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| Organisational
Analysis
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Contents
1. Introduction
2. History
3. Current situation and structure
4. Socio-cultural significance
5. Conclusion
6. Bibliography
Introduction
In the contemporary world human society is characterised by
a very complicated structure and naturally this leads to the
variety of organisations existing in one and the same society.
in such a situation the role of social groups is particularly
significant since it provides the opportunities for the members
of such groups to be in a privileged position compared to
those people who do not belong to any social group. At this
respect, it should be pointed out that organisations play
a very important role in structurisation of the society since
nowadays the role of organisations has increased dramatically.
It is obvious that there is a variety of organisations which
may be extremely influential, for instance multinational corporations
which operate all over the world and national borders as well
as laws are not a significant obstacle on their way of development
and as a rule their strive for higher revenues and monopolistic
position in the market. Unfortunately the development of such
organisations is quite rapid and seems to be unstoppable that
in the constantly progressing world is quite dangerous because
such organisations threaten to undermine the basic principles
of civil society since there is no international structure
that could really control them. This is why often it is thought
that there are less and less organisations that protects the
interests of all citizens, especially the most deprived ones.
Fortunately, there are still some organisations that aim at
the protection of rights and interests of such groups of people
and basically such organisations are known as non-profitable.
In order to better such organisation, their structure, work,
aims, and their social role, it is necessary to analyse one
of such organisations, namely Penny Lane in North Hills, Ca.
History
First of all, before discussing the organisation and its work,
it is necessary to dwell upon its history since it will help
better understand the entity and the main principles of the
organisation, its functioning and main goals. It is always
very important to learn the history of an organisation in
order to have a clear picture about the reason of its foundation
that will certainly define its future purposes and consequently
perspectives.
So, speaking about Penny Lane in North Hill, Ca, it is necessary
to say that this non-profit organisation was founded not very
long time ago. Notably, the date of its foundation is 1969
and the founder of the organisation was Ivelise (Ive) Markovits.
The personality of the founder is also very important since
it is her who defined the basic principles of Penny Lane and
its further functioning was the result of Ive Markovits’
work.
At this respect, it should be pointed out that the founder
of Penny Lane graduated from the college with the bachelor’s
degree in Psychology that naturally influenced her further
career and the work of the organisation she founded since
she paid a lot of attention to human relations, social problems
and psychology, including social psychology, which focused
on relations of individual and social groups as well as interaction
of social groups between each other that was very perspective
in a rapidly changing society of the second half of the 20th
century.
Moreover, 1960s also influenced the personality of the founder
and consequently Penny Lane itself since it was the epoch
when the sense of social consciousness was particularly sharp
and strong. Remarkably, Ive Markovits began her career as
Los Angeles County Probation and Placement Officer. Soon she
got an MA in Marriage and Family Counselling and later received
her licenses as a Marriage Family and a Child Counsellor.
After that she has got a chance to realise her dreams since
it was one of her main goals to “provide a home for
deeply troubled teens about whom she had come to care deeply”
(Kast & Rosenzweig 1994:401). This dream was eventually
fully realised in 1969, when she started Penny Lane.
By the way, the name of the organisations was also the ‘product’
of the epoch and is quite symbolic. In fact, it was borrowed
from the upbeat, cheerful Beatle’s tune that celebrated
the simple joys of life. Consequently, the title underlined
the purpose of the foundation of such an organisation and
obviously implied that the main goal of Penny Lane was to
bring joys to the life of the most deprived people, troubled
teens, who were in the focus of primary attention of the organisation
at that time.
Current situation and structure
The initial goal of Penny Lane has gradually evaluated but
not radically changed and they still remained socially oriented.
Nowadays Penny Lane takes care for over 1,600 abused and neglected
children and youth who are still in the focus of the organisation’s
attention (Robbins 2003:258). These children and youth receive
a verity of services and essential help, notably the personnel
of the organisation provide therapeutic residential services
and what is not less important education for teenagers. Moreover,
Penny Lane provides “foster family home placements for
boys and girls of all ages” (Robbins 2003:277).
However, the service of the organisation gradually changes
or, to put it more precisely, they enlarge and involve new
categories of people. At this respect, it is noteworthy that
currently Penny Lane also takes care of young adults by means
of providing them with transitional housing without which
the young adults would be homeless. Furthermore, Penny Lane
provides outpatient mental health services for children and
youth as well as their families, involving other organisations
that is also very important and helpful for the development
of the organisation’s principles and ideas in the society.
Another very important service suggested by Penny Lane is
adoption that is absolutely essential in the situation when
it is very difficult for abandoned children or orphans to
lead a normal social life without family support provided
by the organisation. Moreover, nowadays Penny Lane can provide
new mediation services and the organisation is prepared to
“hear cases of marital dissolution, custody, visitation,
child support, family reunification, family preservation,
victim/offender mediation, etc.” (Stewart 2005:495).
It should also be pointed out that Penny Lane is a constantly
progressing organisation and currently it is still enlarging.
Notably, nowadays Penny Lane is represented not only by its
headquarters in North Hills but also provides additional outpatient
and foster family services in the Antelope Valley and the
City of Commerce. It means that the organisation continues
to grow and its services are really needed.
Remarkably, Penny Lane is still headed by Ive Markovits who
is not only the founder but also the executive director of
the organisation. Penny Lane’s board of directors includes
Arthur Bar Jr, the president, Annick-Derrick Hammon, the vice-president,
Bruce Hector, M.D., W. Robert Crigler, Ph.D., Bobby Smith,
Margee Menell, Olga Moretti, Esq., and Ann Hill. Such an organisation
provides Penny Lane with effective work leading to positive
results.
By the way, speaking about the results in financial terms,
it is necessary to underline that Penny Lane is non-profit
organisation, as it has been just mentioned above, but its
financial position is quite good. For instance, last year
Penny Lane’s projected operating budget for fiscal year
2005 constituted $26,156,460 and “all donations are
tax deductible and are used for programs and activities not
covered by current funding sources” (Stewart 2005:498).
As a result, it is possible to say that financial position
of Penny Lane indicates at the effectiveness of its operation
and growing need in its services in the region where the organisation
operates.
Socio-cultural significance
Obviously, the functioning of Penny Lane as a non-profit organisation
is very significant for socio-cultural life of the society
because it fulfils the functions that no other organisation
can currently fulfil, i.e. neither state services nor commercial
organisations can provide such services or at least they can
only partially solve the problems troubled teens, youth and
their foster families regularly face.
Speaking about social role of Penny Lane, it is necessary
to point out that the organisation contributes to socialisation
of children and young people who have significant troubles
in their social life. It means that as a rule, teens and youth
Penny Lane takes care about tend to be marginalized and can
easily become a sort of outcasts without certain support from
outside. Naturally, it is particularly important for a child
to have a family, even if it is a foster family since it is
one of the main condition of normal socialisation of an individual,
otherwise, a child lacking family support and being under
the influence of a peer group risks to acquire anti-social
habits and model of behaviour that is absolutely unacceptable
and may have far reaching consequences for both the individual
and the society at large, while the main goal of Penny Lane
is the integration of troubled teens and youth in social and
family life.
At the same time, Penny Lane plays a very important cultural
role because troubled children and teens acquire essential
socio-cultural experience due to better integration into the
society through foster families, for instance. In such a way,
they acquire cultural norms accepted in the society and while
their foster parents may serve as an example, a model for
the socially accepted behaviour. To put it in simple words,
children and teens simply learn what is good and what is bad.
Furthermore, being socialised means for a child or a teen
to acquire certain moral and ethic values, norms, and rules
that they have an opportunity to learn through the communication
either with their foster parents, or other adults which are
interested in their education, well-being and future.
Conclusion
Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is possible
to conclude that the operation of such non-profit organisation
is very important and such organisations can hardly be substituted
by some other organisations or institutions, for instance,
by state agencies. At the same time, such organisations are
often the ‘product’ of their epoch and it is very
important to sustain the development of such organisations
and provide the creation of new ones on the basis of ideas
of social consciousness and responsibility of each individual
or organisation for the well-being of each member of the society.
Obviously, the progress of such organisations and normal life
of the society are closely interlinked since without their
assistance the number of people with anti-social behaviour
would grow dramatically that would definitely undermine social
stability currently existing in the society. At the same time,
it is particularly important to make the effectiveness of
such organisations as high as possible.
Bibliography:
1. Armenakis, A., Harris, S., & Mossholdern, K. 1993.
Creating readiness for organizational change. Human Relations,
46: 681-703.
2. Kast, F. E., & Rosenzweig, J. E. (1994). Organization
and Management: A systems approach (2nd ed.). Chicago: McGraw-Hill.
3. Robbins, S. P. (2003). Organizational behavior (10th ed.).
New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc.
4. Stewart, L. (2005). American Non-Profit Organisations.
New York: New Publishers.
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