Strategic Planning the Organization I Will Be Essay

Strategic Planning

The organization I will be writing about is the Human Resources Campaign (HRC). The HRC bills itself as the "largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans" and it represents more than 1.5 million members. The HRC was founded in 1980. Its activities are focused on the political sphere, where it helps to finance electoral candidates who support equal rights, engages in education programs and mobilizes grassroots actions (HRC, 2014).

Internal Environment

Sherman (2007) notes that the organization should begin the strategic planning process with an understanding of the organization, its objectives and its own internal structures, among other factors. Thus, it is important to understand, for example, the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. Strategic planning, as Aguilar (n.d.) notes, is the first step in strategic management, but it is also the most important step.

There are 150 employees of HRC and countless volunteers. The leadership structure consists of boards and advisory councils, each with distinct roles within the organization. There is an Executive Team, a Field Team and a Public Education and Outreach Division. The councils include the All Children-All Families Council, the Business Council, the Diversity and Inclusion Council, the Religion Council, and the Welcoming Schools Advisory Council. There is a Board of Directors, the Foundation Board, and the Board of Governors. The Directors run the organization at the nationwide level, while the governors are all local-level leaders who run regional organizations within the HRC umbrella.

The structure therefore is quite loose. There are national-level missions and campaigns, but much of the implementation in left to the local level. The Board of Governors membership might communicate within the group to enhance knowledge-sharing about best practices with respect to implementation, but overall the coordination level is only moderate. There is little in the way, for example, of formal training programs for volunteers. The manager of one region cannot easily be swapped for the manager of another because of the importance of personal contacts in the business of this organization. This decentralized approach has advantages, however. For example, it allows local branches to adapt to the local cultural and legal environments. There are significant differences in the approaches a group like HRC must take between, say, California and Alabama. So decentralization does allow for local branches to work within their own unique external environment, even if this means that there…