A Brief Discussion of the Organization

Introduction

The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services has a three thronged vision. That is, first, to enhance the safety of children. Secondly, ensure that families as well as individuals are self sufficient and last but not least, availing refuge at times of disasters. The Fiscal Services Section of the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services concerns itself with the Department’s management support system including but not in any way limited to laws and systems monitoring to ensure that federal and state laws are complied with, provision of services (support) to the secretary, budget and planning services, services concerned with information technology, human resources services and fiscal services.

SWOT analysis

POSITIVE

NEGATIVE

Strengths

a hardworking and experienced staff
an environment largely dominated by teamwork
a management team that is highly knowledgeable
IT staff availability

Weaknesses

outdated procedures and policies as well as technology
absence of policies and procedures in a written format
A reactive environment (as opposed to a proactive environment) as a result of the absence of policies and procedures.
Staff does not have a sense of urgency
Federal and state reports filled late
Filed federal and state agencies reports largely inaccurate
absence of a reports’ dual-review process
cross-training of staff omitted
late completion of Financial Reports for management

Opportunities

Accounting processes automation could bring about consistencies as well as consistency in process
Financial reporting that is essentially more meaningful as well as timely
automated systems that enhance information value
Procedures and policies redefining so as to ensure the same are relevant to processes that are relatively new
Build confidence in department as per key stakeholders view

Threats

Resistance to change most notably amongst the older working staff
state-wide layoffs potential
resource unavailability with regard to system enhancement and changes
increasing requirements with regard to financial reporting as well as other legal obligations
Older staff that have never drafted workload desktop procedures retiring.

Balanced scorecard

Before we come up with balanced scorecard in chart form for the organization, it may be important to note that according to Yilmaz (2009), the balance scorecard does not only avail a measurement system but it also presents a management system and with that in mind, the mapping of corporate strategies as well as vision is done to show the specific actions being undertaken by an organization as far as the implementation of the various strategies laid out is concerned. In that regard, Yilmaz (2009) is of the opinion that an organization is viewed from a number of perspectives including the learning and growth perspective, the business process perspective, the customer perspective as well as the financial perspective.

V i s i o n a n d S t r a t e g y	The Perspectives	The Critical Success Factors	CSF measurement
	Financial Perspective	Number of Donors	The percentage increase in donor numbers from year to year
	Business process perspective	Costs Number of people served or projects seen to their conclusive end	Decrease in costs and increase in the number of people served or projects seen to their conclusive end in comparison to the previous periods.
	Customer perspective	Adoptions successfully undertaken Customer concerns addressed	Change in customer ratings inform of points
	Learning and growth perspective	Employee turnover service accuracy and organizational efficiency	The percentage change in the turnover of employees observed on an annual basis. The number of complains received with regard to organizational activities.

A discussion of the CFSs selected

Critical success come in handy as far as evaluating the success of a business in terms of its strategic objectives and plans is concerned. In this case, the Critical success factors I choose for the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services are customized and they shall go a long way towards the provision of focus to guide the organization towards the accomplishments of its vision as stated in the earlier sections of this text.

The financial perspective

The number of donors

Given that the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services is a non for profit organization, it follows that most of its financial needs and objectives are addressed by accessing funds availed by donors. The financial perspective is basically concerned with the financial data as regards the organization’s ability to access funds for its operations as well as meet all its obligations. Hence in this regard, the number of donors comes in as an accurate critical success factor of the financial perspective. The higher number of donors there are, the more funds the organization has to meet its financial obligations.It is important to note that as far as the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services is concerned, efforts have been undertaken to enhance the current donor contributions as well as scout for other donors who more specifically are interested in the welfare of children.

The business process perspective

Costs

The business process perspective is essentially concerned with the internal processes of a business. Hence the cost is selected as a critical success factor in this regard as a result of its ability to relate how prudent the organization is in addressing its organizational obligations. For the organization to be fully efficient as far as the business processes are concerned, it must bring down its costs in the light of the limited financial resources.

Number of people served and projects completed

This is another critical success factor with regard to the business process perspective. It is important to note that one of the key briefs of the internal business processes is to ensure that the various needs of clients or the group it specifically serves. Hence an increase in the number of people served in this regard as well as the number of projects completed goes a long way to complement the internal business processes.When it comes to the critical success factors under the business process perspective, there has been no substantial increase in the number of people served by the organization nor the scope of projects currently addressed. However, efforts are ongoing to bring down costs so as to enable the organization to reach out to more families.

The customer perspective

Adoptions successfully undertaken

The facilitation of adoptions is one of the key functions of Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services. Hence on the customer perspective front, the adoptions successfully undertaken can be taken to be a critical success factor.

Client concerns addressed

For the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services to fully achieve its vision, it must effectively carry out the role it is mandated to do. However, from time to time, some disparities come up wit regard to the services delivered to clients. The difference made here is in the form of what the organization handles such disparities so as to align organizational goals with reality.The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services has done some considerable work as far as addressing the critical factors under the customer perspective. Both the adoptions undertaken as well as client concerns addressed have been well taken care of if the measurement metrics are anything to go by.

Learning and growth perspective

Employee turnover, service accuracy and organizational efficiency

For the organization to achieve its vision, it must ask itself how it shall sustain its ability to improve or change. This perspective concerns itself partly wit empowering employees to be more efficient and in doing this, become more motivated in the execution of their duties. Hence the critical success factors here include the reduction of a high employee turnover (as a result of enhanced satisfaction and on-the-job motivation), the enhancement of service accuracy as well as organizational efficiency. The critical factors indicated herein shall be reinforced by the adoption of the culture of continuous improvement or what is known in some quarters as ‘Kaizen’.

Conclusion

It is important to note that Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services can be said to be achieving a good number of its critical success factors. However, for the organization to translate its strategy as well as vision into implementation; there is an existing need to revamp its four balance sheet perspectives.

References

Yilmaz, K. (2009). The Balanced Scorecard: Implementation in Non Profit Organizations. GRIN Verlag

Is this your assignment or some part of it?

We can do it for you! Click to Order!