Recruitment and Selection, Ethical Issues in Non-Profit Organizations - Essay Example

? Marketing Professional Practice Contents Contents 2 Recruitment and Selection 3 Ethical Issues in Non-Profit Organizations 4 Social Media for Promotion 5 References 7 Recruitment and Selection A nonprofit organization or an NPO can be described as an organization which is legally constituted and use their excess revenues towards its development and growth instead of distributing dividends. They are established with the objective of engaging and supporting activities of private or public interest without having any monetary or commercial profit (Murphy, 2010). Not for profit organization are active in the field of environment, animal protection, humanitarian aid, arts, education, social issues, politics, health care, sports, research and many other fields. Thus, it is very evident that since these organizations cater to a wide range of sectors and industries, the manpower should be equally diverse, in terms of their educational and cultural background, experience and social exposure. One of the important criteria for selecting employees will be finding candidates who are service oriented. Their objective is to help the most unattended and unrecognized individuals and groups of the society (Burgos 2013, 23-26). The people working in these organizations should be able to handle and carry on the tasks properly. There is shortage of funds and many times the salaries of employees are delayed. In case of smaller organizations, the problems are more acute. The candidates applying for such an organization should be aware of this issue and should comply with it. Even the chief executives and other senior management teams perform many roles, compared to their peers in bigger and private organizations (Dolnicar; Lazarevski 2009, 280-290). Low packages and even lesser incentives are the common issues which results in low employee morale and high attrition in these organizations. Thus these organizations are interested in only those candidates who are choosing this sector as a career and not for sole monetary benefits. Another major issue in these organizations is ethics and unauthentic practices (independent sector, 2013). Since these practices are increasing in the current economic scenario, the organization would like to hire candidates with a clean background. The candidates must comply with the ethical norms and regulations and should be strict in terms of ethical practices. Not for profit organizations often face crisis of funds, crisis of employees and sometimes crisis of available projects. To overcome and minimize these issues, NPO’s need individuals who are able to show leadership qualities even in these crisis situations. Though the requirement for technical assistance and management is low compared to other private organizations, there has to be a minimum balance and smooth flow of the projects. For this, ideal candidates should be equipped with sufficient training and experience. This training and experience is required to handle the technology and the management functions of the organization. Ethical Issues in Non-Profit Organizations In an economy which is highly uncertain, non for profit organizations have started experiencing a rise in unethical practices. In the last few years, complaints regarding ethical violations by top management and leaders have surfaced in the industry. This has grabbed a good amount of attention and concern from the public. Even though the number is less in comparison to profit and big industries, this number is rising constantly. Apart from this, a large number of ethical issues have started to arise which has resulted in financial issues and frauds in this industry (Watson 2007). If the misconduct in the non for profit organization go unaddressed, it can lead to an erosion of the public confidence. Loss of consumer confidence can largely dampen these organizations as customers are one of the major contributors of fund in this industry (Santora; Sarros, 2012). Ethical issues can occur in various places in an organization. The most vulnerable areas are as follows; Salaries and Perks Highly inflated salaries for the executives and senior level managers are common in private organizations (Faulkender et al, 2010). But in case of non for profit organizations, this can raise a certain amount of ethical concern. This is because most of the non for profit organizations are underfunded. Accountability Nonprofit organizations are rewarded by many tax incentives and tax evasion policies. The monitoring policies and regulations are somehow relaxed in case of these organizations (Peloza and Steel 2005, 262-270). In the current scenario, this has resulted in misuse of the funds and inflation of the projects by these organizations. It has been reported that many non for profit organizations lack proper strategies for the utilization of their funds and in this way the accountability is lost in these organizations. Conflicts of Interest Conflict of interest occurs when the top management and board or members use the funds and other profits for their own personal gain. This puts the nonprofit organization in a tarring position. Conflict of interest also occurs when few of the major donors and personal contributors are given preference in terms of lucrative contracts or better treatment. There is a lack of transparency in this industry which induces these firms to cover up those services and contracts given to people on the basis of personal relationships or other vested interest with the employees or officers of these not for profit organizations. Fraud Most of the non-profit organizations lack the necessary budget to bring external auditors for monitoring and reviewing the internal processes of the organizations. Because of this, abuse of funds and financial frauds goes unnoticed. When the internal accounting department or the in-house board reviews the financial misbalance, most of the times they overlook or change the numbers to support and continue the ongoing negligence. Social Media for Promotion Social media is the latest and the highest growing form of promotion. Social media can be described as a means of communication between people and groups, a virtual environment. In this type of media, people and groups create, share and exchange ideas and information through online communities and networks (Mangold and Faulds 2009, 360-364). It is essentially a technological media, which requires web-based technologies and mobiles for the creation of interactive platforms. Social media is different from traditional media in many ways such as reach, quality, frequency, immediacy, usability and permanence (Strategic Direction 2002, 24 - 27). The current economic scenario suggests that more and more number of people are using social media as a platform to share and exchange information. This has made social media a hot destination for branding and promotion. The amount of budget spend on social media has also increased in the last few years. Nonprofit organizations can utilize on these platforms for upgrading their profile as well as promoting their organizations. Most of the capital required for the functioning of these firms comes from funding and donations. These organizations can use social media for reaching out to maximum number of individuals. Some of the popular and recognized social media sites are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Tumbler. These sites are essentially social platforms for the share and exchange of ideas and information. There are also different groups and communities catering to specific target market. By using these social media sites these organizations can build their own network of communities and groups. Through this, they can engage volunteers to work for their organization. With the help of social media, the organizations can increase their community and volunteer participation. This media can help them to promote their work and projects, thus help in building their profile. Many individuals like students and people working for charitable trusts look for NGO’s and similar organizations with the objective of participation. Thus through this platform, organizations can tap these individuals who will work for them as volunteers. Apart from this, social media sites like LinkedIn, can help these organizations in sourcing candidates of their choice. It also helps in reducing the cost of sourcing and hiring as there is no involvement of any third part or consultant. The company can establish itself as an employer in LinkedIn and give advertisement about their specific requirement. The eligible candidates can directly call and meet these organizations and go though the recruitment process. Thus, it can be said that with the help of social media, nonprofit organizations can build a good profile and promote themselves in an effective way. References Burgos, Sigfrido. 2009. “Corporations and social responsibility: NGOs in the ascendancy.” Journal of Business Strategy, 34(1):21 - 29 Dolnicar, Sara and Katie Lazarevski, 2009. “Marketing in non-profit organizations: an international perspective.” International Marketing Review 26(3):275 – 291 Faulkender, Michael, Dalida Kadyrzhanova, N. Prabhala, and Lemma Senbet, 2010. “Executive Compensation: An Overview of Research on Corporate Practices and Proposed Reforms.” Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 22(1):107-118 http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/faculty/faulkender/ecomp_review.pdf Independent sector, 2013. “Compendium of Standards, Codes, and Principles of Nonprofit and Philanthropic Organizations” independent sector. Accessed June 1, http://www.independentsector.org/compendium_of_standards Mangold, W. G. and Faulds, D. J. 2009. “Social media: the new hybrid element of the promotion mix.” Emerald Management Reviews, 52(4):357-365 Murphy, Foster. 2010. “The volunteer recruitment process”. Knowhow nonprofit. Accessed June 1, http://knowhownonprofit.org/people/volunteers/recruiting/copy_of_process Peloza, John and Piers Steel, 2005. “The Price Elasticities of Charitable Contributions: A Meta-Analysis.” American Marketing Association 24 (2):260–272 http://www.utexas.edu/law/journals/tlr/sources/Issue%2088.6/Galle/fn039.Peloza&Steel.pdf Santora, Joseph C. and James C. Sarros, 2012. “Do non-profit organizations ever really learn from their mistakes – or are they doomed to repeat them?” Development and Learning in Organizations 26(3):8 – 10 Strategic Direction 2002. “New media needs new marketing: Social networking challenges traditional methods.” Strategic Direction 28(6):24 – 27 Watson, Tom. 2007. “Reputation and ethical behavior in a crisis: predicting survival”. Emerald 11 Read More