3.5.2 Gingerbread groups
3.5.3 Feminist Organisations
- Abused women group
4.0 CSA Stakeholder mapping in the current environment
4.1 Interest
The maximum power is vested with single parents apart from the management of CSA, the government and natural parents. Though having high power the Media unfortunately is seen to be only critical and not having keen interest. Staff of CSA are also seen to be less interested without much power. This situation has to change drastically as the media and the staff of CSA must act constructively for the success of CSA.
Stakeholder Map (Present)
LOW INTEREST HIGH
A
LOW
POWER C C
HIGH
Fig. 1
4.2 Expectation
As far as expectations are concerned Fig.2 depicts that the Government, Management of CSA, Single parents, Natural parents and the single parent groups have very high power and expectation. This is natural as the environment around a needy child gives this position. Fathers who have to pay for their children are unfortunately not taking advantage of the situation as if they do the children get directly benefited. The media again is highly negative with all the power which should change. Assuming rest of the stakeholders are in the appropriate quadrant, CSA will get immensely benefited if the fathers who have to pay and the media come to a different quadrant which is the high power and high expectation one.
EXPECTATION
NEGATIVE POSITIVE
A
LOW
POWER C C
HIGH
Fig. 2
4.3 Power
In Fig.3 it is seen that out of the entire set of stake holders the maximum and direct power lies with the single parents, the Government and the Management of CSA. These three entities have to ensure that the children can get the best because of this attribute.
POWER
INDIRECT DIRECT
A
LOW
POWER C C
HIGH
- Stakeholder mapping in the future
The CSA, which was beset with problems initially, showed signs of improvements over a period of 8 years. The change has come through implementing customer friendly policies. The stakeholders’ interest and expectations have been slowly but steadily improved. This has resulted in greater attention to the single parents and the children. Many vocal and critical stakeholders like the media, interest groups, the treasury and the new partners have found the CSA responsive. The mapping of the present and future environment of the stakeholders brings out clearly how the power assumed by the various stakeholders are transformed into their interests and expectations.
5.1 Interest
The future holds promise for the CSA. It is expected to have more friendly environment around. With the progress made in terms of technology, change in law and change in the outlook of CSA the needy children are expected to get a better deal from their natural parents. This is shown in Fig 4 by bringing the natural parents to the high power and high interest category.
LOW INTEREST HIGH
A
LOW
POWER C
HIGH
Fig. 4
5.2 Expectation
With improvement in the performance of the CSA, the most critical stakeholders namely the media and the single parent groups are expected to have higher expectation from the CSA. Social security must expect less from the new environment as burden on this should reduce. More paying fathers are expected have more active role. These are depicted in Fig.5
EXPECTATION
NEGATIVE POSITIVE
A
LOW
POWER C C
HIGH
5.3 Power
The Power versus power depiction in Fig.6 shows that honest and co-operative to have better treatment and more power. This is certainly expected to make the lives of the children better as single parents also are supposed to get better attention from the CSA. The employees are expected to play a more constructive role though with less power which should be a good news for everyone.
POWER
INDIRECT DIRECT
A
LOW
POWER C C
HIGH
6.0 How has the stakeholder environment of the child support Agency changed over the period of the case study? How might it change further in the future?
In the beginning the inception of CSA was welcomed. However over a period of time CSA ran into trouble due to conflict in the stated goals and the social requirements (Appendix 2 ).
6.1 Organisational behaviour:
Huczynski A, and Buchannan D, (2001) give a model on how the environment of an organisation could be defined. It is applied to CSA.
6.1.1 The past:
The inception was done in 1991 under Ross Hepplewhite. Being a new organisation the procedures related to assessment, catagorising and application were not proper. Targets set by the Government were not met. The media coverage and angry organisations created trouble. Many co-operative parents were harassed.
The legacy inherited by Anne Chant was a very difficult one. She tried to improve by identifying the shortcomings and working on them. The legal framework was changed and the opposition to the agency reduced.
Following Ann Chant, Faith Boardman initiated new activities by changing the mission of CSA. From one of collecting money from the defaulting parents, CSA changed its outlook to one of meeting the social cause of the single parents. She also brought changes in the management by bringing a child support organization into the fold so that the purpose of the agency can be properly channelised.
6.1.2 The present:
Currently the organization is under the fourth Chief Executive who is Doug smith. He is a veteran in the sphere of human relationship. He has been given additional technological facilities so that tracking, assessing and supporting single parents could be done in a more organized and acceptable manner.
6.1.3 The future:
The CSA could help the stakeholder environment to change in many ways. How this has to be done entirely depends on the CSA. As Burnes B, (2000) argues that it is important that an organisation acquire an ability to identify where it needs to be in the future and how to accomplish the changes necessry to get there. This argument is definitely applicable to CSA.
The organisation is expected to progress further in this direction with better technological, environmental and legal support. It is expected to deliver its services based on the redefined goals
6.1.3.1 Experienced staff
With the past experience of over 8 years, the staff have understood how to deal with the parents and the other stakeholders. This is a major point of improvement as the stakeholders are expected to get benefited.
6.1.3.2Technology
The new computer system or Management Information System is expected to deal with the assessment procedures properly. As Robson W, (1997) puts it ‘Management Information Systems are instrumentation of an organisation. Their interfaces to the human controllers of business serve as the dials and gauges that allow these controllers to read off the current state of their organisation’. This statement is definitely useful to CSA.
The change in the law and better management style is expected to deliver better services to the single parents and the customers are expected to be more satisfied.
6.1.3.3 Change of Policy
The CSA is expected to focus more on the child welfare rather than collection of money.
6.1.3.4 Better co-operation between the CSA and the parents and better overall performance.
6.2 PESTEL analysis
According to Johnson and Scholes (1998) it is particularly important that PESTEL is used to look at the future impact of the environmental factors, which may be different from their past impact.
6.2.1Political
The Government provided legal backbone and political parties welcomed CSA
6.2.2Economic
The CSA was supported by the Government and the collections from the fathers. A sound economic base was there.
6.2.3Social:
Increase in single parents, effect on the children, increased divorce rate, need for support of the children, feckless fathers, violent partners, organisation interested in child support and media attention formed the social cause for operating the CSA.
6.2.4Technological
The CSA was not technologically well supported initially.
6.2.5 Legal
The CSA had the support of the law to enforce government policies.
6.2.6 Ecological
General welcome all round for CSA initially.
6.3 SWOT analysis
According to Johnson and Scholes (1998) SWOT analysis can be useful as a basis against which to judge future courses of action. The aim is to identify the extent to which the current strengths and weaknesses are relevant to , and capable of, dealing with the threats or capitalizing on the opportunities in the business environment.
6.3.1 Strength
The agency had legal status to implement the strategy of bringing feckless fathers to book. Many interested groups and the political parties welcomed the formation of CSA.
6.3.2 Weakness
The CSA was a new type of organisation which had no precedence. New and inexperienced staff, government targets, wrong implementation of policies, mistakes and adverse media coverage created more trouble.
6.3.3 Opportunity
CSA was a new experiment. It had the opportunity to create a better atmosphere to support single parents without government support.
6.3.4 Threat
Since the agency’s main task was to deal with human beings, there was contradictory application of the policies resulting adverse media coverage and special organisations that sprung up to canvass for the abolition of the CSA.
7.0 conclusion
The stakeholder environment has been changing continuously. Initially the atmosphere was one of great expectation. The SWOT analysis showed that CSA could be a viable organisation. However the PESTEL analysis shows both favourable and unfavourable environment.
The analysis on the past and present environments shows that CSA has been in turmoil. With the result many of the stakeholders has lost faith in the CSA. The situation showed improvement when changes where initiated in CSA with the main stakeholder the child was brought in as the main focus of the CSA. With more support from the Government the CSA is expected to provide a better environment to the many stakeholders.
8.0 Recommendation
.
- Improve on the assessment procedure to make them customer friendly.
- Make the assessments through computerisation and office automation.
- Draft in more interest groups in the management so that more meaningful results are achieved.
- Interact with the Government to make flexible rules so that most stakeholders who are affected by conflict of rules are taken care of without creating any problems.
- Have more satisfied parents by a strategy of eliminating harassment to the co-operating parents, providing relief to single parents covered by CSA and social security, making policies that strengthen support to the affected children, make greater effort in tracing the absent parent and better publicity. This is expected to make the media friendly, the interest groups to support CSA better and the Government to respond better.
References:
Burnes B, (2000, 3rd ed.), Managing Change, a Strategic approach to Organisational Dynamics, Pearson Education Limited, Essex.
Byson, J strategic Management, Pearson Education,2000
Huczynski A, and Buchannan D, (2001, 4th ed. ), Organisational Behaviour, An Introductory Text, Pearson Education Limited, Essex.
Johnson, G & Scholes K, Exploring corporate strategy, Prentice Hall,6th eddiction
Kotlar P, (2000, Millennium ed.), Marketing Management, Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi.
Robson W, (1997, 2nd ed.), Strategic Management & Information Systems, Pearson Education Limited, Essex.
Electronic Reference:-
www.dss.gov.uk.csa/casguide.htm browsed on 16-Nov-2003
www.nao.gov.uk browsed on 16-Nov-2003