How Might We Differentiate between the Private and Voluntary Sectors - Research Paper Example

The private and voluntary sectors can be considered similar in some aspects because they work independently from the public or government sector. There are times that these three sectors work together for a project or program that addresses public issues and community service. However, there is still a big difference between the private and voluntary sectors. Therefore, in order for us to determine the difference we must then study major aspects on how organizations from each sector operate, and the objectives of their organizational structure. We must then determine the nature of their work and how their workforce is established, and how these organizations differ and are able to operate and continue operating to achieve each and individual objectives. The private sector The private sector is a group of independent organizations that is part of the economy (Borish, Noel and The World Bank 1996). They are also considered to be the business sector. The majority of business organizations in the private sector deal with the market demands and needs by providing products and professional services. A big percentage of this sector is manufacturing and production followed by the service providers. The manufacturing industry has wide coverage in the market catering to other businesses, households, government institutions and end users. Since a lot of private organizations have their own departments that run the business, the system of operation procedures and development is made internally. However, the manufacturing or production industry also seek services from other service providers such as outsourcing services for man power, and insurance services for hospitalization and medication. Transactions and dealings in the private sectors are considered as investments that will gain revenue. Since the private sector has more control over the prices and services that are available in the market (Dollery and Wallis p57 2003), they have more bearing in the balance of the economy. The prices of their products and services are based on the current value of currency and target profit. Majority of the employees in the private sector are paid a minimum wage that is set for their job description or based on the set standards of the government. Aside from the fact that organizations from the private sector operates to generate revenue that can sustain salary wages for their employees, employees from the private sector also get a lot of benefits from the organization they work with. One of the benefits they get is medical and life insurance. This is a large portion of the compensation package businesses and organizations from the private sector (Reddick 2009). One example of an organization or business name in the private sector that provides services and business solutions to clients and customers is Teleperformance. Today, Teleperformance operates globally, including in the local UK market. Teleperformance operates as an individual organization and dependent on its own workforce (Teleperformance 2007). Another organization in the private sector that deals with manufacturing is United Paper Products. The company mainly deals in the manufacturing of paper products that are used by other companies in the private or business sectors, academic and households (United Paper Products 2007). These are just two organizations in the private sector that offers service manpower and manufacturing. Some organizations in the private sector would be engaged in public service and social activities as part of their social responsibility. But this is also to be considered as part of some organizations in the private sector’s marketing mix, a strategic activity to promote products and services and to gain market awareness (Fahy, Farrelley and Quester 2004). At the same time, this is also one way for organizations in the private sector to help and to donate to non-profit organizations for the operation of their program or social work projects. Some organizations in the private sector also gather data from social activities that may be a source of good information for them to use in their product and service development. This is common in the private or business sector, where a large number of people are gathered together, specially, for a social and civic event the probability of media, reporters and spectators are there. This means exposure to these organizations from the private sector. The voluntary sector Voluntary sectors are considered to be non-profit organizations or most commonly known as the charity sector in the United Kingdom. These sectors commonly deal with social work and cause activities providing services and assistance for a very low cost or nothing at all. Majority of the work involve in the voluntary sector are social work, community work, youth work for young adults who wants to have experience in social work or help others and counseling that can be of any aspect the voluntary organization primarily deals with (Popple, and Leighninger 2002). Voluntary workers, having their degree in different types of course of study, are competitive in their respective fields,. They are considered professionals for a cause. They are tagged as professionals for a cause because of the salary or pay that they get from the type of sector they work in. If not all, majority of the voluntary workers are underpaid. The reason behind this issue is that the voluntary sector or organizations are non-profit. Voluntary or charity organizations do not generate revenue from their transactions or dealings to support a decent wage for their workers. Most of the time, voluntary sectors are getting tie-ups with the private and government sector for assistance in social activities or vice versa. This is how they are able to support their projects and programs since voluntary organizations transactions are non-profit or does not generate money for income of their workers or even for funds for their organizational development and growth. Projects and activities from the voluntary sectors are supported by the private sectors. This is actually an opportunity for the private section in their advertising and marketing initiatives. This will also create public awareness for the private organization’s products and services. In exchange, the private sector would show their support by providing or donating monetary funds for the project, or give their products or service for free in that event or program the voluntary organization is holding. Fund raising is one way for the voluntary sector to generate resources for a program to be made possible or to support their organization in regards to their operation purposes. Voluntary organizations get volunteer workers and donors or sponsors. They explain the objective of the said program by presenting its structure and purpose. They, then, train and orient the volunteer workers of the task and what needs to be done afterwards. Monetary fund that they collect from donors and sponsors, are then used for everyday operation expenses, or to pay a specialist for consultation for the improvement of the project or program’s implementation (Greenfield 1999). The voluntary sector’s strength is based on its capability to meet its needs for operational purposes (Challis 1988). If an organization from the voluntary sector is not able to raise funds to support their needs for operational activities, the implementation of social and civic work and programs will also be compromised. This is the reason why organizations from the voluntary sector seek out sponsorship or funding from organizations from the private sector, public or government sector and other organizations from the voluntary sector. HealthRight International is a global non-profit organization that deals with healthcare and human rights. Their objective is to promote projects and programs concerning HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. They also give assistance and information to women’s health and equal access to protection and quality care and more. A large amount of their finances comes from the sponsorship of various private, government and voluntary sector and some private individuals (HealthRight International 2000). This only proves that organizations from the voluntary sector are operating independently for the cause they believe in. There are a large number of organizations from the voluntary sector. These organizations work independently for a cause. They have their own workforce that works voluntarily under that organization and management. These not-for-profit organizations provide adequate training that would get a volunteer ready for a task to make their organizations objective possible. These organizations cover a wide range of individual causes, like child protection rights, environmental rights, human rights, educational causes, anti discrimination causes and more. Collaboration of objectives The relation of the private and voluntary sector is considered to be a strategic way for both sectors to meet their individual objectives. Since the private sector operates to generate revenue, their products and services should be visible in the market. Extensive efforts of marketing and advertisements are done to achieve the goal of public awareness. Organizations or companies from the private sector set a large amount of their budget for advertisements and public awareness campaigns. Aside from the marketing and advertising issues, organizations from the private sectors also have their code of ethics towards their organization’s public and social responsibility. Having both of these tasks at hand will be very difficult for companies that are more engaged in doing business than social involvement. On the other hand, the voluntary or not-for-profit sector are engaged in social activities and programs like social work that only relies on their volunteers and donations they get. Although these said organizations get some support from the public sectors which deals with local governance, funds and materials are often not enough to support a project or program. The public sector only allocates a budget to support organizations from the voluntary sector which in result helps the government in addressing social and public needs primarily for citizens that are in the poverty level. As we can see, the financial resource of most organizations from the voluntary sector is limited. This is one major problem for them to implement social programs and projects. Looking at the situation given, since organizations from the private sectors have their objective to generate more revenue or profit through public awareness and advertising, and at the same time do their social responsibility and organizations from the voluntary sector has limited resources for their social programs and projects, collaboration of efforts between the two sectors is necessary in order for them to achieve their goals and objectives. This is where sponsorship comes in. Organizations from the voluntary sector would look for companies or organizations from the private sector that are willing to fund their project or social program. And from a large number of projects and organizations from the voluntary sector, companies or organizations from the private sector gets to choose which project they will fund and sponsor. And through sponsorship an agreement is made between the two sectors that will determine responsibilities to be handled through the course of the civic or social project or program. The differences We can differentiate the voluntary sector from the private sector by basing on the objective of their independent transactions and activities and the impact it creates to the society and economy. The voluntary sector operates through voluntarism of workers and monetary support coming from public or the government sector, organizations from the private sector and other organizations from the voluntary sector. They are tagged as the third sector or most commonly known as charitable institutes and not-for-profit organizations or sector (Kendall 2003). Their objective is also different. Although, most of the time, we see that organizations from the private sectors are involved with social activities and programs the community assumes that projects are being done directly from the organization from the private sector. This is the outright impression that the community gets when they see logos and banners of companies or organizations that sponsored a social program or project. On the other hand, organizations on the voluntary sector are dedicated to provide free services like counseling, social work, medical mission and more. The voluntary and private sector can also be differentiated by their income wages and other benefits that are included in the package of their compensation. For the past few years, a lot of effort from organizations and workers have tried to make the compensation package in the voluntary industry more competitive compared to the private and public sectors. It is still visible that only a small number of organizations from the voluntary sector are able to provide or address this issue. The difference on how the two sectors operate is obvious. The voluntary sector’s objective is to address issues and concerns concerning the community, like social issues, environmental issues and more. While on the other hand, organizations from the private sectors operate to see that their objective of gaining revenue through profit is achieved. References Borish, Michael, Noel, Michel and the World Bank. (1996). Private Sector Development During Transition: the Visegrad countries. Washington: World Bank Publications. Challis, Linda. (1988). Joint Approaches to Social Policy: Rationality and Practice. NY:Cambridge University Press. Dollery, Brian and Wallis, Joe. (2003). The Political Economy of the Voluntary Sector: A Reappraisal of the Comparative Institutional Advantage of Voluntary Organisations. UK:Edward Elgar Publishing. Fahy, John, Farrelly, Francis and Quester, Pascale. (2004). “Competitive Advantage Through Sponsorship: A Conceptual Model and Research Propositions.” European Journal of Marketing, 38, 8, 1013-1030. Greenfield, James. (1999). Fund-raising: Evaluating and Managing the Fund Development Process, 2nd ed. NY:John Wiley and Sons. HealthRight International. (2000). HealthRight International, http://www.healthright.org accessed 8/18/09 Kendall, Jeremy. (2003). The Voluntary Sector: Comparative Perspectives in the UK. London:Routledge. Popple, Phillip, and Leighninger, Leslie. (2002). Social Work, Social Welfare, and American Society. 5th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Reddick, Christopher. (2009). “The Importance of Employee Health Benefits to Public and Private Sector Organizations. Public Personnel Management, http://www.allbusiness.com/labor-employment/compensation-benefits-employee/12378864-1.html accessed 8/18/09 Teleperformance. (2007). Teleperformance, http://www.teleperformance.co.uk accessed 8/18/09 United Paper Products Ltd. (2007). United Paper Products, http://www.unitedpaperproducts.co.uk accessed 8/18/09 Read More