|
Learning
Communities: Working Smarter not Harder in Disability-based Organisations
|
Harvey Griggs Australia's rural and regional communities support the majority of the country's
disability-based organisations. Such communities and organisations have traditionally
provided support, work, and occupations for people with disabilities in a system
supported by subsidies from government and charity from the community. this
has led to organisations in the sector depending heavily on outside help for
both day to day operations and long-term growth.
Such organisations are facing growing economic pressures, particularly since
the boom and bust of the 1980', and the changing nature of the disability industry
as it struggles to provide the traditional environment for its clients. the
government dollar is becoming scarcer and comes with more stringent accountability
and performance standards and with market-driven policies. Even if this were
not the case, there is clearly a need for disability-based organisations to
ensure a fair return for labour and the efficient use of resources.
While renewed economic growth may assist such organisations in meeting the
current challenges, the environment has changed so radically that the sector
must also undergo radical change - a re-engineering. The self-help philosophy
which started may such organisations must drive the change to find new ways
to provide for individual growth and fulfilment, while also providing economic
security to cater for their long-term future.
Many workshop managements and their boards have decided that the way to manage
the change is to be more responsible for their own destiny and to base their
operations on commercially viable businesses. The management base for this new
paradigm needs to be strengthened.
This paper examines these issues, and concludes that those organisations that
are either unable to unwilling to make the necessary adjustments to their management
education and training philosophies and practices may find that this will lead
to the erosion of whatever competitive advantage these organisations have, because
at the end of the day, the only competitive advantage the organisation of the
future will have will be its managersŐ ability to learn faster than their competitors
(De Geus, 1988).
Lecturer in Management
University of Tasmania, Launceston
This site was designed and created by CyberLearning Pty Ltd 1998