and protégé decide.

3.4.3 Counselling

Counselling is another word which we findbeing interchanged with others and beingused in a range of different contexts. For the

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• One commentator’s summary of therole of a mentor is given below.Consider first how competent youwould be to carry out each part ofthe role ; and secondly who youcurrently know who might be ableto fulfil the role for you.

MENTORS

Manage the relationshipEncourage the protégéNurture the protégéTeach the protégéOffer mutual respectRespond to the protégé’s needs


• Ask participants to consider how theymight use a mentor relationship.What issues would they consider itbeneficial to discuss with a mentor.How “deep” would they be preparedto go?


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purposes of this section, we will take it tomean a process or interaction, used within arange of relationships, which assists a personin thinking through an issue or problem. Wewill not discuss here the professional coun-selling which brings a range of specialistskills albeit based on the principles of activelistening described below. In this section, theterm client is used as this is the one used, inEnglish, by professionals in the field

As such counselling techniques are used byleaders, managers, coaches, mentors and awhole spectrum of peer relationships.

Counselling is basically about solving prob-lems. It frequently follows the progression:

Contract – Exploration – Understanding –Action – Review

A contract is an agreement between the coun-sellor and client. It needs to cover time con-straints, limits of confidentiality and expecta-tions about the process.

Exploration is the phase where active listeningis the key. The mnemonic EARS may be of helphere:

EncourageAskReflectSummarise

During the understanding phase, the aim isto make sure that both counsellor and clientunderstand the issues clearly and fully. Para-phrasing, encouraging specificity, challengingcontradictions and clarifying implications areall part of the process.

Action: This is the main problem solving phaseand it may involve drawing the problem usinga mind map or flow chart. It might involve arange of problem solving questions (eg SWOT– Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, andThreats), a then-and-now-analysis or startingwith the objective (the solution) and workingbackwards.

Review: If you agree to follow up the coun-selling session after an agreed period of time,you will introduce an element of supportedaccountability for the decisions made. You willalso ensure that the ongoing support is mon-itored.

Warning. Counselling can result in a range ofoutcomes. The client may feel good and moti-vated to follow through the agreed actions.The s/he may however only have come as faras having a fuller understanding of the prob-lem but needs further specialist help in resolv-ing it. But in some cases the client may feeleven more unsettled then previously. A majorproblem may have been exposed and a wayforward may not be obvious.

From the counsellors point of view, there maybe great satisfaction in having helped a teammember or colleague, but the counsellor mayalso feel burdened with the client’s problem.There may be personal growth throughempathising with the client but there mayalso be shock and distress.

In professional counselling, supervision andsupport for counsellors is crucial. As a man-ager in a counselling role, it is essential thatyou consider your own support structure. Ifyou are unsure about your ability to dealwith problem then seek external help.

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In previous sections some emphasis was placedon the core values of a youth organisation.Accordingly decisions about the managementof an organisation including the structure itselfshould be carefully considered. It is essentialto ensure that all the issues which may be con-cerned with values are retained and incorporat-ed into the processes employed in the runningof the organisation. As an example imaginethe situation where young people are beingtrained in management: would arguments forthe purchase of computers or mountain bikesalways take precedence over improvement inyouth counselling and the employment of extrastaff? In some research from the corporate sec-tor, the results shows a strong tendency, innegotiations over expenditure, towards the pur-chase of equipment over extra spending onstaff or infrastructure. Would the decision mak-ers of your youth organisation have the samepriorities? What effect do the values of yourorganisation have on such decisions?

Peter Drucker, who has been writing on thesubject of management for fifty years, believesthat one constant error over the last decadeshas been the assumption, explicit or implicit,that all management is business management.Those involved as professionals or volunteersin youth organisations should be aware thatthat sometimes it is the corporate sector thatturns its attention to the voluntary or not forprofit sector as a source of development andinformation for management training.

4.2 Managingthe Organisation

Management and managing became the focusof attention at the end of the nineteenth cen-tury as a response to the ever increasing sizeof organisations. The issues which were thendebated among scholars and practitioners alikestill hold today. Max Weber, a German sociol-ogist, in his work on “The Theory of Social andEconomic Organisation” was more concernedabout power and authority but his comment on

bureaucracy has been most examined by man-agement writers. The advantages and disadvan-tages of Weber’s ideas are discussed below.

According to Weber, tasks within organisationsare allocated as official duties among the var-ious positions. This ensures that there is a cleardivision of labour and a high level of speciali-sation. Translating this into modern languagein a youth organisation would mean special-ising in specific activities. As a result Weberwould have claimed that a uniformity of deci-sions and actions is achieved through formallyestablished rules and regulations. The impliedadvantage is that impersonal or objective ori-entation ensures that staff and volunteersdealt with everyone in a similar and presum-ably fair manner. Youth organisations wouldperhaps reject the language, tenor and evenall of the principles of Weber because his val-ues are the antithesis of youth culture. How-ever, the youth organisation manager may stillidentify with elements of this kind of thinkingwithin her/his operation.

Employment by the organisation according toWeber, was based on technical qualificationsand constituted a lifelong career for the officials.Clearly this is fundamentally different fromorganisations staffed by volunteers in that con-tract periods are short by choice or necessity.It is also far less true for the commercial sectorin the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. than whenWeber wrote.

In summary the implied advantages of Weber’sthinking are:SpecialisationHierarchy of authoritySystem of rulesImpersonal or objective culture.

The opposing view of Weber’s thinking wouldbe that there is an over emphasis on rules andprocedures, implying that record keeping andpaperwork may become more important thanthe objectives. In a youth organisation the riskof systems taking precedence over people hasalready been emphasised. Such an approachwill also risk the possibility of paid staff or vol-unteers developing a dependence upon statusand symbols. Procedures may be concealedfrom those not directly involved in order toincrease status or power. In addition, initiative

4. The management of processes

4.1 Introduction


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may be stifled by systems. Inflexibility runscounter to the changing circumstances ofyoung people in particular, along with manyother groups and organisations.

The word “officials” used in the above may betranslated as managers, employees or volun-teers. Given that youth organisations need tomaintain their core values within their struc-ture, decisions must be made which avoid thecriticisms shown above and yet ensure aneffective organisation. We can all take comfortfrom the generally accepted view that there isno one best method of managing and thereforeno one best management structure.

4.2.1 Management structure

Youth organisations like any organisation man-age through processes around a structure. Itshould be emphasised the word structureshould not be equated with formal or rigid.The structure may well be formal, traditionaland hierarchical as implied by Weber, butequally it could be designed on a project basisor even as suggested by one participant in anyouth Organisational Management course aschaotic but effective. Networking also has aneffect on some youth operation structures. Insummary a youth organisation may use mod-els common in the corporate and statutorysectors or may have designed a unique struc-ture to suit its specific national or interna-tional purposes. Whatever the structure thereshould be conscious awareness of it.

Common and fundamental questions associ-ated with structure are:What is the purpose and strategy of the organ-isation?What internal and external policies affect itswork?How are the various tasks to be divided amongthe persons concerned?How much specialisation and concentrationof tasks is desirable or necessary?How many establishments or sites are requirednationally or internationally to implement thepolicy and strategy of the organisation?How much decision making should be devolvedfrom the centre in large, and particularly inter-national, organisations?Depending on the answers to these questionthen decisions on the creation or evolution ofthe following may be appropriate. It is importantto be aware that divisions between one type ofstructure and another may be fluid rather thanrigid. Consider the simple divisions below.

1 Tall hierarchies are, as the name suggests,built on a multi layer system and often for-mal basis with high degrees of specialisationat both functional and operational levels.Such traditional structures are accepted asthe form which best fits the military modelor that implied by Weber. Some interna-tional youth organisations may fit into thisdescription.

2 Flat structures have been a recent responseto the downsizing of businesses in order toincrease efficiency and profitability. Are theseappropriate structures in an NGO environ-ment? Using the language of advocates offormal structures, flat structures imply widerspans of control. Given the use of volun-teers the principle may be valid. There arealso arguments for this structure being mostappropriate to the learning and develop-ment of staff.

3 Project management structures aredesigned to be fluid and respond to spe-cific and sometimes short term needs. Theimplication is that teams may be formedfor particular projects and then abandoned.By implication, individuals may be mem-bers of more than one project team wherehierarchy is subservient to achievement.Would this principle fit volunteers and paidstaff in co-ordinated activities?

4 Network structures contain some of theelements of a project structure but extendto and sometimes incorporate other organ-isations. The communication demandedwould therefore be within the organisationand beyond it to individuals and groups whothemselves belong to separate organisations.Networking among youth organisationsmay be formally or informally establishedbut would at least be a structured systemof organisations with compatible goals andsympathies.


• Ask individuals to draw an organisationchart of the main functions of theirorganisation and compare results with-in and between individuals.

• Use the organisation diagrams illustrat-ed without using any labels at outsetto encourage comparisons with partici-pants’ youth organisations.


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Pro

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man

agem

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Net

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tru

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Fig

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4.3 Systems Management

The idea of systems in management has bio-logical antecedents. The principle of a systemsapproach is based on the view that the organ-isation is a unified and directed system ofinterrelated parts. Advocates of systems theorymay argue that the ability to manage diversityincreases the flexibility of an organisation.Systems may be closed and rigid or flexible andopen according to the desires of the manage-ment of the organisation concerned.

Systems theory comes from the work of biol-ogists like Ludwig von Bertalanfy who pro-posed the term “systems theory” in 1951. Hisideas were elaborated by Boulding who pro-posed a nine level hierarchy of systems accord-ing to the complexity and stage of developmentof each level.

There is no universally accepted distinctionmade by management commentators betweensystem and process. Accordingly, practitionersuse terms like “communication system” and

“training system” to describe parts of the man-agement process.

The significance of the term system is therecognition that organisations are complexand dynamic social bodies with interdepen-dencies both internally and externally.

While the ideas of systems may appear abstractthe value to the organisation is twofold. Itfocuses thinking on the organisation as adynamic holistic model and allows managersto decide upon and implement the most appro-priate management processes within the whole.

The focus for the youth organisation shouldbe on the interaction of staff, volunteers, andmembers, taking into account the environment,external and internal, in which they all operate.In the consideration of any approach definedas a system, a youth organisation would proba-bly wish to incorporate the ideas of pluralismrather than a unitary approach. In this con-text the consulting firm of McKinsey and Co.has proposed the Seven-S model for a success-ful organisation where the emphasis is on theequality and interdependence of the factorsshown in the diagram. Would the term staffcover both the volunteer and paid employeein this context?

Structure

Staff

Style

Stategy

Skills

Shared values

Systems

Source : Mullins, Laurie J. (1999) Management and Organisational Behaviour, p. 863, 5th ed. London : PearsonEducation. ISBN: 0-273-63552-2

Fig. OM-20 :Seven-S model


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4.4 Organisationdevelopment (OD)

As the comment on Systems Management hasillustrated the organisation should be dynam-ic and adapt to the needs which it exists tomeet. Moreover, there is evidence that in busi-ness organisations, emphasis on the manage-ment of people does improve the performanceof an organisation. Given the underlying val-ues of organisations concerned with youngpeople this may be accepted, but well researchedevidence is not always available and may bereplaced by belief and assumption.. Managersof youth organisations may be encouragedby the research described below.

Work carried out by Malcolm Patterson and hiscolleagues, drawing on the work of the SheffieldEffectiveness Programme, indicates a strongpositive relationship between employee atti-tudes, organisational cul-ture, human resourcemanagement practices and organisational per-formance. The report has had a profound impacton strategic thinking and has been used by manyorganisations to shape their people manage-ment agendas.

The Sheffield researchers have drawn on datafrom an ongoing 10 year study (1991-2001)exam-ining market environment, organisation-al charac-teristics and managerial practices inmore than 100 manufacturing firms in theUK. Their overall aim has been to determinewhich factors princi-pally influence businesseffectiveness. A youth organisation may easilysubstitute the term organisational effective-ness.

The researchers compared fluctuations inprofits and productivity between these firmsover the years and measured the variationsin these changes. The variations were thenstudied in relation to particular managerialpractices. They found that job satisfactionand organisational commitment, supervisorysupport, autonomy and training accountedfor a small percentage of productivity varia-tion. By comparison researchers were able toattribute 29 per cent of the variation in pro-ductivity over a three to four year period tothe human relations dimension of the organ-isation.

If this case study emphasises no more thanthe fundamental issue that the organisation’s

development plans should be people based itwill serve its purpose. It may seem an obvi-ous statement but focussing on, for example,technology or external (political) relations asthe main basis of development plans is notunknown, even in organisations which describethemselves as people centred.

Classic management text books assume stabil-ity of employment and long term contracts.In the 1980’s and 1990’s more attention hasbeen paid to a management environment ofshort term or uncertain contracts. Work in theseareas is nearer the reality of the volunteer’ssituation.

The problems associated with sometimesarduous conditions of employment, low incomeand high staff turnover are well understoodby youth organisations. Long term solutionsfor individuals are by definition inappropri-ate when dealing with short term contracts.The emphasis is thus more likely on job inter-est than career development (at least withinthe organisation).

In addition governance by a board of volunteerswho may have a range of motivations forparticipation, demands specific approaches toorganisational development. While the prin-ciples outlined below provide a useful guide,individual needs will be related to the speci-ficity of the management board concerned.

Organisation development is concerned withmedium and longer term strategies to ensurethe following:

Problem solving within the time-scale agreed.Structural changes which may be necessaryto achieve changed or additional policies.Optimising the communication inside andbeyond the organisation to promote effective-ness and avoid discord.

Among the management processes which maybe put in place to ensure the desired improve-ment in organisational performance the fol-lowing may be value to a youth organisation.

• The creation of quality circles where theobjective is to examine all elements oforganisation and service provided with aview to improvement. The essence of suchgroups is that they should be devoid of allsense of hierarchy or authority. Orderedand logical analysis is less important thanthe enthusiasm for improvement.


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• Asking paid staff, volunteers and users ofthe services provided for their view in astructured or semi – structured manner mayalso be of value. Questionnaires or inter-views using standard questions are bothvalid techniques

• Holding meetings to ensure that individualand group development are consistentwith the organisation’s needs. The issue oforganisational needs and its relevance, oreven conflict with the perceived develop-ment need of individual volunteers shouldbe predicted and resolved at the planningand implementation stages.

4.5 Decision making andpolicy development

The issues involved in decision making andpolicy making are many and complex. Withthe emphasis on management process, thestructure of the organisation is a prime factor.In large organisations there is a risk that deci-sion making is a remote process.

There is a risk of alienation of those involvedat some distance. Where distance may bedefined by geography or by structure. Inaddition the comments below should berelated to those in section 3 on the manage-ment of people and on the issue of leadershipin particular.

Decisions are not made in a vacuum. Thereare normally strong influences exerted by:The past collective experience of the organi-sationCurrent problems, perceived or real, of theorganisationPersonalities of the decision makersThe belief that the organisation is part of asystem as described above, whether rigid orflexible.

The effect of any decision should be consid-ered:– in relation to the time scale of the desired

change or implementation of a plan of actionvis-à-vis the morale of the staff involved.

– in the case of a youth organisation, relativeto all the stakeholders concerned

The popular image of one powerful person(usually a man) sitting in isolation behind adesk and deciding the fate of a whole organi-sation is far from reality. In deciding to decidethe questions posed below are paramount:

How large is the gap between the current andthe desired state of affairs?What is the priority in making a decision onissue A as against B etc.?Is the decision easy to make? Alternatively, isthe problem easy to solve?How long is the interval between taking thedecision and putting it into effect?Could the problem resolve itself over time?

Combining the concept of management process-es with decision making, two major divisionsare suggested.

The first is the establishment of a method ormechanism for dealing with routine or pre-dictable decisions.The second is the consideration of decisionmaking in non routine issues.

The difference between the two may also betermed programmed and non programmeddecisions. Setting up a process of consultationwithin the structure and considering feed-back on previous decisions is one method ofdealing with “standard” decision making. Thecompromise is that a process has been estab-lished but at least some individuals may feelthat they have insufficient discretion in theprocess. The process may involve decisionmaking recommendations at individual, teamor unit level. Unit in this sense could mean alocal youth organisation.

Decision making runs on a continuum fromcertainty through risk to uncertainty and fromhigh to low control on the part of the man-agers of the organisation. In non routine deci-sion making the managers concerned have toassess the risk of the outcomes in deciding invarious ways. Whether an exact mechanismfor emergency decision making is possible tospecify, remains in doubt. Sometimes decisionshave to be made immediately and locallywithout reference to the structure and thelearning from the decision is entirely retro-spective. This challenge at least should berecognised and would form part of managementtraining. The process established to optimisedecision making effectiveness is fundamentallyrelated to the concentration or devolution of


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power within the organisation and to the lev-els of policy development agreed or practised. 4.6 Communication

and information

Organisations are often described as havingchannels of communication. There may be theautomatic assumption that the channels ofcommunication are an integral part of theorganisation’s management structure.

Communication by definition includes thetransfer of information. Henry Mintzberg hasemphasised the importance of communicationin the management process. He proposes:

Interpersonal roles – where managers act asthe leader of their part of the organisation. Herefers to studies which demonstrate that man-agers spend 45% of their time with peers, 45%with people outside their units or immediateorganisation and 10% with their superiors.Would this be true of a local youth organisations,or a national or international organisation?

Informal roles – where the author asserts thatmanagers seek information from any group orindividual which may be relevant to his/her


• Ask participants to write down thedecisions or type of decisions whichthey make and whether this decisionmaking is routine or ad hoc.

• Verify the perception of formalauthority in the decision makingprocess. Is there within the partici-pants’ organisation a recognisedprocess for individual and collectivedecision making?

• Ask participants to describe in writ-ing a decision to be made – one sen-tence – and then apply the decisionmaking questions of the model inOM-21.

YES

YES

YES

NO

NO

NO

Is the alternative feasible?

Is the alternative satisfactory?

Will the alternative have positive or neutral consequences?

Conduct further evaluation

DROP THE ALTERNATIVE



Fig. OM-21 : Decision making

Source : p. 250 in Stoner, J.A. F. and Freeman, R.E. and Gilbert, D.R. (1995) Management, 6th ed., London : PearsonEducation Ltd. .


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job. The manager also disseminates importantinformation in return both within and beyondthe organisation. Methods and techniques ofcommunication are also included.

Decision roles – where a manager implementsnew plans, allocates resources and communi-cates the rationale of decision made to otherswithin and beyond the organisation.

Information flows all

around the network

Information flows to central person

Information flows all

around the network

Information flows to central person

Central person can

perform task alone

No one person has all the required information

Central person

becomes satured

No one person

becomes satured

Good performance

Poor performance

Poor performance

Good performance

Centralised networks (e.g., Wheel)

Decentralised networks (e.g., Comcon)

Centralised networks (e.g., Wheel)

Decentralised networks (e.g., Comcon)

SIMPLE TASKS

COMPLEX TASKS

Centralised networks are superior on simple task

Decentralised networks are superior on complex task

ChainsY

CircleWheel All-Channel (or Comcon)

Fig. OM-22 : Communication networks

Source : Mullins, Laurie J. (1999) Management and Organisational Behaviour, p. 489-490, 5th ed. London: PearsonEducation. ISBN: 0-273-63552-2


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There are many models of communicationrelated to management process. Some revolvearound the idea of sender or source, throughencoding, down or through a channel, todecoding and receiver. Following the analogyof radio signals the model then speaks of trans-mission back to the sender who then becomesthe receiver.

Following the logic of radio signals some writ-ers use the term noise to imply some kind ofdistortion of the message between receiver andsender. The word noise may be a euphemismfor perception of receiver or sender, ie theencoding and decoding stages may be affectedby hierarchy, rumours, inconsistent policy, ormore fundamentally the lack of a recognisedmanagement process for the transmission ofinformation or even confusion in the cycledescribed above.

The illustration OM-22 describes two com-munication networks and assesses them inrelation to simple and complex tasks. The wheelor star is the most centralised network andproposed for simple tasks and problems. Thecircle is the most decentralised, suggests littlecontrol and low leadership predictability. Theclaim is that the circle better embraces changeand suits complex problem solving.

The “all channel” or “comcon” network is alsodecentralised and involves full discussion andparticipation. Under pressure it may revert toa wheel type.

The Y or chain network may be suitable forsimple problem solving with little interactionin the group. Research suggests low to mod-erate levels of satisfaction within a group.

4.7 Knowledge andlearning

Communication is inextricably linked withknowledge and information. In the modernbusiness world the relationships betweenknowledge, power and competitive advantageare the subject of analysis and debate. Sinceyouth organisations are not concerned withcompetitive advantage the issues of commu-nication are further explored below in thecontext of the learning organisation. Because ofthe importance of learning in a youth orientedculture the inclusion of Learning Organisationsin this section as well as in Section 4 has beendeliberate. The treatment and analysis arehowever related to the management of othersin the previous section and to the process inthis.

The Learning Organisation

The corporate sector has taken an interestrelatively recently in the optimum means ofdisseminating information and knowledgewithin the organisation. Shell was one of theearly promoters of the principles.

The British based consulting group DavidSkyrme Associates in trying to suggest a defi-nition to assist managers have proposed thefollowing:

Learning organisations are those that have inplace systems, mechanisms and processes, whichare used to continually enhance capabilities ofthose who work for them or with them and toachieve sustainable objectives for that organi-sation and the communities in which they par-ticipate.

The objectives for which this learning isbeing advanced should also be extended tothe total environment of the organisation.

While the authors may not define the wordcommunity in the same way as a youth leader

Planning

Leading

OrganisingControlling

Fig. OM-23


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the fact that it is used suggests an additionalemphasis for those involved in the enhance-ment of young people.

The writers also list the following importantpoints. Learning organisations: Are adaptive to their external environmentContinually enhance their capability to changeand adaptDevelop collective as well as individual learningUse the results of learning to achieve betterresults.

Arie de Geus (in Senge 1990) described learn-ing as the only sustainable competitive advan-tage. How should this statement be translatedinto the culture of youth organisations? Shouldthey design a management process whichensures the constant sharing of knowledgeand, if so, for which purposes? Can it beassumed that the sharing of knowledge andthe transfer of skills always takes place in aco-operative atmosphere? Is the competenceof the individuals and teams within the organ-isation likely to be enhanced by this knowledgetransmission and sharing?

Peter Senge (1990) defines the learning organ-isation as “an organisation that is continuallyexpanding its capacity to create its future. Forsuch an organisation it is not enough to merelysurvive. Survival learning or what is moreoften termed adaptive learning is important –indeed is necessary. But for a learning organ-isation adaptive learning must be joined bygenerative learning, learning that enhances ourcapacity to create”.

Given the objective of this section on processand system the following management process-es and associated procedures or methods aresuggested. The principles have been bor-rowed from David Skyrme and adapted foryouth organisations. Skyrme emphasises therole of culture in the organisation. A culturewhich assumes co-operation and exchangeunderlies these suggestions. Since previoussections deal with culture, internal, externaland its ramifications then further explorationis not attempted here.

• Strategic Planning. Approaches to planningwhich may be novel or unconventional.Youth organisations may be well placed toattempt different kinds of thinking in thisarea. Time and other resources thereforeshould be allocated to set up experiments

using different communication methodsand thereafter measure their effectiveness.

• Analysis of Internal and External Environ-ment. As part of a process of continuousmonitoring all key factors should be exam-ined including elements which may at firstnot appear to be of prime relevance to ayouth organisation, like technology andpolitical factors.

• Information and Knowledge Management.Use techniques which identify audit, value(cost benefit) and exploit information asa resource (termed IRM or InformationResource Management). Information mayoriginate from internal sources, be con-tributed by other managers or derive fromconventional written information or elec-tronic information such as the Internet.

• Team and Organisation Development.Facilitators may be used to help groupswith work, job and organisational designand team development. Objectives includereinforcing values, developing vision, cohe-siveness and creating a climate of stretch-ing goals, sharing and support.

• Performance Measurement. Creating appro-priate indicators to measure performance,those which provide a balanced and fairsystem within a youth organisation. A mea-surement system must be positive andencourage further investment in learning.

• Rewards and Recognition Systems. Intro-duce processes and systems which recog-nise acquisition of new skills and enhanceteam work as well as individual effort.Ensure that success is well publicised toencourage further development.

Tools and Techniques. Youth organisations willbe familiar with many of the following but theyshould be related to the encouragement oflearning.Inquiry – interviewing, seeking informationCreativity – brainstorming, associating ideasMaking sense of situations – organising infor-mation and thoughtsMaking choices – deciding courses of actionObserving outcomes – recording, observationRe-framing knowledge – embedding newknowledge into mental models, memorising.


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Collective learning requires skills for sharinginformation and knowledge and includes:

Communication, especially across organisationalboundaries

Listening and observingMentoring and supporting colleaguesTaking a holistic perspective – seeing the teamand organisation as a wholeCoping with challenge and uncertainty.

4.8 Strategic planning

Choosing to make a strategic plan will have asignificant effect on the influence an organisa-tion has on society. It will influence any othertype of planning and should have an effecton practical operations of an organisation.

4.8.1 Why planning is important

There is at least some agreement on the state-ment that in general youth organisations areplaying an increasing role in society. Howeverit is also important to note that this does notmake things easier. On the contrary, the envi-ronment in which youth organisations operateis not a stable one but in constant evolution.

There are also other “internal” aspects that itmight be useful to mention here:– changing numbers and/or background of

members– lack of resources– poor human resource practise– lack of direction in the organisation’s activ-

ities or programme

Some of the above statements are commonproblems of many youth organisations aroundEurope and they clearly show a need for plan-ning.

The increasing importance of youth organi-sations creates the need for better managedorganisations, prepared to answer to the chal-lenges of society. An ever changing environmentrequires organisations which can also changeand adapt to maintain an influence and continueto provide services.

4.8.2 What is strategic planning?

There are different definitions for strategic plan-ning. Michael Allison and Jude Kaye in theirbook “Strategic planning for Non profit organ-isations” (1997), give two very basic definitions:

“Strategic planning is a management tool andlike any management tool, it is used to helpthe organisation to do a better job”. Then theyprovide a more elaborate definition thatincludes some of the key aspects of this kindof planning: “Strategic planning is a systematicprocess through which an organisation agreeson – and builds commitment among key stake-holders to – priorities which are essential to itsmission and responsive to the operating envi-ronment”.

It has already being explained in previouschapters how management practises used inbusiness can also be applied to youth organi-sations. In the same way practises in youthorganisations are also relevant to business. Aspreviously mentioned youth organisationshave a distinctive aspect – their values – whichcan be a key difference from profit makingorganisations. When using a management toolborrowed from the commercial sector thevalues of the organisation have to be takeninto consideration in every decision. The cru-cial point when applying commercial businesstools in the voluntary sector is to ensure thatthe tools do not undermine the organisationsvalues and principles. In other parts of thisT-kit some emphasis has been placed on val-ues. An extra definition is proposed here: valuesare standards or principles, ideas about theworth or importance of something or of cer-tain qualities, especially when they are sharedby a group.

Every organisation, regardless of its type, hasits own distinctive values, but in the non-profitsector they are perhaps different – or just givena different profile to those of the commercialsector. In theory at least, youth organisationspromote values which pervade the whole organ-isation, including the fund raising, communi-cation and volunteer and staff recruitment


• Use the six processes listed above,Inquiry to Re-framing knowledge asthe methodology for solving a partic-ipant presented problem.


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functions. The values of a youth organisationare normally established by the founders andmoulded and shared by other or subsequentmembers.The following notes summarise the differentsteps of strategic planning but before engagingin such an activity, it is important that the organ-isation takes some time to analyse its readiness.Consider for example the implications of thefollowing:– strategic planning takes time, do we have

it? do we want to allocate it?– strategic planning takes resources. are they

available? do we want to devote them toplaning?

– strategic planning needs commitment. Arewe taking into consideration everybodywhen starting the process: volunteers,board, staff, clients....

– strategic planning needs co-ordination. dowe have the right people to lead it?

– resistance to planning: is everybody infavour of strategic planning? How do weget everyone on board?

4.8.3 Strategic planning steps

Strategic planning is an ongoing process whichinvolves, among other actions, gathering ofinformation, discussions and negotiations, deci-sion taking..... in order to produce a writtendocument which may be called a strategic plan.However the process does not stop there; oncethe plan is written it needs to be put intopractise and it needs systematic review. The

planning period can be varied but a goodaverage would be a three year plan. Of courseregular evaluation is essential at all stagesand the outcomes of that evaluation have tobe incorporated into the process.Seven essential steps of the process are sug-gested below, followed by more informationto support the group in performing the differ-ent steps.

1. Setting the basis for strategic planning– who is going to be involved?– how is it to be done?– what do we need?

2. Vision and Mission: development or review– Agree on a vision for the organisation– Writing (or reviewing) a mission statement

3. Assessing the environment– Study strengths and weaknesses– Study opportunities and threats

4. Establishing strategic issues– Decide on priorities– Write goals and objectives– Prepare a budget

5. Write goals and objectives

6. Writing the strategic plan

7. Implementing the plan– Define, write and implement operational

plans

8. Evaluation

Step 1. Setting the basis for strategic planningEven assuming readiness for strategic planningthere are still certain important aspects to takeinto consideration:

Who is going to be involved?This question may have different answersdepending on the organisation’s size. In asmall organisation it could be interesting thatall staff and management board are presentas well as a representation of the rest of theorganisation’s stakeholders (a stakeholder isanybody who cares, or should care, for theorganisation, including staff, volunteers, board,clients, founders, community leaders, formerstaff and volunteers, suppliers etc.). In big organ-isations this is not possible, so then the answermay be to set up a planning committee, whichof course should also represent all the organi-sation’s stakeholders. In any case it is importantthat the group includes a variety of people, andespecially the executive director and the mem-bers of the board.


• On a sheet participants should reviewthe implications of the five aspectslisted above and if their organisa-tion is ready for strategic planning.Such a review might then result ina document being drawn up to taketo a General Assembly or equivalent,where the decision should be taken.

• In the event of the organisation notbeing ready, participants should tryto study in more detail which are theproblems so they can be solved andstrategic planning can be developedto a further stage.


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In any case, everybody in the organisation needsto be involved in one way or another, unlessthe plan is meaningful to everybody then it willnever succeed.

How is it to be done?The description given here of strategic planningis one of many. Different authors have differentapproaches to it. Some of them going into greaterdetail and considering more steps than others,or simply distributing them in different ways.This is significant in the sense that this toolcannot be used in a rigid way. On the contraryit is meant to be flexible to adapt to a varietyof organisations. So here it is time to have anoverall view of it and decide which parts shouldbe adapted to correspond the organisation’sreality.

What do we need?Strategic planning takes time and resources.However this should never stop the organisationfrom doing that which is needed to produce aplan. Recognition needs to be given to theinvolvement of staff and volunteers in thisnew task and to the resources which will beneeded such as money for meetings, informa-tion etc. Allocation of responsibilities amongthe people involved is also required.

Finally when possible, it might be useful forsome organisations, to involve an external con-sultant, who might help to facilitate the process.

Step 2. Vision and Mission: development orreviewNow it is time to dream. If we are planning weneed to know where we want to go, so our plan-ning can have a direction. To define where wewant to be we will use the vision of the organ-isation, which can be defined as a shared visionof success and it is the pursuit of this successwhich inspires and motivates people to worktogether.

We can define 2 types of vision:

– one which refers to the organisation inter-nally and then we will have to imagine howdo we want the organisation to be.

– one external vision which focuses on whatthe world will be if our organisation achievesits purpose.

The vision of the organisation should challengeand inspire the group to work together to theutmost of their capabilities in order to achievethe purpose of the organisation.

This purpose is sometimes called “Mission”and it can be defined as "the reason for beingof the organisation” (Allison and Kaye, 1997)or we could also say that Mission is the roleof the organisation in respect of the vision.

Obviously there are organisations that alreadyhave a clear mission statement. If this is true,then this is a good time to review it.

Writing a Mission statement can be quite achallenging task and it will probably takesome time. However its importance should beconsidered, not only because it is an essentialelement for strategic planning but also becausethe process can help the organisation to involvethe members in debating and agreeing on thereason for their work.

Of course there are different opinions on thecontents of a Mission Statement. Differentauthors emphasise different aspects. In sum-mary then, a mission statement (sometimescalled purpose statement) could include:– What the organisation intends to achieve.– What we are good at. As a distinctive char-

acteristic compared to other organisations.– What we do, who we do it for and how we

do it– It should reflect the values of the organisa-

tion and its specificity.

Mission statements should be concise, clearand attractive. Here we have some examples ofmission statements of different youth organi-sations:

IFM-SEI – International Falcon Movement-Socialist Educational International – seeks,through its member organisations, to developchildren and young people with a criticalawareness of the world today. It strives toeducate children and young people accord-ing to the basic principles of tolerance, equal-ity and friendship.

TEJO – World Organisation of Young Esper-antist – aims to improve understandingbetween young people from various nation-alities and speaking different languages bypromoting the use of the international lan-guage Esperanto.

YDC – Youth for Development and Co-oper-ation – aims to strengthen youth structuresthat forge co-operation between young peo-ple, empowering them to actively shape their


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current and future livelihoods in order to reacha development that is environmentally sustain-able, economical accessible and socially just.

YEE – Youth and Environment in Europe –The aim of YEE is to promote lifestyles whichare in harmony with nature, to protect andpromote the proper use of resources in theworld, to involve everybody into decisionmaking process and provide education on theabove mentioned ideas.

Once the mission is written, everybody involvedin the process would probably experience abigger feeling of ownership of it and thereforea stronger commitment towards the organi-sation. It is important that is published andalso that it is in some way incorporated intothe organisation’s constitution or statutes.

Step 3. Assessing the environment.The organisation exists in an environment,which has already been described as a chang-ing one. This environment has an influencein the performance of the organisation; theorganisation takes things from the environ-ment and is affected continually by others.

Strategic planning demands a system whichforces the organisation to respond to thosechanges, which in turn requires an analysisof the external environment such as: politics,economic trends, demographics, legal issues,community issues, competition with otherorganisations, change of values and needs ofmembers or beneficiaries.

At the same time it is important to understandthe internal situation of the organisation, sothat the need for change can be best assessed.When evaluating the internal environmentthere should be an analysis the organisationin all its activities. Depending on the type oforganisation these could be: finance, man-agement, membership, marketing, services,programme and activities.

One useful tool which assists this process is aSWOT analysis, which stands for Strengths,Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

– Strengths: what do we do well?– Weaknesses: where can we improve?– Opportunities: what changes have taken

place in our environment which might allowus to better achieve our mission?

– Threats: what changes in the environmentdo we need to guard against or prepare forin doing our work (From Allison and Kaye,1997)

The SWOT analysis should help us to identifywhich strengths of the organisation will allowus to make use of the opportunities and whichof our weakness we need to eliminate orimprove in order not to be affected by thethreats. The SWOT analysis can be carried outat the level of the whole organisation or alsofor specific programmes or departments.

Step 4. Establishing strategic issuesAfter all the information is gathered in the pre-vious phases, choices have to be made andpriorities decided. At this point there may bea need to return a previous phase and do somemore research. This phase can sometimes befrustrating, however the outcomes are mostrewarding.

Bryson describes strategic issues as “fundamen-tal policy questions affecting the organisation’smandates, mission and values, productivity levelor mix, clients, users and payers, costs, financ-ing, management or organisational design”.Prioritising these against the mission and visionwill begin to put the meat onto the bones of ourstrategic plan.

It will not be a good idea to take shortcuts in thispart of the process. The outcomes of the SWOTanalysis can be useful and we should see how thestrategic issues identified relate to the strengths,weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

The final step will be to narrow down theoptions available to realise the organisationsprimary goals. Once more, different authorsgive different versions of the essential aspectsthat have to be taken into consideration.

Henry Migliore et al in their book “Strategicplanning for Not-for-Profit organisations” (1994)give the following list:– Level of staffing/volunteer participation– Level of resources and funds– Reputation and level of acceptance in ser-

vice area– Clients served– Quantity of programmes– Quality of programmes– Leadership effectiveness– Quantity and quality of services


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Step 5. Write goals and objectivesDiscussions about goals and objectives will bepursued during the whole process of strate-gic planning. However at this point last stageof the process is in sight.

By now most decisions would have been takenand the overall picture of the organisation’sdirection should be clear. It is time now toagree on concrete measures to achieve theagreed results.

The use of a SMART analysis is of value in thecurrent context. This mnemonic means:– Specific: they should be written in a concise

form that clearly states when, how, andwhere the situation will be changed.

– Measurable: so the achievement or processcan be measured.

– Achievable: that means that the elementof challenge has to be present to motivatepeople but they have to be affordable soas to avoid frustration.

– Relevant and Realistic: in this case the needis to focus on the priorities of the organi-sation.

– Time-bound: it has to include a time frame-work in which the objective will be achieved.

The point of commitment has now beenreached. Now resource need to be allocated.The allocation of resources is defined in thebudget, which is a document that reflectspolicy decisions, i.e. choosing between scarceresources and defining what the organisationshould do. Budgets are normally produced bythe board and approved by the higher deci-sion making body of the organisation (GeneralAssembly, Congress....), but again, the greaterthe involvement of all stakeholders the betterthe sense of ownership.

Step 6. Writing the strategic planIf the reader who has decided to engage instrategic planning within their organisation,comes directly to this chapter, s/he will findthat there is not a paragraph here to help them.Writing the strategic plan simply means to com-mitting to writing the outcomes of the previoussteps.

Perhaps it is better that just one person is incharge of writing. Of course there have to beopportunities for the others to be involved inthe process of verification. However at this stagethe main decisions have already been taken,

so not many changes should be needed, oth-erwise there is a risk of being engaged in end-less drafting process.

As a document which will be used by a bigvariety of stakeholders it must be user-friendlyto assist is the recognition of its ideas. Oncethe document is ready it should be formallyadopted by the board and publicised as wide-ly as possible within the organisation.

There is not a standard model but taking intoconsideration the steps previously described,a possible structure for the document couldinclude the following headings:

– Introduction– Mission and vision– Organisation history and profile– Strategic issues and core strategies– Aims and goals (Allison and Kaye)

It may be that some or all of these sectionsshould be written for each department andfor the organisation as a whole.

Step 7. Implementing the planNow it is the time to set things on motion. Ourstrategic plan gives us the direction, the timingand the content. In order to implement it weneed to develop actions (or operational plans)for each strategic issue. It is here that actionverbs are used: for a recruitment strategy deci-sions on how to advertise the post, job descrip-tion, number of interviews to candidates, bud-get for recruitment process ...etc. will be made.

The operational plans go into a greater levelof detail than in the strategic plan, but theywill ensure that each strategic issue is dealtwith in a co-ordinated and effective manner.It is important that operational plans are con-sistent with the style of the strategic plan.The people who will implement the operationalplans have to feel the link of their actions withthe organisation’s mission, as described in thestrategic plan.

Step 8. EvaluationIn strategic planning, evaluation is just anotherstep that will not only complete the processbut better than that it will bring new informa-tion to the plan and will enable it to be furtherfined. Strategic planning then becomes an on-going process of organisational development.


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Evaluation needs to be carried out at differentstages:– During the process of producing the strate-

gic plan– And whilst the plan is being implemented

We have defined strategic planning as a processand therefore the on-going, or cumulative eval-uation will not only contribute to the plan itself,but also to the effectiveness of the process.In this sense, there is never really a final orSummative evaluation.

4.9 FinancialManagement

Finance may be an element of managementprocess which is well understood, with accept-ed methodologies practised over years. Evenin such environments finance may not beuniversally accepted as an important issue.Important in this context lends itself to manydifferent interpretations but whatever the def-inition, it should include understanding andinvolvement.

Understanding may be enhanced by studyingthe information which follows but will notresolve the issues of involvement. Much hasbeen written and discussed around the ideaof ownership. This concept applies no less tofinance in all its aspects. Since many managershave had no specific training in finance thereis a tendency to leave all related matters tothe “experts”. Youth organisations in commonwith profit making organisations have thesame requirement to make financial informa-tion available to those affected by financialdecisions. The management process shouldincorporate at least the opportunity for a man-ager to make a contribution in the form ofbudget preparation. In order to assist in thediscussions about the level of involvement,the following short descriptions of financialstatements is offered.

Financial information is presented in manyforms according to the needs of the organisationconcerned. References may be made to bothfinancial accounts and management accounts. This terminology makes the division betweenaccounting for legal and statutory purposesand accounts which are prepared solely to

assist in management decision making. Theformer category would include balance sheetsand profit and loss accounts while the lattermay include budgets and cash flow statements.The following is recommended in any manage-ment training programme on financial manage-ment.

BudgetsBalance SheetsIncome and Expenditure AccountsCash Flow Statements.

4.9.1 Budget

This is a financial statement to predict alloca-tion of expenditure against income or a quan-titative assessment of the money to be appliedto specific activities over a given period. LikeIncome and Expenditure they can be for a peri-od which suits the organisation. They may beviewed as Income and Expenditure for thefuture or in a projected rather than historicalform. The discipline of completing a budgetor assisting in its preparation and then man-aging within the constraints of the resultantfinancial plan is the minimum suggested fora manager in any youth organisation. Giventhat there is often uncertainty about the source,amount and receipt of income, budgets mayneed to be prepared using conservative pre-dictions (that is higher costs/lower incomesthan you would think). The problem of latepayments from funding organisations is in thefirst place a cash flow matter but expenditureon a project or even on fixed overheads mayhave to be adjusted according to dates andamounts of income. The budget periods there-fore may have to be drawn up to providemaximum flexibility in the organisation’s oper-ations. The ability to amend a budget withina specified period and with a given period ofnotice is an essential feature of youth organi-sations’ needs. An amended budget is some-times presented as a forecast.

The whole organisation would normally havea budget and in the case of larger structureswith local units of operation then sub or depart-ment budgets would also be normal practise.While individual managers may have littleinfluence on total income there should bespecific encouragement for involvement inthe drawing up and the operation of budgets.Meetings to discuss the results achieved fordifferent periods of expenditure is a valuablemanagement training activity.


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Such meetings may also be viewed as part of thedecision making of the organisation. Decisionmaking is certainly more associated with thedrawing up of budgets. This said, once a budgethas been amended the total process of producing,

implementing and evaluating the results is stilllinked to the previously cited planning, organ-ising leading and controlling cycle (Fig 23).The planning and decision making in this senseare expressed in financial terms.

ACCOUNTS BUDGET

1998 2 000

INCOMES

1 Member Organisations’ Contributions 60100 59 0002 Admin. Grant EU 40000 40 0003 Admin.Grant EYF 8000 8 0004 Grant Belgian Government 6000 6 0005 Interest 3250 3 0006 Donations/Subscriptions 18 000 15 000

Subtotal 135 350 131 000

7 Projects 95 000 120 000

TOTAL INCOMES 230 350 251 000

EXPENDITURES

8 Permanent and project staff 75 000 80 0009 Volunteers/Trainees in the office 10 000 12 000

Subtotal staff 85 000 92 000

10 Office rent, heating, ... 5 900 6 00011 PTS 16 850 14 00012 Equipment 3 200 4 00013 Staff travel 4 550 5 00014 Board travel+ Communication 9 000 10 00015 Annual General Meeting 9 350 9 00016 External Representation 8 250 6 00017 Financial committee 1 530 1 00018 Miscellaneous 3 130 4 000

Subtotal non-staff 61 780 59 000

19 Project Expenses (excluding staff 85 000 100 000and other administration costs)

TOTAL EXPENDITURES 231 760 251 000

Surplus/Deficit (no Projects) -11 410 -20 000

Surplus/Deficit -1 410 0

All figures in Euro

Fig. OM-24 : Example of a NGO budget


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4.9.2 The balance sheet

The information given in a Balance Sheetreflects the value or worth of an organisationat a particular date. One analogy used is thatthe clock is stopped at a specific time. Thesestatements are typically prepared on an annualbasis. The Balance Sheet provides informationon the assets of the organisation. Assets includeproperty, equipment and money owed to theorganisation as well as money in the bank.Liabilities include money which the organisa-tion owes to others.

4.9.3 The income andexpenditure statement

This statement may be called a Profit andLoss Account or Financial Results. Income andExpenditure may be a more limited type ofstatement but shows the essentials of moneyavailable to the organisation as well as moneyspent over a given period and may be suitablefor a small youth organisation or a local unitof a larger organisation. The end figure wouldbe surplus or deficit for the period. In a com-mercial operation this would be profit or loss.These statements may be prepared on a quar-terly, six monthly or annual basis and thusindicate the position of the organisation overthe period concerned. Whatever the terminol-ogy the value of the document is as a manage-ment tool. Monitoring at intervals and analysingthe changes in income, costs and expenditureprovide information which is valuable in deci-sion making and future planning.

4.9.4 Cash flow statements

In any organisation, whether for profit or notfor profit, it is essential to plan the flow of moneyin, as well as out. The essence is to predict thebalance of funds which will be available in thebank or department budget. At its simplest thelast figure shown for the period concerned,very often one month, is the bank balance. Anylast figure which predicts a negative numberwould have to be agreed with the bank or thepersons responsible for the funding of theorganisation.

4.10 Contracting

Contracts with the organisation may take var-ious forms. In the case of paid staff or volunteers

the contracts will incorporate elements ofnational employment law for the country con-cerned. Terms and conditions of employmentare dealt with in the next chapter and so theemphasis which follows is on contracts forfixed assets like buildings, vehicles, officeequipment and machines. As a guide for staffand volunteers alike the management processshould incorporate procedures to identify activ-ities which can be conducted entirely withinthe organisation and as a corollary, referenceto the need for professional advice from theorganisation’s legal or accounting advisers.The following questions will assist in drawingup guidelines and procedures.

What is the value of the asset to be acquired?Will the asset be owned or hired?Over what period will the asset be writtendown? (sometimes known as depreciation –not applicable to all assets)Does the organisation have an in-house advis-er?Is there a means of verifying the trustworthi-ness or competence of the business proposingthe sale or hire?Do the organisations’ rules define the personsauthorised to sign specific types of contractswith third parties.

It is common for example to define the per-sons or the qualifications of persons who maysign or agree contracts to purchase land orproperty but is it equally clear in the case ofmore routine contracts like the hire of photo-copiers? The variation on apparently simplecontracts on cost terms may be considerable.

4.11 Terms and conditionsof employment

Both National and European law makes require-ments of organisations in relation to the termsand conditions on which they employ staff.But it is also the sign of a good employer thatterms and conditions are agreed, fair and appro-priate to the conditions in which staff areworking. As values driven organisations, witha focus on the development of people, there iseven more need for European youth organisa-tions to demonstrate their commitment to staffthough proper procedures and documentation.


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A statement of terms and conditions is a per-sonal statement containing the fundamentaldetails of the employment relationship. It doesnot contain all of the contract between theemployer and the employee because policydocuments, staff handbooks, job descriptionsand other notices are also part of the contract.

Things you need to consider in relation to Termsand Conditions (T&C).

What is the minimum length of contractwhich requires T&C to be written?By when should the T&C be given to theemployee?What other documents need to be referredto?

When writing the Terms and Conditions thefollowing pieces of information should beincluded:

Who is the employer?When does the employment start and end?What is the job title? (refer to job description)Job locationRemuneration (pay – when? how?)Hours of work (normal hours, exceptions,weekends and evenings, overtime)Collective agreements (union agreements)What expenses will be paid?Will accommodation be provided?Holidays (how much? What notice isrequired?)Reporting of absenceSick pay arrangements (statutory and organ-isations own)Pension rightsRetirement ageProbationary period (when will employeebe confirmed in post?)Grievance procedure (when an employeeis not happy with the way the employertreats them)Disciplinary procedure (when the employeris not happy with the employee’s behaviouror performance)Health and safety requirementsWork outside of the home countryAny other arrangements (reference to thestaff handbook, notice boards)

The Terms and Conditions should also containa place for both the employer and the employ-ee to sign and date. The document should beproduced in duplicate so that both partiescan retain a copy.

There has been some debate about the needfor formal terms and conditions for volunteers.However, organisations need to take care thatthey do not create a situation where they are,in law, employing someone and that the levelof pocket money given is seen as paymentbelow the minimum wage.

There is however a principle here which needsto be applied equally to employees and volun-teers alike; that is, that anyone working for anorganisation should be clear about what theirresponsibilities are and what expectations existin relation to quality of their work. Publicationand accessibility of all organisation policies onissues related to the work being done shouldalso be considered. An agreed statement ofexpectations might be one way to make thesethings clear.

4.12 Managing externalrelations

Previous sections have alluded to both internaland external relations. A youth organisationwould normally have a policy on external rela-tions. Part of any management process shouldincorporate and reflect the policy. The processwould be designed around answers to the fol-lowing questions:

What is the organisation’s policy on externaland internal relations?


• Ask course participants to considerat least one paid and one unpaidworker in their organisation and toreview the level of clarity of termsand conditions and/or expectations.

• How do they knowthis ? What proce-dures are in place,or need to be putin place to improvethis situation?


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What perceptions are held by external bodieson the purpose and style of the organisation?Are formal or informal mechanisms or proce-dures helpful in promoting the policy withinthe organisation?Should recommendations be circulated toensure uniformity of approach when dealingwith external bodies?What is the nature of the external organisationswith whom the organisation has constant orregular contact?

Some of the external bodies may be politicalorganisations or government bodies whichfunction with a background of elected mem-bers and employed people. The latter may betermed officials or executives. Youth organi-sations should be aware of the advantages andconstraints associated which the democraticprocess behind such bodies. If the organisa-tion is seeking support, particularly financialsupport, from such a body then the manage-ment process should at least ensure that thereis no potential for creating embarrassment byduplication of contact for the same purpose.Likewise, if there are contacts with the corpo-rate sector it may be necessary to ensure thatneither the business concerned nor the youthorganisation could be negatively affected bypotentially conflicting interests.

The Board or managers of an organisation maywish to publicise the external and internal rela-tions policy in a specific document. Alterna-tively the associated process could be incor-porated into the policy on Communication andInformation.

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Suggestions for training• Ask participants to list the external

bodies with whom they deal or com-municate on a regular and irregularbasis. Describe the nature of the rela-tionships. Compare the differentoutcomes and discuss the merits ofnetworking among group members.

• Invite comment on the level of sat-isfaction of the processes involvedas well as the outcomes.

• What is the link between processand outcome?


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Introduction

The brief summary given below is aimed atsupplementing the information and argumentgiven in the T-Kit. There is no reference in thisreview to the specificity of youth organisa-tions. The objective is to provide references tooriginal sources so that managers and trainersusing the T-Kit can form their own judgementsabout application and relevance. Commentson relevance and value to youth organisationson the ideas of certain management commen-tators are included in the T-kit itself.

Approaches to the study ofmanagement and organisations

Management for some writers started from thepremise that principles could be verified sci-entifically and accordingly a body of theorycould be developed. The summary which fol-low divides the various contributions into threeperiods; Classical or Scientific Management,Human Relations and Modern or Contempo-rary.

Scientific management

The “school” of scientific management or theclassical school included practitioners turnedtheorists like Frederick Taylor(USA), Henri Fayol(France) and Colonel Lyndall Urwick, (UK). Theirpositions stemmed from mass production fac-tories and extended to both processes and thestructure of the organisation. Arguably theyshared a belief that there was a one best wayto design organisations and operations. Theyclaimed that their universal principles werescientific in origin. Organisations were accord-ingly formal in structure and centred aroundthe organisation chart. One overlooked writerof this early period, from the last decade ofthe nineteenth century to the inter war peri-od, was Mary Parker Follet. Her views whichwere concerned with social aspects of workand the nature of society were ignored by fel-low Americans and Europeans alike becausethey did not fit the assumptions of mainstreamthinking of the time.

H. Fayol (1841-1925)

Fayol was a mining engineer who took over aloss making business and made it profitable.His principles were:-

Responsibility – must be matched with author-ityUnity of command – orders should be receivedfrom one superior onlyUnity of direction – clear policy and clear lead-ershipCentralisationChain of command – clear lines of organisationand clearly stated and understood purpose foreach level.

F. W. Taylor (1856-1915)

He was concerned with those factors whichinfluenced production. Accordingly the effi-cient use of tools, optimum factory layout andlogical production flow were his preoccupa-tions. His study was at the level of detail, fromwhich he formulated the principles of:

ObservingRecordingDeveloping

These principles were developed into methods,which were retrospectively called work study.Work study is the analysis of operations, theirstandardisation and timing. The timing led topayment by result based on the principle of afair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. Later thetitle industrial engineering was used.

L. Urwick (1891-1983)

Colonel Urwick published his principles of man-agement in 1938.The key issues are summarised:

Principle of objective – what is/are the compa-ny/business/group/individual trying to achieve.

Principle of correspondence – authority andresponsibility must be hand in hand.

Principle of responsibility – a manager/super-visor can never pass on his responsibility tosomeone else. He/she may delegate, but mustalways accept responsibility.

The scalar principle – as with Fayol’s chain ofcommand.

The principle of span of control – no superiorcan supervise directly the work of more thansix subordinates.

Appendix 1

Historical and contemporary perspectivesof management


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The principle of specialisation – every employ-ee should be confined to one major functionor activity.

The principle of definition – every positionshould be clearly defined in writing.

Urwick spoke of separating long and short termaims. Conflict arose through misunderstand-ing. The essence here is that man is a rationaland economic animal. This was reinforced bythe belief that management knows best andsenior management knows better than juniormanagement.

It is easy to dismiss the whole of the scientificmanagement approach and to argue that themodern manager has a more enlightened view.Is this true of all managers and organisations?Consider also the effect of British or Frenchimperialism. What kind of management do theformer colonies practise? Consider also theemerging economies of Asia, whether demo-cratic or otherwise as well as those of the for-merly centrally planned systems of Eastern andCentral Europe.

It is clear, however, that the assumption by theearlier writers that their methods were scien-tific would not now stand any test under theheading of science. They were essentially obser-vations of practitioners reduced to a list whichthey called principles. While this empiricalmethod may be accepted in a true science, itsvalue in observations of human behaviour isquestionable.

Human relations

In the 1920/30s the classical approach startedto be overtaken by the School of HumanRelations. Among these, mainly organisationalpsychologists, Maslow, McGregor, Argyris andBennis, were for the most part operating in theUnited States from the 1920s to the 1960s.Among the positive findings of this group thefollowing are noteworthy:

A worker is not simply economic man, but alsosocial man and non-material factors are impor-tant. These views also corresponded with thoseof Mary Parker Follet (1868–1933) alreadymentioned; an example of a woman ahead ofher time.

The amount of work which may be carried outmay be more related to social, rather than phys-ical characteristics or capacity.

Non economic rewards play a key element indetermining motivation and feelings of well-being of employees.

Narrow specialisation is not necessarily themost efficient form of division of labour.

Groups form the basis of informal organisa-tions, which exist within and interacts within,formal organisations. Accordingly an under-standing of the behaviour and influence ofgroups is essential.

Power must be understood as well as author-ity.

Hierarchical position does not always ensureeffective leadership. Leadership style is impor-tant.

Good communications are important but dif-ficult to achieve.

In conditions of change the human elementis key. Successful change depends upon lead-ership, consultation and opportunities forparticipation.

Silverman in trying to summarise the work ofthe organisational psychologists, sometimescalled neo Human Relations School, suggeststhat – “The best form of organisation is onewhich attempts to optimise individual andorganisational need for satisfaction by meansof the following:

• The encouragement of the formation ofstable work groups and worker participa-tion in decision making.

• Good communications and expressivesupervision.

• Non bureaucratic structures which func-tion by the setting of objectives rather thanthrough a hierarchy of authority”.

The human relations approach starts with astudy of man’s motives and behaviour andfrom this study criteria are developed to helpdesign and organisation. The design is towardsstimulating people to co-operate in achievingbusiness aims. Effective co-operation can onlybe achieved through willing individuals andgroups. Specifically the writers in this grouphave claimed that their organisations would:

• Achieve objectives while satisfying mem-bers of the group (the theory says thatequilibrium must be maintained by thecreation of satisfaction).


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• Encourage high productivity and lowabsenteeism.

• Stimulate co-operation and avoid industrialstrife. (A certain level of disagreement isaccepted as constructive).

In this approach the study of organisationbecomes the study of behaviour, of how peo-ple behave and why they behave in definedways. These writers hoped to predict behav-iour within organisations and to provide guid-ance in how best to achieve organisational andbusiness goals. Their specific approach wasaround:

Individual and group productivity;Individual development;Job satisfaction.

The behaviourists divided their studies into:

Individual needs and wantsSmall group behaviourBehaviour of supervisors;Inter-group behaviour.

The work of Mayo, McGregor, and Maslow isworth further study.

Contemporary views

While there is some agreement about thedescription and classification of previous peri-ods of management thought there is no singleaccepted description of post 1960’s writing.The advent of the multi-national company,globalisation, contributions on managementthought from non-western writers, particu-larly from Japan, have created a diversity ofthinking which lends classification more prob-lematical. Arguments about the relevance ofJapanese or Korean practices in cultures whichare essentially western pluralist in nature addanother dimension to management writing andfurther complexity for the student of the subject.

The notion that business will perform in adesired manner because of the imposition ofa single management method, style, structureor even all-embracing philosophy is increas-ingly being challenged. Single fashions of man-agement advocated by some practitioners, evento-day, are now regarded by academic com-mentators as extremely suspect. Consider for

example the various emphasis placed on tech-niques, some elevated to a philosophy of man-agement which have been in vogue since the1960’s. Management by Objectives, DiscountedCash Flow, Just in Time, Total Quality Manage-ment and Business Process Re-engineering haveall been advanced with enthusiasm.

In traditional thinking as expressed by all earlierwriters there remains the implicit assumptionsof a hierarchy of command. Modern theoristshave turned their attention to this suppositionand questioned some of its premises. The roleof the supervisor or first line manager has,over a period of years, been under scrutiny.Questions which were asked in the 1960s andcontinued increasingly into the year 2000have resulted at times from the eliminationof this function. Names like team leader havereplaced words like foreman or forewoman insome organisations. The supposition is thatthe person so designated can both participatein the activity of work and motivate and leadothers to achieve particular objectives. A fur-ther step is to introduce an organisation wherethere is no labelling or even understanding ofthis role. This eliminates one level of manage-ment completely. Such organisations it isclaimed are both more effective and moreefficient. The same principle applied to serviceand not for profit organisations which havesenior management specialist functions mayreduce the hierarchical model even further.Such changes may also be associated withthe reduction in the number of employees inan organisation, referred to as downsizing.Multinational enterprises have been particu-larly active in adopting the ideas related toflat organisation, arguably for cost cutting rea-sons rather than the improvement of manage-ment effectiveness.

Objective analysis will demonstrate the mer-its of all these ideas but the inevitable weaklink in the system, human behaviour has oftenproven to be the impediment to the desiredprogress. Peter Wickens in “The AscendantOrganisation” offers a critique of some ofthese management initiatives. His experienceembraces European, American and Japanesemanagement and should be further consid-ered by those concerned with learning fromthis century in preparation for the next. PeterDrucker, born in Vienna in 1909 and still writ-ing from an American base in 1999 arguesthat modern management has not fundamen-tally changed from the ideas of Taylor almost


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a century earlier. He speaks of the knowledgeworker and suggests that Marx’s dignity of worknever had any relevance.

The knowledge worker includes managers whothemselves are often concerned with repeti-tive activities or tasks, but where knowledge,scientific or otherwise, is an important ingre-dient of decision making and leadership. Theemphasis on knowledge has given rise to new

ideas, for some elevated to the status of theory,like the Learning Organisation which advancescontinuous learning as the key to success.Many observers however return to Maslow’sprecept that each person has to be managedin an individual way.

Can the not for profit or voluntary organisa-tion achieve this better than the market ledoperation?


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We hope you have found this first version of the Organisational Management T-kit helpful anduseful. This is the first time that such a publication has been produced within the PartnershipProgramme and we would welcome your feedback and suggestions for future editions. Youranswers will also be used to analyse the impact of this publication. Thank you for completing thisquestionnaire, your comments will be read with great attention.

How far did this T-kit help you to find theoretical foundations and practical applications oforganisational management techniques?

From 0% ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... to 100%

You are…(You may tick more than one option)

n A Trainerl Local, l National or l International level

Did you use the T-kit in any of your training activities? Yes n No n

If yes…

In what context or situation? .........................................................................................................................................................................

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With which age group(s)? ..................................................................................................................................................................................

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Which ideas did you use or adapt? ...........................................................................................................................................................

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Which ideas did you find least useful? .................................................................................................................................................

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n A “Manager” of a youth organisationl Local, l National or l International level

l Board member l Staff l Other (please specify) ...................................................

Name of the organisation ...................................................................................................................................................................................

Appendix 2

Organisational managementT-kit Evaluation


T-Kit

Which techniques and ideas of the T-kit were more useful for your work? .....................................................

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Which were the least useful? ..........................................................................................................................................................................

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n None of the above – Please specify ..................................................................................................................................................

What do you think of the overall structure?.....................................................................................................................................

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What do you think about the layout? ....................................................................................................................................................

Where did you obtain your copy of this Organisational Management T-kit? ........................................................

What recommendations or suggestions do you have for future editions? .........................................................

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Name: ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Title: ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Organisation/establishment (if applicable)..........................................................................................................................................

Your address: ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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E-mail: ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Please return this questionnaire by surface mail or e-mail from: www.training-youth.net

Organisational Management T-kitDirectorate of Youth & SportCouncil of Europe – F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex E-mail: [email protected]

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Adair, John (1983)Effective leadership, Aldershot: Gower

Allan, John (1996) How to be better at motivating people, London:Kogan Page

Allison, Michael, and Kaye, Jude (1997)Strategic planning for nonprofit organiza-tions. A practical guide and workbook, NewYork: Wiley

Argyris, C. and Schon, D. (1982)Theory in practice : increasing professionaleffectiveness, San Francisco:Jossey-Bass

Belbin, R.M. (1981)Management team: why they succeed or fail,London: Heinemann

Bertalaffny, Ludvig von (1951)‘Problems of general systems theory: a newapproach to the unity of science’, HumanBiology 23, no. 4

Blanchard, K. and Zigarmi P. and Zigarmi, D.(1986)

Leadership and the one minute manager,London: Collins

Boulding, K. (1954)‘General systems theory’, The Skeleton ofScience 2, no.3

Bryson, John M. (1993)Strategic planning for public and non profitorganizations, Oxford: Pergamon

Burnes, Bernard (1994)Managing change : a strategic approach toorganisational dynamics, London: Pitman

Equipo Claves and Junta de Andalucia (1994) Aprendiendo a organizar nuestra asociación,Madrid: Popular

Clutterbuck, David (1991)Everyone needs a mentor : fostering talentat work, London:Institute of Personnel andDevelopment

Covey, Stephen R. (1992)The seven habits of highly effective people :restoring the character ethic, London: Simon& Schuster

De Bono, Edward (1997)Thinking course, Redwood Books

Domenech, Alfred Vernis et al. (1998)La gestión de las organizaciones no lucrativas,Bilbao: Deusto

Drucker, Peter (1999)Management challenges for the 21st Century,Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann

Fischer, Helen (1999)The first sex : the natural talents of womenand how they are changing the world, NewYork: Random House

Godefroy, Christian H. and Clark John (1989)The complete time management system,London: Piatkus

Goleman, Daniel (1996)Emotional intelligence : why it matters morethan IQ, London: Bloomsbury

Goleman, Daniel et al (1999)Lo Spirito Creativo, Milano: Mondadori(Translation of ‘The creative spirit’)

Handy, Charles B. (1985) Inside organisation: 21 ideas for managers,London: BBC Books

Handy, Charles B. (1985)Understanding Organisations, London:Penguin

Handy, Charles B. (1990)Understanding voluntary organisations,London: Penguin

Herzberg. F. et al (1933)The motivation to work, New York: Wiley

Herzberg, F. (1966)Work and the nature of man, Cleveland:World Pub. Co.

Honey, Peter and Mumford, Alan (1992)The manual of learning styles, Maidenhead:Peter Honey

Humble, John W. (1973)Management by objectives, London: BritishInstitute of Management

Appendix 3

References and further reading


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Kolb, David (1984)Experiential learning, Englewood Cliffs:Prentice Hall

Leavitt, H. J. (1978)Managerial psychology : an introduction toindividuals, pairs and groups in organisa-tions, Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Le Boterf, Guy (1999)De la compétence à la navigation profession-nelle, Paris: Editions d’Organisation

Luft, Joseph and Ingham, Harry (1955)The Johari window, a graphic model forinterpersonal relations, Western TrainingLaboratory for Group Development; Univer-sity of California at Los Angeles ExtensionOffice

Maslow, A. H. (1954)Motivation and personality, New York: Harper

Mayo, E. (1933)The human problems of an industrial civil-isation, New York: Macmillan

Migliore, R. Henry et al. (1994)Strategic planning for not-for-profit organ-isations, New York: Haworth Press

Mintzberg, H. (1979)The structuring of organisations : a synthesisof research, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall

Nonaka, Ikujiro, and Takeuchi, Hirotaka (1997) The knowledge creating company (Italianedition). Milano: Guerini e Associati

Osborne, Stephen P. (1996)Managing in the voluntary sector : a hand-book for managers in charitable & non-profitorganisations, London: International Thom-son Business Press

Pasini, Willy, and Francescato, Donata (1999) Il coraggio di cambiare, Milano: Mondadori

Patterson, Malcolm (1999)People management, London: PersonnelPublications Ltd

Phillips, Bob (1989)La difficile arte di ballare con i porcospini,Torino: Piero Gribaudi Editore (Translationof The delicate art of dancing with Porcu-pines)

Senge, Peter M. (1990)The fifth discipline : the art and practice ofthe learning organisation, New York: Ran-dom House Business Books

Silverman, D. (1970)The theory of organisations, London:Heinemann Educational

Skyrme, David (1999)The learning organisation, (Managementinsight No. 3). Available athttp://www.skyrme.com/insights/3lrnorg.htm(16/5/2000)

Stewart, Thomas A. (1997)Il capitale intellettuale : la nuova ricchezza,Ponte delle Grazie (Translation of ‘Intellec-tual capital: the new wealth of organisations’)

Tannenbaum, R. and Schmidt, W.H. (1973)‘How to choose a leadership pattern – ret-rospective commentary’, Harvard BusinessReview, May-June 1973

Tuckman, B. W. (1965)‘Developmental sequences in small groups’,Psychological Bulletin, vol. 63, pp. 384-399

Vaill, Peter B. (1996)Learning as a way of being, San Francisco:Jossey-Bass

WAGGGS (1998)WAGGGS training guidelines, London: WorldAssociation of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts

Weber, Max (1964)The theory of social and economic organi-sation, New York: Collier Macmillan

Wickens, Peter (1995)The ascendant organisation: combining com-mitment and control for long-term, sustainablebusiness success, Basingstoke: MacmillanBusiness Press.


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The authors of the Organisational Management T-kit :

Jonathan Bowyer (editing, proof-reading, writ-ing) is European Liaison Officer with YMCAEngland. He has wide experience in managementand training in NGOs, both as a professionaland as a volunteer. His particular interests arein teams and leadership and personal develop-ment. [email protected]

Arthur Murphy (writing) runs M&M Associates,Strasbourg, a consultancy specialising in pan-European partnerships and joint ventures,also teaches management in universities inStrasbourg and Freiburg. [email protected]

Paola Bortini (writing) has worked for the devel-opment of girls and young women in Centraland Eastern Europe on behalf of WAGGGS.Always interested in Management theories,believes in the role of the non profit sectorand the contribution it can make to societalchanges. With a MA on Comparative EuropeanSocial Sciences, actually works in the South ofItaly in the field of vocational training andlocal development. Paola is member of theCouncil of Europe Pool of Trainers and theYouth Forum Pool of Trainers.Email: [email protected]

Rosa Gallego Garcia (writing) has long termexperience in working with voluntary organisa-tions in Spain and at European level, currentlyworking as Secretary General of InternationalYoung Nature Friends, based in Brussels.Email: [email protected]

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The T-kit series – year 2000 (available in English and French)

T-kit 1:Organisational Management

T-kit 2:Methodology in Language Learning

T-kit 3:Intercultural Learning

T-kit 4:Project Management

Planned for the year 2001 :(provisional titles)

T-kit 5:How to organise a Training Course

T-kit 6:Voluntary Service

T-kit 7:Citizenship Education

www.training-youth.net 5

tkit1 - organisational management

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