History of the Organization
Steered by Juliette Gordon Low, The Girl Scouts is an organization that started on 12 March 2012 with the sole agenda of lobbying girls from Georgia and Savannah to form a local girl scout. The reason for her initiative to bring girls together was her hope to see that girls got the necessary assistance for them to develop holistically in terms of their mental, physical, and spiritual capabilities.
After a few years, the organization began to agitate for the rights of the girls. Since then, the membership has been growing at a rapid rate. For instance, currently, there are 3.2 million girl scouts. 890000 of them are adults who are working as volunteers while the remaining 2.3 million are girls (The Girl Scouts, 2012).
The organization has changed over the years. Different CEOs have steered the organization and hence the changes. Various programs geared at uplifting girls have been initiated. Other changes have been experienced in the number of girls joining the organization as members. The current mission of The Girl Scouts is “Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place” (The Girl Scouts, 2012).
This mission statement inspires and mobilizes girls from America to join hands in a bid to promote sisterhood. Girls should have confidence and courage to take the mantle of leading the country into prosperity. The mission statement of the organization has changed over the years. The quoted one is the ninth mission statement since the organization was formed.
Current Organizational Structure, Culture, and Human Resource
Every organization has its organizational structure that helps or provides the criteria of delegating duties to ensure that its goals and objectives are met. The organizational structure of The Girl Scouts is hierarchical. At the helm of the organization is the Chief Executive Officer known as Anna Aria and Connie Lindsey, the chairperson (The Girl Scouts, 2012). Under the chair is the middle level management that is followed by employees and volunteers.
The senior management team or leadership team plays a role of planning, developing, and executing various initiatives and resources to ensure that diverse group of girls, employees, and volunteers benefit across the world. The organization has its headquarters at New York, and has around 112 regional offices located in the councils to provide services to girls in these areas. The employees of the organization are approximately 9,500.
They are spread across the country to provide services to the girls. Many volunteers are also part of the human resource that assists girls in various locations. The culture of the organization embraces diversity and freedom of expression. The staff comes from various ethnic backgrounds. The people do not discriminate in terms of gender, race, or status provided someone can add value to the life of girls and the whole organization. The door is open to anyone who feels or cherishes girls besides wishing to support them to realize their dreams.
Therefore, the culture is conducive for promoting cohesiveness and unity between all the stakeholders. When it comes to human resource, employees are selected based on merits regardless of the region from which they come. This has enabled the organization to tap various talents from its employees that have brought diversity in the functioning and operations of the organization (The Girl Scouts, 2012).
Environmental Changes affecting the Organization throughout the History
Organizations keep on transforming in a bid to match with the current needs of the people they serve. As a result, The Girl Scouts is one of the organizations that have experienced changes in their governance and the general functioning over years since it was formed.
A number of organizational changes have forced the organization to accommodate the inevitable change. One of the changes is technological advancement. This has made the organization change from traditional forms of running organization to digital ones. All the information about the activities of the organization is held or stored in its database, and can be accessed by any person around the globe (The Girl Scouts, 2012).
The introduction of technology has also seen the organization train its staff on technology to make it efficient in the way it performs its duties. Another change in the environment is the increase in membership that has forced the organization to establish many regional offices to enable the girls reach their services. Further, this has also seen some changes happen in the governance structure where more offices have been set up to ensure that the service or the organization performs and achieves its objectives.
Due to the increase in membership, the organization has also come up with different strategies of sourcing funds to ensure its success. Apart for the funds that members provide through their subscription, the organization has also established various institutions and businesses that help to generate an extra income that has enabled it run smoothly in a bid to meet the needs of the girls and employees (The Girl Scouts, 2012).
Furthermore, the organization has managed to receive members from different regions. This has also led the organization to put in place mechanisms to embrace every person regardless of his or her social status, race, and gender. It has revisited its terms of operations in an effort to embrace diversity.
Inquiry
The research tool or lens for this paper based on The Girl Scouts organization is human resource. The selection of the lens follows because of its significance in the functioning of the organization. Human resource is the fundamental pillar in the smooth operation of any organization.
The success stories and strides the organization has made in the 100 years of it existence are solely dependent on the efforts that have been made by the employees (The Girl Scouts, 2012). Secondly, human resource is one of the sections that provide a better employment environment for their employees. This explains why the organization has continued to thrive and experience few or no employee turnover.
This explains why I choose to investigate on human resource. This approach has made me learn about the importance of having an effective and competent workforce. Such workforce guarantees better results. The achievement the organization has had can largely be attributed to its resilient and hardworking workforce.
Changes in human capital lead to changes in training and experiences encountered all of which affect the performance and the level effectiveness of employees (Ployhart, Van, Chad & Mackenzie, 2011, p. 353). This implies that human capital can change to be productive depending on experiences and training to which the employees are subjected. Organizations that provide continued training often reap from these actions through improved productivity triggered by trainings and experience (Bassey, & Tapang, 2012, p. 46).
According to the extant theories of strategic human resource management, cultures, and practice postulates, organizations adopt to their own cultures that are distinct to their industry or nations (Levy, 2010, p. 31). They therefore ignore the influence of external environments that might have a negative impact on the organization’s survival.
This therefore raises questions about which culture should be adhered to by the organizations to ensure they achieve their objectives in this modern world though organizations need to diversify because of the changes in the way people live. Technology has made various people with different cultures interact and share views and opinions. Therefore, to reach a larger percentage of people, organizations should embrace diversity by learning other people’s cultures.
According to Armstrong (2009), employees require motivation to work hard to increase the productivity of any organization (2009, p. 10). Organizations that have programs geared at motivating their employees by providing opportunities to advance in careers, promotion, and decent working conditions experience a high productivity than those without such programs in place.
The Girl Scouts organization has managed to achieve this by improving its employees’ working conditions. This has resulted to efficiency and an increase in the number of girls that are joining the group.
Findings and recommendations
In view of human resource, it is evident that the organization has created a favorable environment for its employees. The organization offers competitive employment benefits that motivate employees. For instance, it offers a competitive compensation to its employees besides giving benefits of packages such as growth opportunities, variety of flexible working schedules, and various incentives that help to balance between work and personal life.
Some of the benefits include medical services, vision, life, dental, short and long-term disability insurance over, subsidized full service cafeteria services, employee assistance programs, and performance recognition programs amongst others. This strategy has helped the company to attract and maintain a talented workforce that has helped it become innovative and productive in its services.
The organization is also committed to ensuring that its employees are well-compensated and treated to enable them provide best services to stir growth and productivity of the organization. Investing in human capital has paid off the organization because it has continued to catch the attention of many talented people who would wish to bring new ideas.
The leadership of the organization has also shown commitment in ensuring a proper maintenance of human resource besides providing it with the support it requires. Various programs have been set up to educate/train employees to enable them grow in their careers, as well as in their personal development. This has seen reduced cases of employee turnovers.
There are few problems, as well as opportunities, attributed to human resource in The Girl Scouts organization. Some of the opportunities that were uncovered in the human resource include the fact that people who have skills and talents from around the world have an equal opportunity of getting employment within the organization. This therefore shows that diversity is embraced. This helps to create positive relationships, a sign of exemplary leadership.
On the other hand, problems that are associated with human resource in the organization include unclear criteria that are used in providing promotion to the employees that exemplify meritorious performance during their tenure of services. Therefore, I recommend the management to maintain better conditions and terms for its human resource to ensure that it continues to reap from its employee’s skills and talents.
Action plan
An action plan refers to steps that one needs to undertake to ensure the success of a strategy. In an action plan, the tasks to be performed must be known. The time to be undertaken should be known, as well as resources to be allocated to ensure a successful completion. The action plan below will suffice for The Girl Scouts organization
Conclusion
The management, employees, and all stakeholders will be involved in the implementation of every goal set. This will ensure that all the stakeholders are accountable to the failure and or the success of the strategies used. It will also contribute towards cohesion among the members of the organization who will feel a sense of belonging to the organization hence promoting teamwork.
Reference List
Armstrong, M. (2009). Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. Edition: Eleventh ed. Kogan Page.
Bassey, B., & Tapang, A. (2012). Capitalized Human Resources Cost and Its Influence on Corporate Productivity: A Study of Selected Companies in Nigeria. International Journal of Financial Research, 3(2), 45-80.
Levy, J. (2010). Human Resources. New England Review, 31(1), 31-62.
Ployhart, R., Van, I., Chad, H., & Mackenzie, W. (2011). Acquiring and developing human capital in service contexts: the interconnectedness of human capital resources. Academy of Management Journal, 54(2), 353-368.
The Girl Scouts. (2012). About Us. Retrieved from https://www.girlscouts.org/en/about-girl-scouts/our-leadership.html