Critical review of enrichment teams at the American Red Cross

Red Cross Case Analysis

Environmental Analysis

The American Red Cross operates in an environment that is in some ways crowded with public health agencies and non-governmental organizations, and yet that still struggles to provide all of the necessary health services to its communities. This creates complications in providing the services and establishing the connections that the Red Cross strives for. Internal coordination is strongly called for in light of these environmental complexities and lack of organization and consistency.

The problem in this case is balancing the need for individual chapter control in order to coordinate services and ensure their efficiency and effectiveness while at the same time maintaining creativity and innovation. That is, the Red Cross needs to make sure its services are kept consistent and that they all support the larger goals of the organization in all chapters, but the organization also needs each chapter to be able to respond to specific community needs and demands. Keeping the organization responsive and ensuring that the best processes are discovered and implemented requires ongoing innovation, while meeting organizational goals in a larger sense requires control.

Analysis of Problem

This problem is similar to problems faced in many organizations. It is also one that can be addressed through organizational culture and through the proper organizational structure and hierarchy implementation. This is not an issue of simply inspiring creativity, but of balancing leadership and management responsibilities and tasks. In other words, it isn't a creative problem but simply a structural problem, and the proper structure will be supported by the proper culture (and vice versa).

Alternatives

There are several methods that the leader of the American Red Cross and the individual responsible for helping to design and direct individual chapter activities and leadership could employ in this situation. Establishing broad but strict parameters within which the chapter leaders themselves are empowered to make decisions would be one solution. Another approach would be to hold regular conference calls with groups of chapter leaders to discuss strategy, processes, and new ideas as a means of sparking creativity. A third approach would be to overhaul the entire design of the organization and install new concepts and expectations of individual charters.

Recommendations