Use of new technologies in the field of organizational management is a key element to achieving enhanced outcomes in terms of effectiveness and efficiency (Schalock & Verdugo, 2013). Third sector organizations (NGOs) usually see the use of new tools as an expense rather than as an investment that will allow them to obtain, at a short or medium term, better outcomes in diverse areas and to assess approximation to their vision and attainment of their stated mission. This chapter sees organizational change implemented by Aprosub and how this electronic tool has been incorporated, allowing one to know the current status, thus easing swift and precise decision making.
TopIntroduction
Aprosub is an organization that starts up in the early 70s when a group of persons with intellectual disabilities’ families joins their efforts in order to achieve their relatives’ social inclusion. They start to implement a service network in the county of Cordoba that has allowed, in this time, to provide supports to more than 800 persons with intellectual disabilities with 320 workers in their staff. Along these 43 years we have gone through different stages and quite different approaches, from protection to inclusive models. And it is the inclusion approach, based on Quality of Life, Self-determination and Rights, that has inspired the need to move on as an organization, as new challenges demand new organizations.
From this initial question: ‘Do current design and structure in our organization respond to new challenges we face?’, Aprosub has gone through a deep organizational change process clearly focused on those principles that are currently the basis of supports to people with intellectual disabilities, as Support Paradigm, Quality of Life, Rights, etc.
After analyzing organization’s different functioning areas some of the improvement areas were identified, and the following intervention lines were set as priorities
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Design of an effective and shared structure that fosters organizational development.
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Develop a technical structure that allows sharing intervention lines and strategies.
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Incorporate strategic planning to the organization’s regular functioning.
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Implementation of a quality system that guarantees that our actions are focused on (and achieve) improving people with disabilities’ quality of life.
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Incorporate new tools that allow us to manage organizational strategy and processes effectively and efficiently.
Focused in this last point, Aprosub sets use of new technologies as a key element to advance in organizational management. In this sense, it stakes for the use of a multi-application platform that allows to manage in a effective and efficient way diverse organizational aspects. Platform and its diverse applications are described in point 3 in this document.
Use of this tool has entailed a radical change in management, specially referred to information centralization, process and indicators management and strategic planning and monitorizing.
Change Process in Aprosub
Key idea, from which change process is launched is to consider organizational changes’ relevance, especially those related to the culture change in organizations who work for people with intellectual disabilities based on Supports Paradigm (AIDD, 1992, 2002, 2010), Quality of Life (Schalock & Verdugo, 2003, 2013), Ethics and management improvement models, to face new challenges faced by this sector.
Aprosub has questioned its organizational model and searched new proposals that make a more modern and effective organization and allow a better adaptation and response to the demands that working for persons with disabilities currently poses.
After a reflection period and bearing previously discussed key lines in mind, a series of structural changes has been implemented, that have allowed to provide an increased agility to the organization, and to make faster advances: