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Organization Assessment: The Mission Continues Michael Hur George Warren Brown School of Social Work Washington University in St. Louis Social Work Practice with Organizations and Communities S15-5039.02 Professor Janelle Barker Gibson, MSW
2 Abstract
In this paper, I will assess the organization framework of The Mission Continues. I will assess The Mission Continues on six dynamics including: Mission Value and Culture, Organizational Structure, Development, Communications and Marketing, Capacity-building and Practice, and Organizational Challenges. I will use my experience and past interviews with the staff at The Mission Continues to perform this assessment.
The Mission Continues, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, was founded in 2007 after CEO Eric Greitens returned home from service in Iraq as a Navy SEAL. Upon his return, Eric visited with wounded Marines at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. Eric asked the Marines what they planned to do now that their time in the military was over. Without exception each Marine expressed an unwavering desire to continue serving his country, even if he could no longer do so in the military. One young Marine even said this: I lost my legs that is all. I did not lose my desire to serve, or my pride in being an American. Inspired, Eric used his own combat pay and two friends pitched in their military disability checks and found The Mission Continues. The Mission Continues mission as stated from the The Mission Continues website (2011), is to build an America where every returning veteran can serve again as a citizen leader, and where together we honor the fallen by living their values through service, and this mission is accomplished through The Mission Continues programs. These programs include our Fellowship, Service Project, and Thought Leadership programs. The vision of The Mission Continues is rather unique as we believe that our mission never ends and hence the organizational name of The Mission Continues. represents our vision. Beyond the broad mission and vision, The Mission Continues stands upon the following philosophy, we believe that the leadership skills and life experiences that our wounded and disabled veterans possess are valuable and untapped assets. While it is very important to tell our returning veterans "thank you" for their service, we believe that it is also important to tell them Thus, the sustainability of our mission
"we still need you". In addition the The Mission Continues is built on the principles of strength and challenge, as stated from the The Mission Continues website (2011), 1.) Strength: Our veterans possess an incredible strength that comes from their military service and from learning to live with and overcome a wound or disability. 2.) Challenge: The Mission Continues does not offer charity to our returning service members. We offer a challenge for them to continue serving our country here at home. This, in turn, strengthens our veterans and strengthens our communities. By recognizing the strength of our veterans and challenging them to serve again in their communities, we hope to build a new generation of citizen leaders. The structure of The Mission Continues is a fairly flat organization as it is relatively new with few national staff. The key national staff positions include CEO Eric Greitens, Chief Strategy Officer Mary Yonkman, Chief Operating Officer Paul Eisenstein, Associate Director of Advancement Tony Bryan, Director of Special Projects Lindsey Hodges, Director of Volunteer Coordination Chris Martinez, Fellowship Programs Director Mike Pereira, and Program Development Officer Ian Smith. As mentioned above, the organization offers the Fellowship program, Service Projects, and Thought Leadership with the Fellowship program directed by Mike Pereira and the Service Projects program directed by Chris Martinez. The flagship program of The Mission Continues is the Fellowship program. This
program was created upon the inception of the organization prior to the additions of the Service Projects and Though Leadership program. The following describes the Fellowship program as stated from the The Mission Continues website (2011),
The Fellowship program challenges post-9/11 wounded and disabled veterans to serve once again in their communities. A typical fellowship covers 14 to 28 weeks, during which the Fellow serves at a local charitable organization for 20 to 40 hours per week. Each Fellow receives a monetary stipend to offset living expenses. The fellowship provides veterans with the opportunity to translate their military experience into civilian skill sets. Through service, Fellows identify their strengths and gain confidence while serving their communities. The Mission Continues does not offer charity; it offers a challenge. The Service Project program allows for non-post-9/11 veterans, post-9/11 citizens, as well as everyday citizens to come together to serve alongside one another. The following describes the Service Project program as stated from the The Mission Continues website (2011) Service Projects provide a place for veterans to be citizen leaders and for all civilians to live the beliefs of veterans while serving by their sides. Many of these projects are performed in memory of a fallen service member. Lastly, the Thought Leadership programs as stated from the The Mission Continues website (2011) goal is to, reshape how our nation welcomes home veterans through conducting and disseminating research to show how our returning veterans are tremendous assets whose strengths and leadership can be used to improve communities here at home.
The intent behind the Mission and Vision of The Mission Continues has been largely established from the organizations inception. The current success of The Mission Continues has not necessarily resulted from the establishment of an exact Mission or Vision statement as the wording of the Mission and Vision statements has changed over time, but rather an organization that is built on a culture that is capable of implementing any mission given to it. As illustrated by Crutchfield & Grant (2007) in Forces for Good, the authors debunk the myth that a successful nonprofit requires a text book mission statement, rather these organizations are too busy living it (p. 18). The organizational culture at The Mission Continues serves as the foundation of the organization. CEO Eric Greitens has termed the culture of the organization as a culture of character. The culture of character is based on the principles of courage, a clear sense of identity, power of good friendships, and deep compassion. Eric believes that this character of culture moves beyond the traditional terms of hard and soft power, but towards the concept of smart power. Smart power represents the idea that power is not gathered through a means of coercion, but rather through belief in the values of the leader or the organization. Smart power represents one key control system that regulates the productivity of the staff and volunteers. The first principle of courage is readily found throughout the staff and volunteers. The Mission Continues holds the philosophy that it is acceptable to not possess strength in a certain areas; however one must continue to challenge ones boundaries in order to develop strength. Central to this idea is that employees are given challenges that may push them beyond what they thought they were capable of. Courage plays a vital role because it is often the psychological barrier of fear that inhibits task accomplishment, rather than the actual skills possessed by the
individual. Therefore, courage allows individuals to move beyond fear and to embrace challenges. In doing so, one develops their strength, and more importantly becomes a stronger member of the team. Often, I have observed that from all levels of the organization, staff and volunteers are delegated incremental challenges. The Mission Continues posses a culture that is not afraid of failure. The second principle of a clear sense of identity resides strongly through the staff and volunteers. The idea of a clear sense of identity tells us that regardless of the situation, our identities provide the boundaries for our actions. This sense of identity is most clearly evident at the top level of leadership. Author Jim Collins, in his book Good to Great (2001) describes that great organizations possess a Level Five executive, one that that builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will (p. 20). Eric Greitens was clearly a Level Five executive. Every day, I would witness Erics consistency in his work ethic. In part, I believe his work ethics was crafted through his regimented lifestyle as a Navy Seal. In any case, Eric would typically work from early in the morning to late at night and would do this every day of the year. Furthermore, Eric never placed himself above the team, and always acted with respect to individuals at all levels of the organizations. This type of hard work and respect permeated among all staff members. The third principle of good friendships is an important principle both internally and externally to The Mission Continues. As will be discussed below, The Mission Continues partners with an eclectic array of partners ranging from other veteran organizations to politicians. Internally, we observe that Eric Greitens places individuals that he trusts or has worked closely with in the past to key staff positions. This idea of hiring employees that one already has an established friendship and whose character is known really has allowed for the organization to
maintain a homogeneous culture. As author Jim Collins explains in his book Good to Great, great organizations first get the right people on the bus before determining where to drive it (p. 44). One anecdote that is very telling of the cultural importance of good friendships is the firing of a staff employee that was rude to a non-affiliated service receptionist. The last principle of deep compassion is the idea that we must recognizes both strengths of the individuals around us and at the same time recognizes that we all possess imperfections. Eric tells us the story of his experience in talking with a young leader to a group of orphaned refugee boys that had made a long trek in a massive refugee movement. This young leader, instead of complaining about his teams struggles, pointed to each of the boys on his team and informed Eric that each of the boys was powerful in their own way. From this lesson, Eric learned of the power behind this boys leadership or his ability to focus on the strengths. This idea is also permeated throughout The Mission Continues in terms of recognizing the strengths of each individual. Furthermore, this strength based approach is taken one step further as there is a sense of shared leadership within the organization. However, simply identifying strengths only represents half of what it means to have deep compassion. Deep compassion also encompasses the idea of realistically understanding the limitation of your staff, volunteers and clients. Eric explains that so many times we want to idealize those we are helping, such that we tend to want to attribute them the inability to do wrong. The last point that I want to expound upon is that The Mission Continues exhibits the culture of an innovative organization. Authors Peters and Waterman (2004), informs us of the importance of organizational structure to innovation, but more so the important role of culture in cultivating innovation. Peters and Waterman (2004) outline the importance of having a loosetight model where the central values are tight, while the work responsibility takes a form of
shared leadership where employees are empowered with ownership and are not afraid of failure. Author Brody (2005) outlines four keys to job ownership. The keys to job ownership include a high sense of purpose, emotional bonding, and trust in the pride of ones work. At The Mission Continues, there was a clear sense of job ownership. This is not surprising, as the principles represented by a culture of character above does greatly align with the four stated keys to job ownership. In addition, as mentioned earlier there existed core central values that are tight and there also exists a schema of shared leadership that is loose. Lastly, all of the principles tie in nicely as they provide us with the rationale for why the staff at The Mission Continues is not afraid to fail. The principle of courage gives us the strength to try, a clear sense of identity lets us know the lines we must not cross, and the principle of good friendships and deep compassion enables and lets us know that it is ok to fail. Organizational Structure The Mission Continues is legally organized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The governance board is composed of both a board of directors and a board of advisors. The board of directors composes of individuals from all regions of the country ranging from St. Louis to California. Since the majority of the board of directors are located in different regions, the responsibilities of governance falls primarily on the CEO Eric Greitens. The board does provide input, however the board is not closely involved in every day operations. The board of advisors include many well connected politicians such as former Senator and Ambassador John Danforth, former Missouri Governor Bob Holden , Senator Bob Kerrey to name a few. Lastly, The Mission Continues also utilizes task committees to accomplish organizational goals such as fundraising. For example, last summer, I helped to coordinate a committee of local corporate leaders to reach out to their respective parties to raise capital for The Mission Continues.
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In terms of the organizational structure of staff, The Mission Continues does employ a hierarchy with regards to work delegation. However, while the hierarchy sets what Hardcastle & Powers (2004) labels as A-R-A, or authority, responsibility, and accountability through the establishment of boundaries, the organizational culture as mentioned above still is very much one of shared leadership. This value of shared leadership is evident at all levels the organization, as important tasks are delegated from CEO to staff and from staff to volunteers. As Cruthchfield & Grant (2005) describes, effective leadership is just now a few at the top but rather comes from a whole team at the top (p. 165). As mentioned earlier, the concept that every member has strengths to give creates an atmosphere where a hierarchical structure does not mean that those with delegation power are more important than the other team members. Essentially, everyone is regarded as important in what they have to give and therefore everyone exists at the top. This concept of shared leadership or an environment where all employees are at the top is especially important to volunteer retention. As a volunteer, I was made to feel important through both utilization and a culture of respect. For example, I was able to interact with all levels of management without receiving the feeling that I was wasting their time. In addition, the setup of the office was one in such where open communication could occur easily The Mission Continues also represents an organization that embraced the idea of an organization that is not housed within four walls, but as catalysts that work within, and change the entire systems (Crutchfield & Grant, 2007, p. 6). This is important as the organizational structure is created with the flexibility to incorporate collaborative partnerships. Collaboration partners ranged from networking with other veteran organizations such as American Legions,
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corporate partners such as Target, other non-profits such as the United Way and Universities, and with politicians both locally and nationally. Development The philosophy of development at The Mission Continues is one that is open to different means and ideas to achieve its mission. The one avenue of development which The Mission Continues does restrict in its development repertoire is the refusal of government funding. This is because government funding is often erratic and typically comes with binding stipulations. The primary support base in development is attributed to individual donors and foundations. Other forms of donations come from award grants, venture capital firms such as the Drapers Richard L.P, and from corporate partnerships such as Target and Goldman Sachs. As mentioned above, the primary development targeted to individual donors. Various development strategies are used to bring in individual types of donation. Several times a year, an ask letter is sent out to the major donors from last year. Another means of development strategy is the use of texting through cell phones to raise funds, similar to the Haiti relief efforts. In addition, donations are accepted online via the website. Furthermore, Eric Greitens, through his speaking engagements will often also raise capital from individual donors. Another method of development is through the fundraising committee of corporate partners whereby the corporate leaders go back to their respective companies and ask for donations. In addition, a monthly newsletter is sent out to all donors. Lastly, every year the organization holds a major Gala where fundraising takes place. Development efforts take advantage of the use of technology. The Mission Continues uses an online customer relation management application called Salesforce.com. The first benefit of using this piece of technology is that the software is free for up to ten users for non-
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profits. In addition, this software was customized to allow the capability for the database from the website to collaborate with the database from Salfesforce.com. Therefore, a user can sign up for an event or donate via the website, and this will automatically populate to the database of Salesforce. In addition, every time a new individual is introduced to the organization, this individual is added to the Salesforce database. By using a customer relationship management software tool, this allows for The Mission Continues to track donors in one location and to keep track of repeat donors. Future ideas for development have been to entertain the idea of becoming a Social Enterprise. One idea is the creation of a store that generates revenue through goods such as tshirts, mugs, and other goods where the branded logo of The Mission Continues may sell. Internal Communications and Marketing The communication style at The Mission Continues is one that greatly derives from the concept that every individual has something to offer. As a result, a lot of communication stems from the bottom up. As discussed by author Brody (2004), a form of bottom up communication not only provides valuable insights but allows for top management to become aware of what is occurring among the staff. In addition, to this openness in attitudes towards communication, the physical layout of where the staff worked also encourages openness. For example, the development or advancement director Tony Bryant shares a room with the volunteer coordinator Chris Martinez. In the room adjacent to their rooms is the Chief Operating Officer, and about 30 feet down the hall is the office of the CEO. The doors of all offices are typically open, and the closeness in proximity allows for informal communication to occur organically. Lastly, another process that contributes to bottom communication and team building is called Tea Time. Tea Time is an event where all staff members gather around and drink tea together.
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Another internal processes exhibited by The Mission continues that resulted in effective communication is to document via written documents of pertinent processes and lessons learned from each project. The written documented processes were saved onto a centralized server where all employees had access. In addition, each employee received a written document called a Commanders Intent that describes all of the major milestones or goals for the employee during the year. Author Brody (2004), explains that writing down these processes and directives allows all staff to pay special attention to the directives, to carefully examine what is written down, and to remember the message. Internal marketing is largely one that promotes the core values of The Mission Continues as described above. Because the staff members, upon hiring, have already largely bought into the mission, a lot of internal marketing provides greater meaning for new volunteers and fellows to the organization. The Mission Continues largely leverages volunteers ranging from office administration to service projects. Furthermore, the Fellowship program which is the flagship program of The Mission Continues, uses volunteer directors or outreach coordinators to recruit and to manage fellows in his/her respective geographic region. A distinct advantage of The Mission Continue is that it is an organization that aims to help veterans. As a central part of its philosophy is the idea that we still need veterans to serve. The Mission Continues leverages these veterans as either Fellows or volunteers. The services provided by the veterans are exceptional as these veterans possess a dedicated work ethic when they serve. These dedicated Veterans represent what Crutchfield and Grant (2007) term evangelist. What sets The Mission Continues apart from other organizations is the recognition that these veteran evangelists exist, and a dedicated effort to build a community that incorporates these evangelists.
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Lastly, another method of internal marketing is the encouragement of office staff to go out and serve in The Mission Continues service projects. This allows for the employees to not forget what they are fighting for. In addition, the successes of service projects are celebrated along with accomplishments of the staff. The success is typically announced during Tea Time. This type of encouragement as well as tying the staff to the projects allow for the sustained dedication of staff towards the mission. External Communications and Marketing The Mission Continues much like its development philosophy also seeks out various means for external marketing. One notable strategy is that The Mission Continues leverages its superstar CEO Eric Greitens. For example, the marketing department applied Eric Greitens for the All-Star Among Us award through People Magazine which picks one winner from each city. The result of this award is that the winners not only get to attend the MLB All-Star game, but also a clip about the winner and their organization is presented by a celebrity and shown across national television. Other strategies include the use of social media via Facebook and Twitter, airing national television ads, publications in magazines, monthly newsletters, radio interviews, and the building and taking advantage of existing social networks such as veteran networks. As mentioned above, one of the key programs at The Mission Continues is the Service Project program. However, this program was not originally part of the organization. This program was created largely because The Mission Continues recognized that it needed to become more responsive to external markets. This is because the original Fellowship program would be only limited to post 9/11 Veterans. The Mission Continues realized that if it was to stay true to its mission, both the environment as well as the efficacy of the returning Veterans must both be changed. Therefore, in order to change the environment, it is important to involve the greater
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community as well as veterans across all genres. The Service Project program was created to serve this need as it allows for the community to come together to serve alongside with veterans. One challenge that occurred from this programs implementation was the need for conveyance of this new program to stakeholders, as this program may create confusion or as author Brody (2004) calls mission drift (p. 53). The result of this program was that The Mission Continues was able to establish partnerships with outside forces. For one, in order to conduct service projects, there must be locations where service can take place. As a result, The Mission Continues formed multiple partnerships with other organizations that needed service. Secondly, The Mission Continues was able to attract corporate investors that were interested in providing both service recognition and a meaningful volunteer experience for the corporations employees. For example, last summer The Mission Continues teamed up with Target to perform service projects across the nation. Lastly, The Mission Continues encourages volunteers across the nation to host their own Service Projects. This allowed for an avenue for The Mission Continues to attract volunteers through meaningful work. Capacity-building practices Capacity building ties back into the cultural value of courage. At The Mission Continues, we believe that one must always continue to develop strength. As a result, staff and volunteers are consistently given new assignments and tasks which he/she may not have prior solid experience. For example, I was informed that one of the most dynamic speakers at our organization was originally very shy. However, given the opportunity, this speaker has now spoken on national commercials and on MTV television shows.
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Another contributing factor towards capacity building is that the staff members are all largely self-driven. These staff members seek out opportunities on their own and do not simply rely on management to find them opportunities. The staff members at The Mission Continues truly possess a spirit of entrepreneurship. Many of the staff members are working while attending school. For example, the Chief Operating Officer Paul Eisenstein is attending the Executive MBA program at Olin on weekends while working full-time during the week. Lastly, as mentioned early, each staff member establishes with upper management a Commanders Intent or the goals for the year. As part of the goal is the understanding that one needs to develop his/her own skills and they make goals to achieve this end. Current organizational challenges/opportunities One of the major challenges faced by The Mission Continues is dealing with rapid growth. The strength of the organization thus far has relied on the strong cultural values and a lean staff. While there are strong outreach coordinators (Fellowship Program) that serve as evangelist outside of St. Louis, the work of these coordinators narrowly involve monitoring the Fellows in the field. As more communities want to become involved, there needs to be a broader source of revenue generation as long as with local coordination of events. Therefore, the challenge of The Mission Continues is to expand its base, but at the same time keep its core values and services. As an intern last summer and with the directive from the Chief Operating Officer, I had an opportunity to take a close analysis into the strategic growth process of The Mission Continues. I began by taking an in depth situational analysis that evaluated the current strengths and weaknesses of The Mission Continues. Through various analyses such as SWOT and 5 Cs, we arrived at the following conclusions:
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Volunteers volume high across United States Old Veterans Outreach Coordinator structure already established o Old Handbook was a great aid for VOC structure
The next stage into the growth process was to derive a sustainable growth model that leveraged the strengths of the organization. Through a balanced scorecard approach it was determined that The Mission Continues can utilize its strong volunteer base of evangelist to drive growth through the creation of volunteer led regional chapters. One of the key findings was that the national staff did not currently have the financial capacity to establish these chapters from the top down. Therefore, it was believed that these volunteer led chapters would grow organically from the bottom up. However, it was recognized that while many volunteers have the time and talent, volunteers needed to be made aware of the opportunity to create these chapters and these volunteers required training in areas where they may be lacking in knowledge. Communication between regional chapters and central command represented another difficult challenge. There are several risks towards using a volunteer led model that The Mission Continues runs against. The first is the risk of poor volunteers that will detract or does not represent its brand of values. Another risk is that these regional chapters may monopolize staff capacity as the growth of a chapter will require training and directives. Lastly, the logistic of communication, materials, and national coordination of projects serve as a glaring challenge. The proposed solution involved a two part process. The first was to internally organize and build capacity so that central would be adequately prepared to deal with the growth of the
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regional chapters. It was determined that adding a dedicated Office of Field Support would aid in the coordination and training process of the regional chapters. In addition, a communication infrastructure was needed to put into place. I was able to create a knowledge management tool leveraging the use of Google Sites which is free and allows for easy access as many volunteers already had access to Google Mail. The second task involved the creation of a step by step process that outlined how a dedicated volunteer could move to establish a regional chapter. In order to mitigate risk, it was determined that a volunteer would begin by displaying their capability to accomplish a small task such as host a service project. Once that small task was accomplished successfully, then The Mission Continues would allow for these volunteers to recruit the positions of a chapter such as a regional development officer or a service project coordinator. When all of the positions have been filled, and as a regional team they are able to work together over time, then the chapter will become an official chapter. As an added incentive, if the chapter is able to become financially sustainable, then it is possible that The Mission Continues may add this chapter to staff. I spent a great deal of time working across with the national staff to understand their individual job description and to synthesize the knowledge so that a volunteer could easily replicate the work. The step by step process along as with each job function of a chapter was documented into a handbook and relayed to volunteers via the Google Sites Knowledge management tool. The handbook would be linked to the website and would allow the volunteers to access the handbook online as well as to download the handbook to their computers. As my time drew to an end, I realized that I would not be able to follow the implementation of this plan. I passed my work on to the COO. I believe that he in turn used another experienced volunteer to continue my work. One methodology in the process that I would have liked to change was to
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generate buy in from the CEO. At the time, I believed that the COO had enough power to implement this plan as I worked closely with him. However, upon reflection, I now realized that the strategic decisions such as a growth plan really depend on the CEO and the board. To date, I believe that the expansion plans are still in its infancy. Conclusion The Mission Continues greatest strength is that the founders spent a lot of time dedicated to the planning of the culture of the organization. I believe that by planning out the core values of an organization, a lot of the problems that many organizations face such as internal marketing, incentive systems, capacity building, a culture of innovation, and ethics work themselves out. A big part of this process really involves getting the right people on board from the beginning. When I first spoke with the CEO, he informed me that it is not necessary to plan out every detail for where the organization is headed, however one must get the right people and then move towards some strategic goal. Inevitably, along the way there will be learning and redefinition of processes, however, when the learning does take place it is important to record these lessons. I believe that what is truly unique about this organization is that a lot of leaders tend to talk about values but do not live them on a day to day basis. The leaders at The Mission Continues live out their values. In part, I believe a lot of what transpires is a spillover from the military backgrounds that these leaders possess. Every day I was able to witness the persuasive power of what happens when you believe in the values of your organization through the example of top management. The result of this belief is that you have a team of dedicated employees that are willing to push themselves farther for the betterment of the team and the mission. .
20 References
Brody, R. (2005). Effectively managing human service organizations (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Collins, J. (2001). Good to great. New York: HarpersBusiness. Crutchfield, L., & McLeod, H. (2008). Forces for good. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Hardcastle, D.A., & Powers, P.R. (2004). Community practice: Theories and skills for social workers (2nd ed). New York: Oxford. Peters, J.T., & Waterman Jr., H.R. (2004). In search of excellence. New York: HapersCollins. The Mission Continues. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.missioncontinues.org
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George Warren Brown School of Social Work Washington University in St. Louis SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE WITH ORGANIZATIONS AND COMMUNITIES Professor Janelle Gibson
Organizational Assessment Grading Sheet STUDENT: Michael Hur The Mission Continues
description
regarding
organizational
structure
and
Nice job of providing a very detailed description of The Mission Continues unique service mission structural framework and its implications for achieving its mission. Your assessment was very well organized and easy to follow. Thoroughness of description regarding organizational values and practices (10) Excellent job of describing the organizational core values and how a strong sense of shared leadership and courage transcends programmatic functions and practices within the Mission Continues. You seem to have a clear understanding of both the implicit and explicit organizational practices that allow the organization to successfully fulfill its mission.
Critical thinking regarding major themes, findings, and suggestions (10) You clearly demonstrated the ability to analyze the organizations capacity in the short and long term. The organizations culture seems to offer tremendous stability. The conclusions and recommendations from the strategic growth plan seems to follow a logical framework and reflect strong critical thinking skills around the strengths and developmental needs of the organization. Range and quality of data sources (2.5) Very well done. You were able to clearly demonstrate integration of key concepts from course reading materials and apply directly throughout the assessment. Overall presentation (format, APA, writing style) (2.5) Outside of a few minor proofing comments, your assessment paper was well written with a nice rhythm. You fully met the requirements of this section.