The transforming roles of management boards in non-profit social welfare organisations

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Universally social welfare organisations are under considerable pressure to performin new and demanding ways. Continual change in one form or another is aninescapable part of both social and organisational life. After the politicaltransformation of 1994, all South African non-profit social welfare organisations werecalled upon to participate in the development of an equitable, people-centred,democratic and developmental social welfare system.The process of reconstruction and development which is currently underway in SouthAfrica requires non-profit social welfare organisations to transform their governancestructures and approach in keeping with the new social developmental approach toservice delivery such as the White Paper for Social Welfare (1997), the Non-profitOrganisations Act (1997), the Public Finance Management Act (1999), the Codesof Good Practice for South African Non-profit Organisations (2001) and theCode of Corporate Governance - King II Report (2002).The political reforms in South Africa and the dramatic change in socio-economicpolicies and legislation such as the promulgation of the White Paper for SocialWelfare (1997) illustrates how the external environment could impact on theprovisioning of social welfare services in the non-profit sector. Social welfareorganisations are therefore challenged to transform their governance structures toreflect the legislative changes in the country.In order for social welfare service providers to implement a developmental approachto social welfare, management boards of non-profit social welfare organisations needto adopt a proactive role in facilitating the transformation process. The managementboard is a policy making body of the organisation with a legal duty to ensure that theorganisation's actions are consistent with the its goals and objectives. The motivation for the research study is to explore whether management boards ofnon-profit social welfare organisations had transformed their governance structureand practice in keeping with the transformed social welfare legislation and codes ofpractice.The literature review demonstrates that management boards of social welfareorganisations have clearly defined roles and responsibilities. A more progressiveperspective on the roles and responsibilities is linked to the management board'sability to respond to changing environments. According to theorists on moderngovernance (Carver, 1990, Abels and Murphey, 1981, and Herman, 1989),management boards should initiate, plan and manage the change process in order toimprove the operational effectiveness of the organisation and to strive towards whatought to be for the creation of a just society. The White Paper for Social Welfare(1997) describes a just society as being one that facilitates the development ofhuman capacity and self-reliance within a caring and enabling environment.The findings of the study conclude that the majority of management boards of socialwelfare organisations have transformed their governance structure however, theyshould be more informed about contemporary governance practices and socialwelfare transformation processes. Management boards need to develop an agendafor social transformation in order to respond more proactively to the call for atransformed social welfare practice in the country.The legislative framework of the South African Government makes provision for theformulation of principles and regulations that guide transformation practices in thenon-profit social welfare sector. In order to ensure that transformation takes placewithin the sector, the government has mandated the Department of SocialDevelopment with the responsibility to monitor the process. The challenge that existsfor the Department of Social Development is to create a structure for dialogue andfeedback between the various role players in order to share the responsibility for thetransformation of social welfare practice.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University