Organizational

Behavior Of

United Mission to Nepal (UMN)

Submitted to:Prof. Purusottam P. Sapkota

Faculty of Organization BehaviorKathmandu College of Management

Submitted By:Ayushman Tamrakar

Bibush Singh GCJashmina Pradhananga

Nishtha ShresthaSamriddhi SinghSakshi Agarwal

Submission Date: 02/12/2012

Memorandum

Date: Thursday, November 30, 2012

To: Mr. Purushottam Sapkota

From: Group E

Subject: Fall semester Organizational Behavior Presentation Report

Here is the report you requested for our fall semester Organizational Behavior Presentation on United Mission to Nepal

United Mission to Nepal (UMN) is a Christian international non-governmental organization (INGO) that has been working exclusively in Nepal since 1954. In its long history, UMN has always maintained two characteristics. First, it is truly a united mission of people from many organizations, denominations and parts of the world joined together in the name of Christ to serve Nepal, alongside Nepali colleagues. Secondly, UMN works with the aim not of owning projects and institutions permanently, but of training up Nepali people and divesting ownership to the Nepali government and local organizations. 

We are grateful to the college management and the management of UMN for giving us an environment to complete this report.

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to work on this assignments. It has been a real educational experience. If you have any questions about this report you will be able to contact us.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT It is our great pleasure to submit this dissertation under the guidance of Prof.

Purusottam P. Sapkota, Faculty of Organizational Behavior, Kathmandu College of Management on the organizational Behavior of any organization. We heartily appreciate his invaluable supervision and useful guidance.

For this project, we chose United Mission to Nepal (UMN), a non-profit organization. We also wish to express our gratitude to the managers and employees of UMN, who rendered their help during the period of our project work and for their kind co-operation for the completion of our project work. We would like to convey heartfelt appreciation to Miss Vijeta, Communication Advisor and Miss Ann McConkey, Human Resource Advisor for rendering us their precious time and detail information about the organization.

Last, but not the least, we would also like to express our deep appreciation to all our colleagues who helped us in collection of data for this report and our family for their continuous suggestions and support. Without their co-operation, this research would not have been possible at all.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to UMNa. Overviewb. The Early Daysc. New Directiond. Visione. Missionf. Valuesg. What it doesh. How it works

2. Organization model for UMN3. Methodology4. Interviews5. Strengths6. Weaknesses7. Conclusion8. Questionnaire9. Slide Handouts

10. References11. Contact Information

Introduction to UMN

Overview

United Mission to Nepal (UMN) is a Christian international non-governmental organisation (INGO) that has been working exclusively in Nepal since 1954. In its long history, UMN has always maintained two characteristics. First, it is truly a united mission of people from many organisations, denominations and parts of the world joined together in the name of Christ to serve Nepal, alongside Nepali colleagues. Secondly, UMN works with the aim not of owning projects and institutions permanently, but of training up Nepali people and divesting ownership to the Nepali government and local organisations. 

United Mission to Nepal (UMN) strives to address root causes of poverty as it serves the people of Nepal in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ. UMN is a cooperative effort between the people of Nepal and a large number of Christian organisations from nearly 20 countries on 4 continents. Multicultural teams of Nepali nationals and volunteer expatriate staff work alongside local organisations in less developed areas of the country, building partnerships that lead to healthy, strong and empowered individuals, families, and communities.

The Early Day

Nepal was a closed country until the early 1950s. Following the revolution that opened the country, a group of expatriate missionaries in India were granted permission from the Nepali government to open a hospital in Tansen and to start women's and children's welfare clinics in the Kathmandu Valley. Subsequently, UMN was founded in 1954 as an international interdenominational Christian mission. At that time, Nepal suffered from lack of institutions, infrastructure, and trained personnel. UMN's earliest staff worked in difficult environments, usually without the benefit of roads, electricity, and skilled workers, yet with few resources they built institutions and projects that have had lasting impact throughout Nepal. 

Over the years, UMN projects have included several hospitals; schools, including the nation's first girls' high school; hydropower plants; engineering, industrial development and training institutions such as Butwal Technical Institute; rural development centres; and several companies.

New Directions

From 2002, UMN moved away from directly implementing projects to building partnerships that support local organisations. Now, UMN has more than 60 partners: local and national non-governmental organisations, co-operatives, churches and government institutions.

Vision

The vision of UMN is “Fullness of life for all, in a transformed Nepali society”. 

Mission

Inspired by the love and teachings of Jesus Christ, in partnership with the Christian community and others in Nepal and worldwide, UMN serves the people of Nepal, particularly those who live in poverty:

To pursue peace and justice for all; To address the root causes of poverty; and To make Christ known by word and life.

ValuesUMN, being motivated by and dependent on God, believe these values to be foundational to our work:

Integrity: They are committed to be honest and truthful. They work responsibly and transparently without undue personal gain. They have integrity both corporately and personally whether others are looking or

not.

Love and service: They follow God's desire that they seek to be humble, forgiving and

compassionate as demonstrated in the life of Jesus. They seek to identify with people in their needs and aspirations. They do not consider any task too menial or belittling.

Equity and social justice: They value and respect each person as they are all created equal by God. They work alongside people enabling them to speak and act for themselves. They pro-actively address injustice and imbalance in society to bring impact at

local, national and international levels.

Innovation and creativity: They seek new and improved ways to do their work. They desire to excel in their work respecting local knowledge, practices and

culture. They seek to develop in themselves and others the creative ability that God has

given to each of us.

Special concern for poor and marginalized people: They seek to address root causes of poverty to change lives in practical ways. They give special priority to vulnerable and oppressed people.

Care for the environment: They are looking for ways to minimize their negative effect on the environment. They are working towards better resource management by reducing

consumption, recycling and reusing materials. They seek to address the issues of climate change at local, national and

international levels.

UMN works in four technical areas:

Health

UMN seeks to improve the health of people living in Nepal primarily through community health programmes, and working with the Government health system to strengthen community health services. Their particular areas of involvement are:

Maternal and newborn health Sexual and reproductive health Prevention, care and treatment of HIV and AIDS Good nutrition Sanitation and hygiene Community health National health policy

Education

UMN focuses on ensuring that poor and marginalized communities get access to quality, relevant teaching and resources in formal and non-formal education for children, young people and adults. They do this through:

Supporting Early Childhood Centres Strengthening formal education systems Contributing to literacy campaigns Promoting youth employability Improving children's learning environments

Sustainable Livelihoods

UMN aims to improve the overall well-being of the poorest and most vulnerable people by enhancing their ability to make a living in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner. This includes:

Building access to micro-finance services Promoting small animal raising Creating small infrastructure development, including market services Enhancing employment skills Reducing vulnerability to disasters Working on climate change adaption Improving production of food crops.

Peace building

Peace building is a long-term process of building peaceful, stable and just communities, healing divisions and reducing discrimination and marginalization. In Nepal, UMN is active in:

Trauma healing Preventing, reducing and mediating conflict Improving child safety and upholding child rights Addressing gender-based discrimination and violence Encouraging participation of marginalized groups Contributing to peace building at a national level.

UMN approaches its work in three ways:

Capacity Building

UMN helps individuals, groups, communities and organizations to better achieve their goals in a sustainable way. To do this, they:

Focus on good governance and accountability Model sound practices by working alongside our partners Build knowledge, skills and attitudes at partner and community level Practice servant leadership.

Advocacy

Advocacy involves speaking out in order to influence policy, decisions, attitudes and behaviour of those in power on behalf of, and with, poor and marginalized people in order to achieve lasting change. Their work focuses on:

Building accountable and effective governance Enhancing community voice for justice Enhancing the policy impact of UMN’s technical work Analysing budgets, monitoring and influencing budget-holders Developing advocacy champions Advocating for justice nationally and internationally.

Integral Mission

UMN strives for holistic transformation of individuals and communities to fulfill their potential. For them, this means developing right relationships with other people, oneself, the environment, and God. They do this by:

Deepening and growing our own understanding of holistic transformation Working with the Christian community to strengthen integral mission through

social action Building capacity in Christian organizations committed to integral mission Promoting integral mission through national and international networks.

Organization Model for UMNThe organization's base rests on management's philosophy, values, vision and goals. This in turn drives the organizational culture which is composed of the formal organization, informal organization, and the social environment. The culture determines the type of leadership, communication, and group dynamics within the organization. The workers perceive this as the quality of work life which directs their degree of motivation. The final outcomes are performance, individual satisfaction, and personal growth and development. All these elements combine to build the model or framework that the organization operates from.

There are four major models or frameworks that organizations operate out of, Autocratic, Custodial, Supportive, and Collegial. Although there are four separate models, almost no organization operates exclusively in one. There will usually be a predominate one, with one or more areas over-lapping in the other models. From the findings through survey and questionnaire, we have been able to deduce that UMN operates as per the Supportive and Collegial models.

Percentage given to Organization Models

CollegialSupportiveCustodialAutocratic

The basis of supportive model is leadership with a managerial orientation of support. The employees in turn are oriented towards job performance and participation. The employee need that is met is status and recognition. The performance result is awakened drives.

The basis of collegial model is partnership with a managerial orientation of teamwork. The employees in turn are oriented towards responsible behavior and self-discipline. The employee need that is met is self-actualization. The performance result is moderate enthusiasm.

Supportive Collegial

Model depends on Leadership Partnership

Managerial orientation Support Teamwork

Employee orientation Job Responsibility

Employee psychological result Participation Self-discipline

Employees needs met Higher-order Self-actualization

Performance result Awakened drives Moderate enthusiasm

Methodology The methods that we used for the preparation of this report are:

Interview

We were able to interview twp department heads; Miss Vijeta, Communication Advisor and Miss Ann McConkey, Human Resource Advisor. They agreed to give us as much information as we needed. They were very much cooperative.

Survey

Since it is not possible to take interview of each and every employee, we prepared survey questionnaire to get views of the employees about their organization. In total we had twenty four questions which we asked to employees of higher level as well as lower level. Not only the department heads but also the employees were helpful.

Secondary sources

Besides interview with the department heads and survey among the employees, UMN also provided us with its brochures, newsletters and annual report which were useful for the preparation of this report. We also extracted some information from the official website of UMN.

Interview Report

Miss VijetaCommunication Advisor Communication Department

As a group leader of her team, Miss Vijeta elegantly explained us the processes and the organizational operations that take place in her department. She believes that her co-workers pretty much enjoy their work, which helps her team and her department to work efficiently and diligently to generate outstanding results. The key factor that she pointed out for such efficiency is that her department usually deals with creativity, challenges and new creations. The most difficult task she and her team members find in their department is usually meeting deadlines since her work is usually tied up with external factors like press.

The working style of her team is always team work. Everybody in her group is given equal chances. Team members discuss what went well and what did not. There is a system of TWFL abbreviated for Team Work for life, which basically is a type of internal program where team members sit together and workout problems and solution as well as how team can work effectively . Timely, democratic meetings are conducted where everyone will have their say on organization matters. The problem that has been of main concern is with female employees, due to social context and even with ethnic beliefs, employees having lot of festivals and celebrations are skipping their jobs.

Other crucial point that she highlighted in her interview was the inconsistency in supervision of work by any of the employees. Everybody around, works independently and that is exactly what they want as well. However, reporting has to be done weekly for an effective control. There are some jobs which are tangible and outcome can be effectively seen along with those which take longer period of time for affectivity. Anyhow both type of job doers work equally. The motivation is an important factor in UMN for desired working environment by the employees. For motivation they carry out celebrations of employees’ birthdays and anonymous voting for employee performance awards.

Interview Report

Ann McConkeyHuman Resource AdvisorHuman Resource Department

According to McConkey, UMN employees are happy to work for UMN. They have a family feel among them. Teaming up has brought togetherness and competitive environment in an organization setting. These employees usually have various approaches to the problem they face while working or with each other. The foremost parameter they adopt is they talk about things rather than ignoring them. They are always open for frank discussions which they solve together.

McConkey also made us aware about the effective system in UMN which deals with some problems that arise due to employees. They have a People Management Forum which tackles with such issues by listening to the employees and trying to treat and do better through interaction.

Upon asked “what affects the performance of employees?” she replied, “salary of course”. Along with which, other important factors that affect employee performance are values of the organization and beliefs as well, the family feel among themselves. The leaves granted for various family and health issues are the factors that are admired by employees. Moreover, annual program appraisal, award ceremony, team evaluations are usually carried out for the proper monitoring of staffs performance

In a personal level she wishes to have more number of female employees working for UMN. And also there is a need of various positions, which would make a HR and UMN easy to appraise the employee performance by promotion.

Analysis of Output

Matrix structure of organization

Motivational factors

o Salary

o Values

o Homely working environment

Supportive and Collegial model of organization

Job satisfaction

Job security

Working environment

Teamwork

Job recognition

Strengths

Team Work

Team work is becoming increasingly important both in profit-oriented and non-profit organizations. Organizations with established team work operate with higher quality, speed and more economically. The organization, UMN is also divided into various teams on the basis of their employees’ specialty namely communication, information technology, funding, human resource, etc. With their knowledge, experience and trainings they can work together as a team to achieve the goals of their organization. From the observation and interview with the department heads, it is noticeable that most of the works are performed in teams, and it is an important facet of the organization

Cross Team WorkSince the organization operates in a matrix system, employees from various teams come together to work for a certain project bringing the knowledge and experience from various department and working for the betterment of the organization as a whole. This cross team work helps them to come up with innovative and creative ideas, giving equal opportunity to all to bring forward their views and opinions. This makes the employees feel that they are an important part of the organization and that they are valuable part of the organization. This helps to enhance their morale.

Informal Team MeetingsIn the day to day operation of the business there may arise various routine problems which might have to be solved within a short period of time. In these kinds of situations each team has informal meetings at any time to solve these problems so that their work will not be stuck for a long time.

Formal Team MeetingsThe organization has formal meetings every Monday for three to four hours. In these meetings, the team leader assigns various projects for each team member, gives deadlines to the assigned projects, team members submit their last weeks’ assigned projects, talk about various problems and try to tackle them as a team by listening to what is on everyone’s minds. One way of solving any problem is by talking about it with the concerned people, and UMN is practically apply this means to tackle any problems that arise during the operation of various tasks. This formal meeting is a good means to keep the employees informed of their respective tasks and no one can escape from his responsibility.

Award SystemUMN has started an awarding system where every year the employees, employers and teams are awarded on the basis of their outputs throughout the

year. This system has definitely helped the employees to get motivated to work hard. This award system gives the employees recognition for the work and everyone feels happy when recognized and appreciated for their work. It becomes a motivational factor to work harder and better.

GrapevineGrapevine seems to be working quite well and effective. This informal communication helps to connect the employees and the managers. The managers get an opportunity to learn about and understand the problems that the employees are facing, and by conducting on the spot informal meetings with the employees, they are determined to solve any problems that arise in the organization. Grapevine may also spread rumors, but UMN has been able to turn this informal communication to its benefits and for the smooth operation in the organization.

Employee ConvenienceUMN takes into account the convenience of its employees and is flexible in granting leave in case of employee need. In case of female employees, UMN understands about their difficulties during pregnancy and provides them leave during such period. This makes the female employees comfortable working with UMN. As UMN is working for the betterment and welfare of the society, it believes that for providing welfare to the society, first they should take care of the employees and then only they will be able to contribute to the society.

Weaknesses

Workplace Difficulties

Since UMN is an NGO that works in the remote places of Nepal such as Dolpa, Rukum, Bajhang etc., it is quite difficult for the female workers to cope with the environment. UMN is aware of this problem, but it is difficult for them to tackle this one problem because of its work nature. It cannot compromise with its objectives and this might be one reason that there are few female employees in the organization.

Ratio of Male to Female WorkersDue to the workplace difficulties, UMN has less female employees. Ann McConkey, Human Resource Advisor wants UMN to employ more number of females. UMN wants to empower women but again due to workplace difficulties, female workers do not feel comfortable to work in the organization for a long period of time.

Pyramid HierarchyThere are few people to guide and advise the officer level employees and even lesser of the higher level employees to guide the middle level employees. The ratio of the employees between two level differs which leads to pressurizing the higher level employees. This seems to be a traditional hierarchical structure, which needs to be changed for reducing the workload of the higher level employees which may create stress among the employees which is not beneficial for any organization.

Basis of Award SystemSince UMN is an NGO working for the poor and disadvantaged group, its work cannot be measured. Out of the various teams only some team works are measurable while others are not. Thus, the basis of award system might be inappropriate. However, we cannot deny the fact that the award system is a motivational factor for the employees to work hard. Nevertheless it can bring changes and make flexible the basis of award system.

ConclusionUMN has a well-defined structure as it follows a matrix organizational structure. Decision making is decentralized and communication seems to be two way as the

employees are free to express their views, opinions, ideas, plans, and compliments without hesitations which indeed facilitates creativity, innovativeness and hunger to strive for welfare of the society as a whole. The organization believes that within the organization, a certain kind of formal relation must exist among co-workers, and each must abide and respect the authoritative command, for each to be called as a responsible professional.

The organization consists of a team coming from different cultural backgrounds. It highly values the knowledge and diversity of the employees. Team work seems to be an integral part of the organization and it therefore believes that it’s their people who make the most important asset of the organization. The employees are guided by their organizational values. Its goal is to attract and retain its employees to celebrate success together. The employees have rated a very good working atmosphere in UMN whereby they share the experiences, learning, information, group-thinking, brain-storming and the outcomes. UMN further has been able to evoke belief, faith, trust and confidence in their employees towards themselves and their organization which has placed UMN where it is today.

The firm has a well-built hierarchical structure, where job descriptions are clear cut, guidelines and regulations are strictly imposed, close supervision, monitoring, crosschecking, with work appraisals and employee benefits, and it all adds up to one big formal organization. Also sensing the dynamic external environment which is always changing, UMN with the help of their employees formulate strategies that aid them to cope up with various changes in the need of the society. However, the organization does have room for improvements, such as increasing the number of female employees, minimizing workplace difficulties and bringing change and flexibility in the pyramid hierarchy of the organization.

Nevertheless, UMN has been able to provide a homely working environment, which is essential in every organization to make the employees feel comfortable and as a family member. Its strength that places it in a different and higher position from other organizations is its teamwork which makes the employees feel like working with full dedication and commitment.

Organizational Behavior Survey

Next to each question indicate how rarely or often your organization displays each behavior by using the following scoring system: Almost never - 1Seldom - 2Occasionally - 3Frequently - 4Almost always – 5

_____ Things get accomplished around here because employees fear for their jobs. _____ Most employees do not leave this organization because it provides a lot of

security. _____ The managers display real leadership traits and are respected by the

employees. _____ There is a real feeling of teamwork.

_____ Only Management is allowed to make decisions.

_____ Although the employees are happy and contented, they give only passive cooperation.

_____ Both managers and employees want to create better job performance.

_____ There is a partnership between managers and employees.

_____ Although people obey their leader, they do not respect the leader.

_____ Management's main concern is to make money.

_____ The employees feel they are part of the organization.

_____ The employees feel a real responsibility to make things work.

_____ Most of the jobs are considered "minimum wage" jobs.

_____ The employees' main concern is for the security of their families and themselves.

_____ When things go wrong, the main concern is to fix it, not to lay blame.

_____ There is enthusiasm among the employees to better job performance.

_____ The employees' main concern is to provide for their families and themselves.

_____ Although the employees have good benefits, they tend to give only minimal performance.

_____ The employees feel they are recognized for their work.

_____ The employees feel their jobs hold high esteem and are of great value to the organization.

_____ Management does not expect the employees to give more than minimal performance.

_____ Most of the employees seem content to stay in their position.

_____ Employees are part of the decision making process.

_____ Things happen around here because of the self-discipline of every employee.

References

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Mission_to_Nepal

www.umn.org.np

Brochures

Contact Information

Ayushman Tamrakar

Kathmandu College of Management

BBA 5 t h Semester Section A

Email Address: tamrakar_ayush@yahoo.com

Mobile no. 9841122159

Bibush Singh GCJashmina PradhanangaNishtha ShresthaSamriddhi SinghSakshi Agarwal