ORGANISATIONAL ACTION

COMPONENT

STRENGTHENING RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN FIELD OFFICE AND
HEAD OFFICE
Cohesion Foundation Trust
Faculty Guide :Prof. Nivedita Kothiyal
Archana Singh
PRM-24, IRMA, Anand
 SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS
 Clear mission and vision
 Strong grassroots presence
 Practical approach in field
 Committed staff
 Good team in terms of knowledge, skills,
experience
 SWOT ANALYSIS

WEAKNESSES
 Slow decision making
 Lack of documentation
 Low motivation
 Lack of reward system
 Problems in maintaining coordination between HO
and FO in project implementation
 Dissatisfaction among the field staff
 SWOT ANALYSIS

OPPORTUNITIES
 Can make wider presence
 Adoption of new concepts
 Govt. policies promoting the role of NGOs
 Interlinking with banks, govt. agencies
 Networking with smaller NGOs
 Opportunities for capacity building
 SWOT ANALYSIS

THREATS
 Competition from other organisations
 Saturation in certain areas (for e.g., wells,
rain water harvesting, bunding, sanitation
etc)
 Shortage of funding especially for
administrative support
Whether relationship between FO
and HO needs improvement?

7%
17%

21%
comp agree
agree
disagree
com disag

55%
 OBJECTIVES

 To develop understanding about the factors

determining the relationship between Field Office
(FO) and Head Office (HO).
 To identify the areas of improvement
 To suggest ways of improvement in the
relationship
 To do a proactive assessment of the future
relationship.
 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

 Limited to inter-office relations

 Does not cover the personnel related issues
 Limited to the roles played by the offices
 Focus on expectations from each other
 LIMITATIONS

 Short span of study

 Staff busy due to rainy season
 Documents in Gujarati
 Language barrier
 METHODOLOGY
Data Collection Methods

For secondary data

 Study of records, documents, reports, brochures,
manuals
 Literature review
For primary data
 Field visit and observation
 Personal interviews and focus group discussions
 Climate survey
 Group exercise
 METHODOLOGYContd.

 Personal interview
 Census survey
 Total number of employees 39
 Climate survey
 No. of employees (Class 3 and above) 35
 Employees who responded 28
 % non-response 20%
 FINDINGS: ROLE OF THE HEAD OFFICE

Support and facilitation in

 Financial issues
 Administration and HR
 Preparing proposal
 Guidance
 Research and monitoring
 FINDINGS: ROLE OF THE FIELD OFFICE

 Forming and strengthening the village

institutions
 Planning and execution of the projects
 Creating awareness in the villages
 Data collection and documentation
 Reporting to the Head Office
 FINDING: FACTORS
DETERMINING RELATIONSHIP

 Observation and Discussion revealed

following as the main factors determining
relationship
 Communication
 Culture
 Leadership
 Delegation of power
 Conflict
 FINDING:COMMUNICATION
 Upward: more
 Downward: less
Implications:
 Less paperwork, loss of information
 Lack of feedback
 Loss of accountability
Results in
Work pressure, strained relationship (as
perceived by employees)
 FINDING: COMMUNICATION
contd…
Satisfaction with level of communication:
70.0 62.5
58.0
60.0
50.0 42.0
37.5
40.0 dissatisfied
30.0 satisfied
20.0
10.0
0.0
timely sufficient

Mean Value : 2.5(timely), 2.3 (Sufficient)

 FINDING: COMMUNICATION
contd….
 Satisfaction with level of communication related to
different issues:
100.0

80.0 48.2 45.5 51.8

60.0
satisfied

40.0 dissatisfied
51.8 54.5 48.2
20.0

0.0
finance Admin &HR project

Mean Value: 2.1(fin), 2.2( Admin &HR),1.9

(Prj)
 FINDING: COMMUNICATION
contd…..

Filtering ?
Is HO getting more of positive
information from the FO?
Future Implications:
 Increase in levels of hierarchy
 Growth in size and complexity
 Increase in spatial differentiation
 FINDING: CULTURE

Culture is a system of shared meaning

Characteristics:
 Direction
 Integration
 Management support
 Reward system
 CULTURE contd……
 Direction: Clarity in matters related to finance,
administration, HR, project…
 Mean Values : 2.4, 2.3, 1.9

80.00 62.93 59.48

51.72
60.00 40.52
48.28
37.07

40.00

20.00

0.00
finance Admin project
dissatisfied 62.93 59.48 48.28
satisfied 37.07 40.52 51.72
 CULTURE contd……

 Management support:
Clear communication, assistance, support to
subordinates (Mean Value 1.93)

 Reward system:
Appreciation (2.87), reward (2.72), salary based on
performance (2.33), criteria of promotion (2.33)
 LEADERSHIP

ROLES
 Interpersonal
 Informational
 Decisional
 DELEGATION OF POWER

 Democratic at Head Office Level

 Participative at the Field Office level
 CONFLICT

SOURCES:
 Mutual task dependence
 Lack of clarity in job (2.1)
 Unclear decision making power( 2.23)
 Low formalization
 Reporting structure not clear (2.33)
 Job not logically structured (2.06)
 CLIMATE SURVEY

 Structure
 Responsibility
 Risk
 Reward
 Warmth and Support
 FINDINGS
Warmth and
100% Support
1.90 1.95 2.44 1.90 2.05
80% 2.41 Reward
2.19 2.48 2.32 2.35
60% 2.00 2.25 2.25 1.17 1.92
Risk
40% 2.25
2.88 2.79 2.47 2.60
20% Responsibility
2.17 1.44 2.37 2.24 2.06
0%
Morbi Rapar Overall Structure
 OVERALL CLIMATE
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE CLIMATE
ATTRIBUTES

80
75
70
65
Indices

60
55
50
45
40
Warmth &
Structure Responsibility Risk Reward
Support

MORBI 54.17 71.88 50 59 47.5

VARAHI 48.6 69.79 56.25 55.56 48.75
RAPAR 58.13 61 55.35 60.5 59.29

Factors
 CONCLUSION
 Communication
 Culture
 Leadership
 Delegation of power
 Conflict

 Weaknesses in the relationship between the head

office and the field office lead to lack of coordination,
dissatisfaction and other problems
 RECOMMENDATIONS

 Ad-hoc arrangement of second-level leadership

should be formalised.
 More responsibility to be delegated to area in-
charge.
 Role negotiation between field staff and head
office staff.
 Management of change; sensitisation, empathy.
 Orientation for new recruits.
 RECOMMENDATIONS
Contd…

 Develop feedback system for strengthening

communication.
 Develop an appraisal and reward system.
 Exposure visits with collaborating organisations
to learn about their systems and processes.
 Need to strengthen capacity related to
accounting, reporting and documentation,
project planning, implementation, proposal-
writing and decision making.