Writing about Your Organization

1
Writing about Your Organization
Dr. Harish Vashistha Faculty (International),
PPD Email harish.vashistha_at_akdn-afg.org Mobile
0798 401 833
2
Genesis

• What is the background?
• How organization was formed?
• Context of that time
• Background of founders

3
A Vision is an organization's view of how it
would like the world to be, its hope for reality
to be as opposed the reality that is. The
vision dreams of an ideal state which may not be
attained within the organization's life time. It
presupposes change and interventions, and acts
like a driving force to guide the organization in
social action.
Societal Vision
4
The vision has to be

• ? Clear, concise, easily understandable. ?
  Memorable.? Exciting and inspiring.
  ?Challenging.?Excellence centered.?Stable, but
  flexible.?Implementable and tangible.

5
Organizational Mission
The mission statement of the organisation is that
which describes its purpose or reason for
existence. The mission describes generally how
the organisation will contribute to achieving its
societal vision.The Mission statements tend to
incorporate four elements 1. Client
orientation.2. Employee focus.3. Organisational
competencies.4. Standards of excellence.
6
Importance of Organisational Mission
i. Role clarity functions The role clarity
function is important as a way to provide focus
for all organisations.ii. Motivation function
The mission statement motivates the staff,
board, volunteers and donors and thus helps to
carry forward the ideology of the
organisation.iii. Evaluation function The
mission statement helps the organisation to
evaluate whether its functions are in congruence
with the mission statement.
7
Comparison Between Vision and Mission
Vision
Mission

• By nature tends to be more of a personalised
  phenomenon since it relates to a hypothetical
  dream-like long term goal.
• It is abstract.
• Relates to societal reality.
• Generally, energises the individual.
• It is diffecult to change or revisit vision.

• Indicates what we propose to do today in order to
  reach our vision.
• It is more concrete and relates directly to our
  present practice.
• Relates to organisational reality.
• Provides energy for collective efforts.
• Mission can be periodically assessed and
  rearticulated.

8
Example
Vision A totally self-reliant and autonomous
village community.Mission Works to promote
organisation of rural poor to help them solve
their own problems and to get their due from the
society.As for example Every child has a happy
childhood could be a vision shared by two
organizations but their missions could be
differentProvision of quality education
service for dropout children in rural areas of
Bamyan province.Provision of high quality
health care and educational services to every
child in Central Highlands of Afghanistan
9
Examples
Vision A new society with equal partnership of
men and women.Mission Combating the total
social system of oppression and exploitation
based on caste, class, ethnicity, culture,
religion and gender in a comprehensive manner by
grass-root level organising and empowering
women.Vision A world where children should be
enabled to achieve greater control over their
lives.Mission Works to achieve lasting
benefits for children within the communities in
which they live by influencing policy and
practice based on its experience and study in
different parts of the world to make a reality of
children s right.
10
Organizational Strategy
A strategy is a set of concepts that guide an
organisations use of its resources to pursue its
mission. Organisational strategy answers several
questions to address and achieve organisations
mission m What is the nature of the
development problems the organisation seeks to
solve ?m What is the method of intervention
?m With whom (client), where (geographical area
or location) and with what relations the
organisation works to achieve its mission ?m
What resources it requires to accomplish the
mission ?
11
Development Problem
Method of Intervention
Strategy
With What Resources
With Whom Where and What Relations
12
The strategies of a grassroots activist
organisation concerned with the rights of women
might includem Organising Women and the
community - building womens organisations,
community groups, fora and other forms of regular
programmes. m Campaign -Organising compaign on
a varity of issues aiming at institutional
reforms.m Providing Service - Providing
service related to women health, education, legal
advice, and income generation activities.
13
Continue..
The strategies of a support organisation
concerned with building a strong voluntary sector
might includeu Financial Support - providing
financial grants to the VDOs for research,
training, communication and insititution
building.u Capacity Building - building
capacity of the VDOs through a variety of
methods.u Policy Advocacy - influencing
policies from the vantage point of enabling
participation and empowerment of marginalised
people.Knowledge Building - building new
knowledge to bring social change involving
partnership with marginalised people.
14
Continue...
The strategies of an international voluntary
development organisation who is active in about
forty countries and are concerned with childs
right might include u Building Partnership -
Working partnership with local development
organisations who have the advantage of being
close to the ground realities. u Enabling Access
to Basic Services - Enabling access to basic
services related to health and education to
children, their families and community. u
Capacity Building - Developing skills and
knowledge in people for their empowerment and
sustainability of development. u Building and
Sharing Knowledge - To develop appropriate
responses to particular situations the
organisation will encourage work that evolves
from the field based research.
15
Environmental Analysis
Strength

Weakness
Strenghts are internal to the organisation and
are abilities that give an advantage over
competitors, i.e. the things that the
organisation is good at and does better than
competitors.
Weaknesses are also internal to the organisation
and are situations, problems or obstacles that
the organisation has and its competitors do not.
Threats
Opportunity
Threats can be defined as problems or potential
problems that may result from the interaction
between specific organisation weakness and
present or future negative environmental
variables and sector wise threats.
Opportunity is a benefit that may result from the
interaction between specific organisational
strenghts and present or future positive
environmental variables and sector wise
opportunities.
16
Who are Stakeholders and Why Stakeholder Analysis
Stakeholders are people, groups, or institutions
which are likely to be affected by the outcome of
organisational mission (either positively or
negatively), or those which can affect the
outcome of the organisational mission (again
either positively or negatively).
17
What are the Steps of Stakeholder Analysis
Step 1 Identify key stakeholdersStep 2 Assess
stakeholder interests in the achievement of
organisational mission and the potential impact
of organisational mission in these
interests.Step 3 Assess stakeholder influence
and importance to achieve organisational
mission.Step 4 Outline a Stakeholder
participation strategy.
18
What is needed
External Situations (Opportunities Threats)
Mission
THE FIT
What one intends to do
Forces inside the organisation (Strenghts
weaknesses)
What one is capable of doing
19
Past Record/history

• Major project implemented
• Major achievements in recent past
• Partnership
• Appreciation (if any),
• Any other information

20
Organizational system and structure

• Structure and decision making system
• HRD policy and practices
• Communication system
• Financial system
• ME system
• Reporting
• Resources (Human, material and financial)