The article aims to explore how new non-profit organization [managers] in Hong Kong can cope with challenges and provide solutions.
The focus of the article is on the author as a new manager, rather than the organization itself. The article
aims to provide insights and solutions from the perspective of a new non-profit organization manager in
Hong Kong.
As I will provide a brief current context of Hong Kong, you don’t have to worry about having a profound understanding of the situation in Hong Kong. What is more important is to explore how to deal with the
challenges of non-profit organizations from a management and manager perspective.
It would be great if you could apply in text citation which is related to management model like SWOT
analysis , SMART objective or any other to support any suggestions you make.
In this article, aside from the introduction and conclusion, I would like to explore three different challenges
and correspond solution.
The first challenge that a non-profit organization manager will face is the talent drain caused by the emigration wave of frontline social workers and related personnel who own experience in front-line management
within the organization.
Many experienced frontline social workers and non-profit organization personnel
have chosen to leave Hong Kong due to political instability, the pandemic, and development considerations.
The reasons for this emigration wave are due to a series of social movements in Hong Kong since 2019.
During this process, citizens began to question the governance credibility of the local government, and the government introduced a series of policies such as the National Security Law, which greatly reduced foreign investment in the local economy. Moreover, the vague definitions of the law have caused concerns about potential violations. In addition, the local government’s response to the pandemic was not timely enough, and the most stringent preventive measures were implemented, which greatly increased the determination of the local middle class and professionals to emigrate, resulting in a significant reduction of the labor force in the workplace, including frontline workers of social workers and non-profit organizations. (I also suggest that you can extend the above inference.)
Secondly, the second challenge that a non-profit organization manager will face is the high turnover rate of mid-level social workers within the organization. Within the context of Hong Kong, as the social work profession continues to develop, the job requirements for a competent social worker have also increased. For example, social workers not only need to know how to provide counseling services, facilitate groups, and plan programs, but they also need to have skills such as video editing and poster design, which are not typically covered in their university courses. This often requires social workers to spend their own money and time to acquire these skills. Additionally, due to the unique nature of the social work profession, social workers often need to keep up with the latest social developments and cultivate corresponding skills and knowledge,
such as the latest counseling techniques. These factors exacerbate the situation where graduates and
students are reluctant to choose social work as a career . Many graduates and licensed social workers are considering leaving the profession, which leads to a lack of new blood in non-profit organizations to maintain service levels, which may compromise the rights of service users. Therefore, non-profit organization managers may face the challenge of having resources but being unable to hire corresponding service providers. This will affect the services provided to service users. Due to the professional requirement of having a deep understanding of the local community, which can be understood as localization, the high turnover rate of social workers may lead to a lack of sufficient service providers to take care of the needs of some local hidden youth and elderly cases that require follow-up, which once again confirms that high turnover rate is a challenge that must be addressed in the long run.
Finally, the third challenge that a non-profit organization manager will face is that vocational training and professional knowledge in associate and bachelor degree programs do not correspond to the actual job requirements. In Hong Kong, social workers are licensed professionals in one of the industries. Once they graduate, they can often find employment within a year, and the income level of fresh graduates is higher than that of unlicensed industries such as clerks, banks, and even program workers in non-profit organizations. This has led to different schools competing to offer more social work courses locally. However, even after students have completed the two required internships, they may not be able to quickly adapt and work independently in non-profit organizations after graduation. This greatly increases the resources and time needed to train fresh graduates for non-profit organization managers. Additionally, if graduates cannot master professional skills, such as CBT therapy techniques, ethical issues may arise because social workers need to ensure that they have sufficient understanding and recognition when using a therapeutic approach. (In the third challenge mentioned, you can choose to suggest another new challenge instead of the third one. The third challenge is just one of the suggestions.)