Ethical Issues In Susan Stevens's Nonprofit Lifecycle

Perhaps the biggest challenge that your organization is facing that is typical for organizations in the “growth” life stage is formalizing. In the book Nonprofit Lifecycle Susan Steven’s writes that attempting to formalize job positions and introduce strategic divisions of labor is perhaps the greatest humans relations challenge your organization will face. It is not uncommon for there to be job dissatisfaction as some people adjust to formal policies, procedures, filing systems, accounting systems etc. As you described your organization is facing these very issues. One of the most important things that needs to be done is clearly defining job responsibilities and roles. As it stand now employees at GBRS act as substitutes filling in where

You need to clearly define your organization's expectations and positions on various topics with the policies. The procedures act as a step by step guide that will help staff understand how to approach a process. Having the proper policies in place will help you with the issue of staff not keeping proper time sheets, approving too much over time, and other ethically unsound actions by the staff such as charging personal expenses to the organization, paying relatives for work with no evidence that it had been performed, buying computers for use at home and failing to list them as part of GBRS inventory. It must be made clear that this behavior is not to be tolerated and staff are to be held to a higher standard. Remind staff that they are the face of the organization and need to embody all the qualities that they are teaching the clients. Each member represents the organization and needs to carry themselves in such a way as to reflect well upon GBRS. Both DMH and MRC reported that the GBRS staff tended to be difficult and uncooperative at a personal level. Staff should be aware that this behavior is not in line with the organization's policies and that GBRS is in a partnership with DMH and MRC. The partnership should aim to achieve the same goals of bettering the lives of those who are disabled or mentally will. To achieve this goal the organizations should support one another and be as cooperative as

As part of the Growth stage of the life cycle staff need to be evaluated, staff that are found incompetent need to be let go. If there is a staff member with a substance abuse problem, as you have suggested, it is in your best interest to talk to them. Let that staff member know it is affecting their job and that can not happen. If they seek treatment offer to help or support them. If the issues is not addressed it will only get worse, be prepared to let that staff member go if they choose not to seek help and their abuse continues to affect their performance after your conversation. In the instance of the finance staff being unable to execute tasks in a timely manner or implement the plans put forth to strengthen the weak record keeping process, it is time to let these employees go. The programs manager needs to be dismissed. That person’s behavior had proved inappropriate and unprofessional, more than ever you want to build an organization of professionals. Do not let the board guilt you into a decision that is harming the organization. This should not be a personal matter but rather a professional one. We have talked about what employees need to be let go but not about the ones that your organization's needs but lacks. Let us shift the focus to hiring new