Youth works Rossendale - case study.

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

DIDO120 management in practice

D0165757019

This assignment will give you an overview of groundwork Rosendale it will explore the relationship between the programme manager and the project workers. The case study will examine what happens when the core worker leaves before their replacement arrives. I will look at issues surrounding recruitment and potential staff training to avoid the chaos, which ensues when the key staff members are no longer around in the workplace. I will consider what procedures need to be put in place to prevent loss of services in future.

Youth works Rossendale

Established in 1994, Youth Works is a national charitable organisation, which functions through programmes at a local level. Youth Works programmes aim to provide young people growing up in disadvantaged communities with the skills and opportunities they need to improve their social, physical and economic environments. They are based in specifically targeted local neighbourhoods, and operate within a holistic community development framework.

Each Youth Works programme provides a broad range of services and opportunities to young people in the area aged from 8 to 25 years, whilst also providing targeted support to up to 50 ‘at risk’ young people known to be offending, at risk of offending, or at risk of social exclusion.

Central to the success of the Youth Works programme is the appointment of a full-time neighbourhood based Programme Manager, whose key role is to co-ordinate activities and initiatives provided by statutory and voluntary agencies, and identify and fill gaps in provision and delivery.

The Programme Manager works closely with referring agencies and groups such as the Youth Offending Team, police, drug action/support/referral agencies, schools/education, youth services, social services, probation, voluntary groups, community volunteers, resident groups, parents and, most importantly, the young people themselves.

First steps normally include opening a ‘Drop- in’ Centre/cyber café in the neighbourhood. Open during periods when young people are most likely to be wandering the streets, the most likely to be wandering the streets, the centre provides a visible base that young people can identify as their own, and experience as a place of safety. To ensure ownership, young people are encouraged to become involved in decorating and managing the Centre.

Young people are attracted to such centres, due the variety of activities available and the disturbing fact that all too often there is no alternative youth provision in the neighbourhood or nearby.

‘Hard to reach’ young people are met in their environments by outreach workers, trained to offer specialist support in subjects such as drug and alcohol counselling.

Programme Aims

To address issues of crime and criminality among young people, specifically by reducing:

Arrest rates among young people on the programme by 60%.
Recorded crime and nuisance levels in the neighbourhood by 30-50% within three years.

To provide structured, vibrant and optimistic programmes and activities, aimed at providing young people with the skills, capacity and motivation to become directly involved in their own personal development and the regeneration of their local community
To involve the wider community to ensure that the Youth Works programme is sustained, adding value to existing and new ...

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Programme Aims

To address issues of crime and criminality among young people, specifically by reducing:

Arrest rates among young people on the programme by 60%.
Recorded crime and nuisance levels in the neighbourhood by 30-50% within three years.

To provide structured, vibrant and optimistic programmes and activities, aimed at providing young people with the skills, capacity and motivation to become directly involved in their own personal development and the regeneration of their local community
To involve the wider community to ensure that the Youth Works programme is sustained, adding value to existing and new partnership initiatives
To provide at least 10 hours of activities for each ‘at risk’ young person per week.

Programme Objectives

Youth nuisance will be reduced by providing a range of community based activities and access to a range of recreational activities and facilities
At risk young people will have improved opportunities to fulfil their potential, and reduce the risk of offending behaviour
Young people will benefit from enhanced employment opportunities through access to training and educational activities
Communities will benefit from reductions in crime rates, youth nuisance and the fear of crime
There will be increased opportunities for young people and older residents to take part in decision taking in their lives and become stakeholders in their communities
Improvements in the local environment will create the climate to attract business into the area.

Case study

The programme manager left whilst I was on my placement this created many problems for the people who where left. There was nobody to coordinate and ensure that all current projects were adequately staffed. Communication between project workers became difficult has there wasn’t a central person to ensure the projects to correctly function. The programme manager is a central cog in the mechanisms of the youth work organisation. Without a programme manager the core functions of the organisation came to a stand still. Appendix1 shows just what work the programme manager is responsible for; there is also a role description of what a programme manager is responsible for.

There was much disruption after the programme manager left and a period of chaos due to there not being another manager to take over the duties of programme manager. The manager who left was a very forceful person who instead of delegating more of the duties to her cohorts she liked to control all of the projects. The projects would have been able to function more efficiently if more of the responsibilities had been delegated. ` Delegation exists because no one person can effectively control … a manager delegates certain powers to subordinates. ` (Floyd.D.1994) If the programme manager had in fact been a` y `theory (McGregor) manager she would have been more likely to have involved the other staff in the planning stages, decisions and responsibility of running the projects themselves.

Management is about getting work done through other people, this entails delegation. Delegation is one of the most powerful management skills, thus if used properly it leads to a shared role of leadership and frees up the manager to deal with other issues. Has there was very little delegation, the manager was not only doing her own job but that of her co-workers, this led to a centralisation of management and chaotic management. At any level of management it is unlikely that a manager can cope with all aspects of their job without delegating specific tasks to others. Thus because she continued to not delegate work the management process failed. According to Mullins” Management is a process through which the efforts of members of the organisation are co-ordinated, directed and guided towards the achievement of organisational objectives”, (Mullins 2002).

This was more a failure of the organisation rather than the manager, because if they had used a strategic plan this would have been avoided. “Strategic planning is a series of discussions and decisions among key decision makers and managers about what is truly important for the organisation, and those discussions are the big innovation that strategic planning brings to most organisations”, (Bryson, 1988). With this in mind the organisation is as much to blame for the failure of the manager, as the manager is for the failure to manage. Strategic planning would have ensured that the communication was good and therefore there would have been more teamwork. If there were communication at all levels the loss of one worker would not have had such a big impact on the organisation and the workers would have been able to contribute more to ensure that the projects had adequate cover.

The lack of communication between management and youth workers led to a scaling down of services once the manager left. This could have been avoided if there had been a pooling of part-time /sessional workers. ` “Good communication is vital in organisations and lies at the heart of effective management… effective communication is essential for organisations without it employees do not know what to do, how to do it or when to do it by”. (Mullins, 2002)

Recommendations

If there had better use of human resources the closure of services could perhaps of been avoided “The organisation needs to pay more attention to the importance of planning human resources as well as other economic resources… it is essential that human resources are utilised as effectively as possible… Better manpower planning should not be regarded in isolation but as an integral part of the broader process of corporate planning…to the development of the organisation as a whole… it should be related to the nature of the organisational culture.” (Mullins, 2002).

Had the Organisation paid more attention to the Human resource plan it would have been able to foresee the problems and could have arranged alternative cover arrangement prior to the manager leaving. Had the organisation followed the four-stage H.R plan it would have been in a better position to employ somebody prior to overcome staffing problems.

There are four main stages in human resource planning, these are,

∙ An analysis of existing staffing resources.

∙ An estimation of likely changes in resources by the target date (this then determines the supply forecast).

∙ A forecast of staffing requirements necessary to achieve corporate objectives by the target date (this determines the demand forecast).

∙ A series of measures to ensure that the required staffing resources are available as and when required. This reconciliation of supply and demand is the basis of the H R plan. (Mullins, 2002 fig 20.1p 736) as shown in appendix 2

According to Beardwell and Holden (2001) “the need for H.R planning arises from the operational needs of the organisation… Its importance lies in maintaining a sufficient supply of employees, in the right place, time and cost… detailed observation and planning of many variables…can ensure a reconciliation of labour supply and demand such that shocks and disturbances are avoided.

There is a need to look closer at the recruitment and selection process, to try to avoid there being a management gap in the organization. “Recruiting people who are wrong for the organization can lead to increased labor turnover … such people are likely to be discontented… and end up leaving when their unsuitability becomes evident”. (ACAS, 1999).

“Whatever the organization, the effectiveness of its operations and functions inevitably depends very largely upon the staff it employs”. (Mullins, 2002:734)

Therefore to ensure the success of the organization it is important to attract the right employee in the beginning. The organizations policies and procedures need to be effective to ensure that the H.R Plan is properly functioning.

There are several issues surrounding recruitment and selection and consideration must be made when you advertise the job in order to attract the right employee.

H.R. plans; need to consider potential for training and development, and their flexibility.
Appointees ‘ sociability- will they fit in with the team, the culture and structure of the organization.
Legal requirements, employment legislation, equal opportunities, disability, fair treatment to applicants, ‘best practice’.

The consequences of recruiting the wrong person for the job are:

Higher staff turnover.
Increased costs- re advertising of position.
Decrease in the morale of staff.
Poor performance.
Lack of commitment and flexibility.
Wasting time.
Possible disciplinary/ grievance actions.

(Mullins, 2002:739)

H.R planning is part of the development planning of the organization and if this is overlooked by the organization then the inevitable chaos ensues when an employee leaves, falls sick or goes on maternity leave.

“H.R planning can provide a framework, which can help an organisation overcome staffing problems, and develop strategies for effective recruitment and staff development.”(Mullins, 2002).

Along with the use of a H.R. plan the organisation needs to be aware of the way the manager relates to the workforce Mullins (2002) states “the philosophy of management and the attitudes of managers towards the development and maintenance of a working climate, Influence the recruitment and selection process.

Thus when a manager leaves, it is essential for the organisation, that there is another person who can take on the role as assistant manager, until a successful candidate is found. “You could well argue that it in effective recruitment and selection. Everything comes back to people, if you don’t appoint staff with the right ability, temperament and willingness all these fancy ideas on motivation, empowerment and commitment etc. aren’t likely to be much use.”(Mullins, 2002:758)

If ground work had put these into practice then the subsequent closure of services after the departure of the programme manager would surely of been avoided. The organisation needs to look towards future training for its present staff to enable the smooth running of all services. It should also exercise more control over its managers and make sure that they have not taken on a role, which will effect the overall production of the organisation. “Management control is primarily a process for motivating and inspiring people to perform organisation activities that will further the organisation’s goals. It is also a process for detecting and correcting unintentional performance errors …At the organisational level, management need to exercise control over behaviour and actions of staff in order to ensure a satisfactory level of performance”. (Mullins, 2002: 766.)