Director
Mr Ng Shui Lai
The implementation of the lump sum grant in social welfare
subvention will definitely affect the management of social welfare organizations.
What will the future development be under this new granting scheme?
First of all, social welfare organizations should be more
concerned about the new scheme's macro effects, i.e. the government's
financial responsibility in social welfare and the issue of resource
allocation, than its micro effects, i.e. how the new dispatching of
funds will affect the organization's management. Currently, it seems
that both individual agencies and the sector as a whole through the
Hong Kong Council of Social Service are focusing on the micro effects,
and this can be dangerous. A social welfare organization carries a good
tradition that its ultimate goal is to develop social welfare services
and not the organization itself. Therefore the prime objective in the
future development of a social welfare organization is to determine
how we can more effectively monitor and reinforce the SAR government
in its financial responsibility and resource allocation towards social
welfare.
Secondly, from the micro view of the effects on the administrative
management, the new scheme does provide an opportunity to develop a
unique management culture. Some demerits on the management of a non-profit
organization have always been discussed, such as the difficulty to measure
service effectiveness, low efficiency, and the lack of award/penalty
system. Yet these weaknesses are not necessarily the outcome. In fact,
the management of a non-profit organization has some advantages such
as more emphasis is placed on processes, more channels are open for
communication as well as staff involvement, it is also easier to establish
a mutual mission and so forth. Thus for the future development of social
welfare organizations, we should regard administrative management as
'The Third Department" and find a management culture and model
that is both efficient and humanistic.
As for the area of services, we should regain the spirit
of a pioneer as in the early years; never satisfy with providing existing
services as the goal, but dare to face risks, to engage in research
and to advocate services to the most needed. Obviously, working towards
these goals we have to overcome many problems; however, during the development
in the past decades, most organizations have surrendered and lost the
resoluteness in this respect. Yet the new trend has brought forth a
new chance for the organizations to realize the need to continue development
towards this goal.
The three areas of development mentioned above are discussed
here conceptually; the tactics and skills to implement will definitely
require more interactions and communications.
