Organization Analysis For United Nation Environment Program - Term Paper Example

Organization Analysis for UNEP (United Nation Environmental Program) Organization Analysis for UNEP (United Nation Environment Program) Executive Summary The paper is all about organizational features and concepts on the United Nations Environment Programme. Several aspects of organization have been assessed and analyzed, putting more focus on the environmental matters. First, an introduction will be made to show the background and history of UNEP and the achievements so far. Since it is an organization like any other, UNEP has a structure of its own, and some of the managerial and administrative factors have been highlighted to show how effective they are. Employees being a part of UNEP’s prosperity have been mentioned on several occasions. Not much will be mentioned without addressing the organizational theories that have been applied in UNEP since it came into existence. It is easy to understand managerial theories, and identify how they are applied in daily operation of UNEP. UNEP is a thriving organization with so many achievements that have seen the environment being conserved and sustainable development achieved. The information has been gathered from the UNEP website, its documentaries, and from textbooks with relevant information on organization theories and environmental issues. Introduction and Background of the Organization (UNEP) It was until after the UN Conference concerning the Human Environment of 1972 that UNEP was established. The Conference took place in Stockholm, Sweden, and suggested the initiation of a global body to serve as the UN’s environmental conscience system. The UN General Assembly responded by adopting Resolution 2997, which created the following: The UNEP Secretariat, whose headquarters was placed in Nairobi, Kenya, to offer a central point for environmental coordination and activities in the UN system, led by an Executive Director, ranked as the UN Under-Secretary-General. UNEP Governing Council, which comprised of 58 countries designated for four-year terms by the General Assembly of the UN. This was accorded the task of reviewing the state of the global environment, creating UNEP’S programme precedence, and budget approval. A voluntary Environment Fund was also set up to finance the initiatives of the organization, to be complemented by trust funds and money assigned by the regular budget of the UN. From 1972 down to the 1990s, global governments had declared their pledges to the sustainable development principles. In May 2000, the first Worldwide Ministerial Environment Forum was convened by UNEP in Malmo, Sweden. The forum’s main aim was to send a strong note to the UN General Assembly meant to revisit the sustainable development discussion at the millennium meeting in September 2000. Although the millennium presented many opportunities to UNEP, several challenges also came up. In 2005, the organization’s task was further strengthened when the UNEP Governing Council endorsed the Ball Strategic Plan to apply capacity development and technology support programmes nationally. The critical final years of the world’s commitment to meet the Millennium Development Goals will ensure that UNEP goes on providing vital information, practical support, and policy advice to the UN member nations as they collectively work to achieve UN Charter’s promise of a globe of social progress and better living conditions in a wider freedom. UNEP as an organization concerned with environmental matters is large enough to look into the issues at a global point of view. Its Governing Council meets this task appropriately by reporting to the UN General assembly via the Social and Economic Council. There is equitable representation in each region, where the 58-members elected for the four-year terms represent each state as follows: African States have 16 seats, Asian States have 13 seats, Eastern Europe has 6, Caribbean and Latin American States have 10, while Western Europe and the remaining States have 13 seats. This makes the organization large enough and capable of addressing environmental issues easily around the Globe. The major function of UNEP is to address environmental concerns at the regional and global levels. It is authorized to direct the growth of environmental policy agreement through reviewing the world environment and bringing up-coming issues to governments’ attention and to mobilize the international community to act upon such issues. To meet its goals, the Organization focuses on its mission statement, which requires it to offer leadership and support partnership in environment care through informing, inspiring, and enabling countries and individuals to improve life standards without compromising the life of future generations. Other functions include assessing worldwide, national, and regional trends and conditions; reinforcing institutions to wisely manage the environment; make easy the transfer of technology and knowledge for sustainable growth, developing global and national environmental accords and lawful instruments; incorporating environmental protection and economic development; motivating new partnerships and techniques in the private sector and the civil society (Shafritz & Ott, 1996). To ensure that there is smooth running of the activities in different departments; UNEP has adopted a hierarchy suitable for its operations. At the top of the hierarchy is the Executive Director, responsible for all Secretariat activities such as administration. He provides environmental policy leadership globally and makes out emerging issues. The Deputy Executive Director has a duty to manage Environment programmes, supervise all regional and division offices, as well as to coordinate and monitor the completion of work programmes. It is from the Deputy that all powers are distributed to the various divisions and departments such as the division of early warning and Assessment, Regional Cooperation, Policy Development and Law, and environmental conventions. Illustrative Management Practices of UNEP The strength of UNEP and a factor that has influenced the organization’s success is how they coordinate and control their daily activities. What matters most in this case is the quality of managers and employees in general. To capitalize on this factor, UNEP has seen the need to develop an environment and organizational culture that enables its employees to contribute their potentials to the maximum. To UNEP, creating a new culture and building employee loyalty for the future goes hand in hand with defining organizational core competencies. For proper coordination of events, a combination of behaviors, attributes, and skills of the staff is a necessity. A vital point in the coordination and control in UNEP is how values and principles guide the operations of each member group or individual. For instance, professionalism, integrity, and respect for the environment and diversity are the guiding values of this organization. Organizational competency best suits UNEP, which is used as a foundation on which to build and reinforce other human resource programs like placement, performance appraisal, recruitment, and development. In this regard, a participatory procedure, involving both the employees and the mangers in all the UNEP divisions has been adopted to define central and managerial competencies. Since every employee is regarded as important in making the organization prosper, they are motivated through processes that make them feel appreciated and cared for at all times and in all levels of the organizational hierarchy. This is done through a participatory way, putting into considerations the diversity of functions, geographic locations, levels, and cultures of UNEP. All employees are treated with respect and dignity; their points of view are understood, and displayed through daily interactions and decision-making. Even further, all stereotypical responses are avoided as well as discriminatory actions against any employee by the seniors. Teamwork is a motivation on its own. Environmental goals are met through collaborative working by all staff. Additionally, team agenda precedes personal agenda in most of the matters brought up. It is more encouraging for group decisions to be supported and acted upon even when such decisions are not necessarily reflective of individual position. Classical Organization Theories manifested in UNEP The Classical theories are generally based on some assumptions, namely: The relationship between the management and workers is established through formal structured process of communication, defined accountability, defined duties, and formal practices and processes to avoid any dispute in the interactions Employees being treated as economic men who can only be motivated using money Workers regarded as a creation of means of production or as a component in a wheel. In particular, the Scientific approach bases its arguments on the idea of planning of work to meet standardization, simplification, specialization, and efficiency. Mutual trust amongst all staff is a necessity at all times. F.W. Taylor had in mind the four scientific management principles as science rather than the rule-of-thumb; labor and management cooperation instead of conflict; scientific assortment of employees through clear analysis; and scientific training for workers. Weber’s bureaucratic structure considers an organization as a part of a larger society. Due to this, it should be formally organized. The principles include a structure where positions are arranged hierarchically, each with a specified, established quantity of authority and responsibility, stability and predictability with operations conducted in accordance to a system of processes with formal rules and laws. Specialization-duties should be differentiated based on functions, with each having a particular command; democracy, authority, and duties be recognized by designations instead of individuals; and rationality recruitment as well as impartial selection of workers (Shafritz & Ott, 1996). ). UNEP meets most aspects of the above classical organization theories through its objectives and activities. For instance, its primary objective is to enhance scientific capacities in all member nations, particularly the developing ones. This has been made possible by educating, training, facilitating local research, and developing major scientific disciplines especially those related to the environment. Another evident factor is the scientific selection of workers, where UNEP has substantially increased the number of scientists and women in particular, in those developing nations with less qualified staff. Such scientists continue being trained and access to relevant information is improved with the objective of enhancing public awareness and decision-making participation in matters concerning environmental conservation. Workers are not only trained in their specific disciplines, but also, even in their capacity to identify, incorporate, and manage environmental issues into research and scientific projects. Specialization is a relevant factor manifested through allocating employees duties to which they are trained for. With this specialization, employees are capable of working in interdisciplinary projects related to development and environment. The hierarchical structure has been borrowed from Weber’s principles, where there are ranks specified from top of the ladder of the executive Director, down to the deputy, to the department managers and finally to the heads of divisions. Neo-Classical Organization Theories These theories give more attention to behavioral sciences ad human relations. They realize the fact that management lies in the social system in which human factors play an important role. Specifically, Human Relations theory focuses more on morale and production. It puts forward that efficiency and productivity are likely to increase if employees’ attitudes were all regarded. The managers in UNEP believe that all potentials lie with the employees. Therefore, when the employees prefer to work in groups, they should be allowed to do so. Its management style motivates enthusiasm among employees as well as corporate social responsibility to increase efficiency and outputs (Tompkins, 2004). The issues that center on the environment are a good reason for UNEP employees to stay self-motivated. Human relations are also concerned with effective communication, with the two-way communication being a requirement to provide a regular flow of understanding. Official and informal communications are practiced in managing personnel. For instance, the office of the executive Director harmonizes a wide schedule of visit and appointments with the aim of raising worldwide awareness concerning environment’s importance for development and all the operations of UNEP. The spokesperson of the Director and the DCPI (Division of Communications and Public Information) apply a proactive media technique in close interaction with information officers located in the six regional offices of the organization. Group or team communication amongst the staff is also harmonious in UNEP to enhance coordination in uprising issues. Systems theory It is the trans-disciplinary approach of studying the abstract organization of occurrences, independent of their type, substance, or spatial scale of their existence. According to the systems theory, an organization or system may be composed of four things: the objects-variables, parts, or elements in it; attributes-the properties or qualities of the structure and the objects; internal relationships amongst objects; and the system’s existence in an environment. The essential system-interactive model of an organizational psychoanalysis goes through the stages of input, processing, and finally, output to demonstrate the idea of closeness or openness (Tompkins, 2004). A closed system does not interact with its environment; neither does it take in information, making it more likely to vanish. On the other hand, an open system takes in information, utilizing it to interact dynamically with the immediate surrounding. The concept of openness allows it to prosper at all levels and situations. UNEP is an open system because it uses its ideas and resources in exchange with other organizations. For example, it works supportively with UN associates and structures like the UNDAFS, which comprises of thirty-four member countries. It is a member of the ONE UN system, UNEP-UNDF partnership, in order to combat with poverty and environmental degradation. UNEP closely operate with a large number of regional and global multilateral environmental accords. It administers environmental conventions such as the Convention on Biological Diversity in Canada, and the Convention of International trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITIES) based in Switzerland. The impact of UNEP on excellence Excellence in UNEP is only brought about through a combination of good characters, attributes, and skills that need to be initiated and strengthened throughout the daily operations of this organization. Achieving this is not a one-time effort, but rather a continuous process. Although formal training has been a determining factor for excellence, coaching, personal learning activities, feedback, and experience are essential as well. The Human Resource makes sure that all these are achieved by providing ongoing guidance and information concerning the environment. The major attempt in excelling in its environmental operations is the idea of the “green economy” and a quest for a more methodical technique to environmental considerations to develop the economy. This initiative leads nations in a transition to a resource efficient and low carbon path while at the same time reducing poverty, and achieving sustainable development. However, UNEP faces some challenges that may inhibit or slow down the rate of attaining Excellency. Natural disasters, which may be beyond the organization’s control, may make it nearly impossible for it to meet its goals in some regions. The ambition to eradicate poverty may also be challenged by the increasing number of populations in developing countries, who may need more resources, which may not be available or may be inadequate. UNEP demonstrates excellence in achieving productivity against its mandate, especially in establishing regional and global environmental norms and motivating focus on sustainable development. The organization notes this excellence through the high value and visibility of its Global Environment outlook (GEO) documentation that offers an inclusive scientific overview about the environmental condition and the interaction of UNEP with key international environmental meetings and approaches such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). GEO is perceived as the most inclusive reports that give evidence and information on the progress of environmental concerns. References Shafritz, J., & Ott, S. (1996). Classics of organization theory, 6th Edition. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace College Publications. Tompkins, J. (2004). Organization theory and public management. London: Wadsworth Publishing. Read More