Organizations strive to improve their performance to achieve success and a sense of direction. Measuring performance stems from understanding the existence of that organization in the first place. Organizations create purpose by crafting achievable mission statements, vision, values, and a strategic plan. Ultimately, achieving organizational performance means being clear on the direction the firm is heading. The Archdiocese of New York has grown and expanded over the years to serve millions of Catholic faithful across the state. Its success can be attributed to its leadership approach, corporate social responsibility, and desire to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The non-profit organization's mission is to proclaim the Lord's gospel and be aware of its surrounding, ensuring that it spreads the gospel across the world.
Moreover, the vision of the Archdiocese of New York encompasses education, advocacy, and evangelization. The Catholic church believes that its goal is to educate both Catholics and non-Catholics on issues impacting society. The Archdiocese of New York is geared towards positioning itself on issues and projects that appeal to its principles, values, and vision. The Catholic Church is committed to collaborating with the government and other organizations to influence policy change and voice concerns that impact the general public. All these activities and campaigns adhere to the Catholic values lobbied by the organization. Additionally, through evangelization, the Archdiocese of New York is keen on educating the public on the Catholic perspective. Its objective is to use different educative initiatives to proclaim God's teachings to society and deepen people's faith through this gospel.
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The Archdiocese of New York's leadership structure is crucial in managing all the parishes, charity initiatives, and Catholic schools under its management. At the helm of the Catholic church is the Archbishop, who presides over the Archdiocese activities. The Archdiocese is composed of several dioceses, and the Archbishop is the head of these sub-units. A Bishop is appointed to lead a diocese and manage its everyday activities. The Bishop appoints vicars or auxiliary Bishops to manage specific departments or areas of the diocese, such as youth programs. Below the Vicars are pastors and assistant pastors who head different parishes within the Archdiocese.
As a non-profit organization, the Archdiocese of New York's stakeholders include its employees who manage its day-to-day activities within the Archdiocese and related ministries. The community is also part of the stakeholders as it has a vested interest in the church's leadership and programs. Unlike for-profits organizations, most non-profit organizations focus on their clients, in this case, the community, congregation, and ministry partners. The organization's actions can also impact stakeholders, and as such, leaders should understand that they serve the more significant cause of these stakeholders. While the Archdiocese of New York spreads the Gospel of Christ to its faithful and the wider community, it also partakes in charitable activities. These operations translate to corporate social responsibility.
Performance-Related Issues
As with any other organization, the Archdiocese of New York faces performance-related issues that impact its goals and vision. In essence, leadership is critical to managing an organization, and as Afolabi (2019, p. 42) notes, leaders are required to cooperate with others to achieve the desired mission and vision of the church. According to Berman (2015, p. 29), most organizations fail to achieve their desired outcomes because they lack basic organizational management skills. Moreover, their goals and objectives do not serve the intended purpose for the stakeholders and society at large. One performance-related issue the Archdiocese of New York faces is that its missions are not being pursued. While the non-profit organization has excellent programs intended to benefit the community, it lacks focus from internal politics and external interferences.
The second performance-related issue affecting the Archdiocese of New York is communication mishaps due to lack of unitary command. Arguably, the Archdiocese serves a wider congregation and dioceses. Therefore, governance becomes a challenge, especially with its complex organizational structure from low-level to top-level managers. At the same time, the non-profit organization handles multiple outreach programs with different partners simultaneously. Berman (2015, p. 28) adds that leaders often make unrealistic goals contrary to the community and other stakeholders` expectations. While the Archdiocese of New York fosters diversity within its organizational structure, cultural and interdisciplinary differences, lack of unitary communication, and misinterpretations by the command structure are critical factors that impact communication and its overall performance.
Lastly, the Archdiocese of New York faces the challenge of inadequate planning in its quest to serve the community and engage in corporate social responsibility projects. Choi & Chandler (2020) study the reasons why public organizations fail to improve their efficiency points to poor planning, implementation, and communication. With the Archdiocese of New York engaging in many projects and control of Catholic schools within the wider geographical area, some of these projects fail to achieve their intended outcomes due to unrealistic goals set during the planning phase. Therefore, the projects fail to impact the community, leading to dissatisfaction and conflicts among the different management levels and stakeholders.
Critical Analysis of Performance-Related Issues
A performance-related issue within an organization encompasses a firm's inability to meet its intended objective or achieve success. Berman (2015, p. 23) notes that organizations can improve their performances by understanding stakeholder needs, utilizing resources effectively, enhancing productivity, and implementing better project management strategies. Like any other organization, the Archdiocese of New York should assess its performance-related issues and formulate strategies to improve overall productivity. Governance in churches plays a crucial role in ensuring all administrative activities run efficiently. Guinot & Chiva (2019, p. 2) see trust as an integral component in increasing performance, creating a positive attitude among employees, and fostering teamwork. Therefore, understanding the performance-related issues and their underpinning causes is critical to resolving conflicts within the organization and ultimately improving its overall performance.
Organizations develop mission statements to define their principles and guide the vision. Over the years, the Archdiocese of New York has strived to lead society through Catholic values and principles, ensuring that communities live in harmony and share in God's gospel. At the same time, the church has implemented projects that help its congregation and the wider community in socio-economic sustainability. Cloutier & Pfeiffer (2015, p. 2) associate community sustainability with happiness as a result of social connectedness. Indeed, churches have taken the initiative to address social issues that impact society, such as homelessness, education, and youth empowerment. Under the Archdiocese of New York, the Catholic Charities program recognizes the need to address social issues, such as hunger, emotional, and physical challenges, and partner with other non-profit organizations to see the missions through. However, challenges resulting from internal conflicts are impacting the overall project missions.
The Archdiocese of New York's lack of focus in its charitable activities can significantly impact its sense of direction and loss of support from other partners. The church is set to initiate programs that address unmet public needs. However, internal conflicts within the committees that run these charitable activities have slowed their progress, impacting performance and overall productivity. Conflicts can destroy the progress a church has made or create enmity among the church's different factions (Afolabi, 2019, p. 43). As such, these charitable activities have stalled, unable to serve their purpose in assisting the community battle social issues impacting them.
On the other hand, inadequate planning has been an ongoing problem that the Archdiocese of New York has failed to address, especially in its ongoing projects. Poor time management has been a major issue the church has been unable to rectify when planning out new projects and charitable activities. In essence, schedules that team members within the church committees need to follow are not set and clearly defined. As such, the teams have no definitive picture of what is expected of them and at what stage of the project lifecycle. With no deadlines set, the teams will not measure their progress against the expected timeline. Berman (2015, p. 33) notes that project planning incorporates many activities, including identifying the project deliverables, assessing the available resources and strategies, and anticipating any concerns that could hamper the project's performance and implementation. However, leaders fail to create a plan that incorporates these aspects of project planning.
Additionally, project sustainability is an essential component of planning. For the Archdiocese of New York to create sustainable projects, they need to implement a feasible project plan that encompasses a long-term action plan. However, as Sridharan & Nakaima (2019, p. 376) concur, the church lacks an active planning approach that fosters sustainability in project development and implementation. In its quest to engage the community and initiate projects that promote social responsibility, the Archdiocese of New York, more often, lacks the understanding of adequate project planning and the conditions under which these projects will remain sustainable for the long run.
Poor planning results in undefined project objectives and an undesirable budget. Project deliverables are defined during the planning phase, but when these objectives are not adequately outlined and defined, the members will have no set direction to follow. At the same time, the Archdiocese of New York leadership sets out unrealistic project objectives with huge expectations. Berman (2015, p. 34) warns that such stretched project objectives create high expectations and fail to be achieved due to the limited resources available. Therefore, the planning will significantly affect the budgeting process. The estimation made during the poor planning process will impact the overall outcome of the project. Ultimately, these challenges resulting from inadequate project planning have seen some of the Archdiocese of New York's long-term projects stall or paused due to limited resources, lack of support from the congregation, conflicts, and dissatisfaction in the overall process.
Communication is an integral component in the performance metrics of any organization. As such, the lack of effective communication is a priority performance-related issue that affects the Archdiocese of New York. With the leadership hierarchy present within the non-profit organization, communication mishaps are frequent, impacting service delivery and decision-making. According to Berman (2015, p. 31), most organizations have realized the significance and efficiency of using departments in sharing responsibilities and governance. Departments promote efficiency in managing the size, diversification, and cost-effectiveness of governing large corporations. The Archdiocese of New York has several ministries and departments that manage different programs it engages in, including in education, health, and housing.
Departments demand coordination and effective communication. However, concerns over ineffective channels of communication stem from unclear responsibilities among different people and departments (Berman, 2015, p. 31). Yusof & Rahmat (2020, p. 230) cited that organizational performance is significantly impacted when communication breaks down. With several departments and ministries under the Archdiocese of New York's hierarchy, communication mishaps are common. Different departments are uncertain about their responsibilities as they are not well defined. Moreover, shared decision-making is impossible due to frequent conflicts among interdisciplinary teams. Leaders register undesirable outcomes due to communication challenges. Inconsistencies and the lack of unity in decision-making are also attributed to workplace conflicts.
Communication begins at the top. Senior managers make decisions and share them with other lower-level managers and employees. However, when the managers fail to communicate vital information to their employees, inconsistencies build-up (Kalogiannidis, 2020, p. 3). On numerous occasions, there has been a communication breakdown at the Archdiocese of New York, where the Bishops fail to inform the auxiliary bishops and vicars of new strategic changes that the Archbishop has envisioned for the community. No projects are initiated, or there is poor planning, leading to failed or stalled projects in the long run. At the same time, the church employees feel disconnected from the organization when they are not on the same page as their superiors. Lack of clarity is a critical issue affecting effective communication, further leading to confusion, conflicts, and inconsistencies (Berman, 2015, p. 32). Ultimately, people begin to share incorrect information or make assumptions that negatively affect performance.
Interdisciplinary teams face challenges in shared decision-making and coordination. According to Berman (2015, p. 32), cultural biases and the lack of a unified command affect how people perceive and interpret information. For instance, a decision in one of the Archdiocese of New York's education departments can cause conflicts between different managers due to cultural biases. As such, communication breaks down, the project loses track and support. Lack of coordination, inadequate planning, and ineffective use of the available resources can further impact the program and workplace relationships.
Given the three performance-related issues that impact the Archdiocese of New York, prioritizing them follows the nature and severity of their impact on its operations. The least prioritized issue is missions not being pursued. The justification is that the church has made significant strides in serving the community through several outreach programs, most of which have been successful. The lack of focus has only affected a small number of projects, and the church's leadership has been vocal on the need to adopt change as a strategy to remain focused on its missions. Inadequate planning has also not adversely impacted the direction, vision, and mission of the Archdiocese of New York. The lack of focus is associated with inadequate planning, and as Berman (2015, p/ 33) quotes, "people don't plan to fail, they fail to plan." Therefore, the most prioritized performance-related issue is communication mishaps. As noted earlier, communication is paramount to any business's success, and without proper information sharing, decision-making, coordination, and collaboration, performance and productivity cannot be achieved.
An inefficient communication strategy significantly impacts healthy workplace relationships, performance, and productivity. Leaders are tasked with identifying and addressing barriers to communication in the workplace before they affect overall productivity. The Archdiocese of New York can avoid misunderstandings present within its departments and seal any cracks resulting from communication mishaps. Mishra & Mishra (2009, p. 439) note that a team composed of few members is more effective and collaborative than one with many members. While the authors` sentiments can be true, modern trends in organizational management encompass interdisciplinary teams. These teams comprise several members from different departments, fostering diversity and creativity. However, communication mishaps between these teams and the entire organization are common.
Employees are more productive in organizations that place emphasis on effective communication strategies and tools. A well-structured communication plan fosters employee happiness, connectedness, and high turnover (Cloutier & Pfeiffer, 2015, p. 2). The Archdiocese of New York can apply many alternatives to resolve communication mishaps they face. At the same time, these alternative solutions will address issues of inadequate planning and missions not pursued. The first alternative solution is focusing on the consistency that can help mitigate unpursued missions. The Archdiocese of New York should streamline its communication process by defining roles and responsibilities for each employee or group. For instance, the leadership should restructure their hierarchy and inform each group of employees to whom they are supposed to report (Bucăţa & Rizescu, 2017, p. 52). Each level then reports to the management level above. Check-ins should also be introduced to ensure constant communication between each level. In the long run, departments and interdisciplinary teams keep track of the progress of ongoing projects and decisions concerning the non-profit organization.
Communication is a two-way approach that allows engagement, sharing ideas, and shared decision-making. As noted earlier, inadequate project planning results from not setting clear goals and defining other deliverables. Communication is still an integral part of the project development lifecycle. According to Berman (2015, p. 33), poorly managed projects lag in schedule, lose purpose, and misuse resources. In the end, the project does not achieve its intended purpose. An organization suffers when it undertakes a project with no clarity or clearly defined deliverables. The first step to resolving inadequate planning is effectively communicating the plan to the employees. The Archdiocese of New York should create a communication plan from which every employee will receive accurate information regarding the project being undertaken. Simultaneously, embracing listening skills, especially for the leaders, is critical to plan for projects adequately. Employees are a valuable human resource for any organization, and Bucăţa & Rizescu (2015, p. 52) agree that decision-making within the organization should encompass teams and a coordinated approach. Therefore, embracing two-way communication can help the Archdiocese of New York develop better project plans by sharing ideas and resolving conflicts by listening and understanding other people's emotions.
As a priority performance-related issue, resolving communication mishaps can take many forms. Berman (2015, p. 32) cautions that the Archdiocese of New York should maintain simplicity in its expectations and relations to allow better communication and interpretation from all groups. Critically, once information is relayed to the right audience, the leaders should make follow-ups to ensure that each member is aligned to the organization's direction. For instance, the leadership could make a follow-up with the church's employees to discuss whether a new project is feasible with the available resources or a more compelling approach should be adopted. Moreover, the follow-up meetings can help the management assess each employee's progress concerning achieving the set organization's objectives.
Action Plan and Justification
Follow-through sessions are a great place to start when creating a conducive communication strategy for any organization. While people communicate regularly, the effort to check whether the message is understood is critical to aligning each employee to the organization's overall objective. Creating an action plan for the Archdiocese of New York will give the church a sense of direction, fostering commitment by all members to resolve the performance-related issues. Indeed, the church's projects will go a long way in helping the surrounding communities have access to better life and education. As such, all leaders, employees, and partners should remain committed to engaging each other through effective communication, planning adequately for more projects, and stick to the missions that align with the Catholic principles and values. Berman (2015, p. 33) acknowledges that planning entails creating strategies, assessing the available resources, anticipating any emerging issues, and developing a contingency plan to resolve these issues. Therefore, creating a plan of action will seal all loopholes that could impact the church's project activities and employee performance.
Conclusion
The Archdiocese of New York will follow a straightforward plan of action to mitigate communication mishaps within its leadership structure. The plan's overall goal is to ensure that each department has a streamlined communication channel and all employees are aligned with the organization's vision. All departmental heads will meet once every week to deliberate on the challenges they have observed within their dockets concerning communication and employee performance. The follow-up meetings will offer an opportunity to develop new strategies geared towards fostering employee engagement and wellbeing. Each manager will then train their employees on effective communication, defining their roles and responsibilities. Training and seminars will play a huge role in facilitating these meetings between employees and their managers. The heads of departments will continuously monitor their employees and embrace two-way communication. The managers must listen to their employees' grievances and encourage them to join in the decision-making process.
Implementing the proposed plan of action will mandate commitment from all heads of departments. The church is willing to support all departments, training, and seminars by providing any additional resources necessary to see them through. Whether for the employees or the heads, each session will be attended by a Vicar appointed by the Archbishop. The presence of the Vicar is to monitor the progress of these sessions and assess the viability of the plan. Moreover, the Vicar will be updating the heads of departments on decisions the senior managers, including the Bishops and Archbishop, have adopted on existing and new projects. Through these action plans, the heads of departments are expected to relay the same communication to their subordinates accurately and ensure that they understand.
The action plan is a continuous process, and the meetings will remain in effect for the long run. Since the Archdiocese of New York undertakes multiple projects simultaneously, communication breakdown and deviation away from the action plan can adversely impact their performance. Assessing the progress of all the projects will be a measure of the action plan. Positive results, employee engagement, community satisfaction, and more partner support are indications of a successful action plan. This action plan's expected outcome is a streamlined communication strategy where employees` values align with those of the organization. Moreover, the management is expected to practice listening skills and involve the employees in the decision-making process.
References
Afolabi, O. O. (2019). Alternative dispute resolution: A tool for managing leadership conflict in a church. Journal of Leadership Studies , 12 (4), 41-45. https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.21607
Berman, E. (2015). Performance and productivity in public and nonprofit organizations (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Bucăţa, G., & Rizescu, A. M. (2017). The role of communication in enhancing work effectiveness of an organization. Land Forces Academy Review , 22 (1), 49-57. https://doi.org/10.1515/raft-2017-0008
Choi, T., & Chandler, S. M. (2020). Knowledge vacuum: An organizational learning dynamic of how e-government innovations fail. Government Information Quarterly , 37 (1), 101416. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2019.101416
Cloutier, S., & Pfeiffer, D. (2015). Sustainability through happiness: A framework for sustainable development. Sustainable Development , 23 (5), 317-327. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.1593
Guinot, J., & Chiva, R. (2019). Vertical trust within organizations and performance: A systematic review. Human Resource Development Review , 18 (2), 196-227. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484319842992
Kalogiannidis, S. (2020). Impact of effective business communication on employee performance. European Journal of Business and Management Research , 5 (6). https://doi.org/10.24018/ejbmr.2020.5.6.631
Mishra, D., & Mishra, A. (2009). Effective communication, collaboration, and coordination in extreme programming: Human-centric perspective in a small organization. Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing , 19 (5), 438-456. https://doi.org/10.1002/hfm.20164
Sridharan, S., & Nakaima, A. (2019). Till time (and poor planning) do us part: Programs as dynamic systems—Incorporating planning of sustainability into theories of change. Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation , 33 (3). https://doi.org/10.3138/cjpe.53055
Yusof, A. N. A. M., & Rahmat, N. H. (2020). Communication Barriers at the Workplace: A Case Study. European Journal of Education Studies , 7 (10). doi: 10.46827/ejes.v7i10.3299
Appendix
Archdiocese of New York Leadership Chart
Church Staff
Assistant Pastors
Pastors
Auxiliary Bishops
Vicars
Bishops
Archbishop
The Process of Problem Diagnosis
Need for Solution |
Justification for the Need |
Contextualizing the Problem |
The Problem Statement |
The Archdiocese of New York needs to streamline its communication strategies and channels to mitigate communication mishaps |
Projects have stalled and do not serve the purpose intended. Moreover, employee performance has significantly reduced, leading to dissatisfaction from partners and the community. |
Communication mishaps impact project planning, mission statements, and overall performance and productivity. The issue has led to conflicts, confusion, and loss of focus from employees. |
Employees and interdisciplinary teams in the Archdiocese of New York are facing communication barriers that impact their performances and project success. |
Logic Model of Action Plan
|
Inputs |
Outputs |
Outcomes |
|
Staff Office space Training Resources |
Conduct trainings Observation reports The audience will be employees, heads of departments, and the vicars |
Better communication channels Resumption of stalled projects Satisfaction from all involved personnel |
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Commitment from all involved parties
Employee engagement and wellbeing will be fostered
The action plan will allow employees to voice their concerns to senior managers
Weaknesses
Uncertainties over the action plan durability as motivation and focus can impact the action plan in the long run
Opportunities
The action plan can be implemented to solve other performance-related issues
More activities can be added to expand the action plan and strengthen its feasibility
Threats
Resistance to cooperate from employees or the heads can impact the success of the action plan
Cultural biases due to interdisciplinary politics within the organization
