Girl_Scouts

Running head: Girl Scouts Girl Scouts Leadership and Management Tanna Hicks University of Phoenix October 22, 2009 Dr. Bob Cook Girl Scouts Leadership and Management The Girl Scout mission reads, “Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.” Each member of this organization has done diligent studies to make the Girl Scouts a model for companies excel to the roles of leadership and management. Often the role of leadership and management are confused. It is true that both of these styles are similar but they do have differences. Leadership is the process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task. Management is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading, directing, facilitating and controlling or manipulating an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. Each of these roles has responsibilities within the organization. Julietter Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts in 1912; she knew then that dedicated and dynamic leaders were vital to helping girls develop their full potential. Kathy is the Chief Executive Office of the Girl Scouts of the USA made a commitment to the Girl Scouts to that will the premier leadership development organization for girls. The organization of Girl Scouts has broken the roles and responsibilities down into simple procedures. Every board member must attend monthly meetings. A troop cookie manager must attend a service area training before the sale begins, collect signed permission slips from all participating girls prior to handing out order cards, set up the troop and girls in the ABC Snap online ordering system (simple directions provided in the troop guide), collect order cards and double check totals, enter each girl’s order into online ordering system, pick up troop’s cookie order along with order day to day duties. The troop leader will have more of have hands of approach dealing with paperwork and community outreach sessions. Each level of leadership and management increases from year to year. Today there are 3.7 million Girl Scouts and of those 3.7 million members 928,000 are adult members who work primarily on a volunteer basis. The Girl Scout organization believes that by volunteering a healthy organization culture is created. The environment created is for the volunteers and for the girl members. In girl scouts the girls discover fun, friendship, and power of girls together. The organization also creates a healthy organization by providing a sound organization where decision-making skills are taught to make improvement of society through their abilities, leadership and skills, and cooperation with others. While doing this the Girl Scouts also develop the full potential of each girl. Again, the Girl Scouts believe this type of culture only encourages each girl to become the best leader and manager possible. The leadership team within the Girl Scout organization is composed of Senior Management, the CEO, and Girl Scouts USA’s aka GSUSA’s. This team guides, plans, develops, and executes initiatives and resources all to the Girl Scouts benefit. The organization believes this also sets the precedent for the type of culture the Girl Scouts is based upon. The Girl Scouts is set home and abroad. In more than 236,000 troops and groups and in more than 90 countries the Girl Scouts have been established overseas. Over 300 local Girl Scout councils offer girls the opportunity for membership across the United States. Because the Girl Scout organization is established with different styles of leadership and management the globalization process for the Girl Scouts effectively established. This year the Girl Scout organization has the opportunity for young members of the organization to join a pool of volunteers that are interested in global leadership opportunities. Members of this pool may be asked to represent GSUSA at the World Association of Girl Guides of Girl Scouts also known as WAGGGS. The members of this pool will be able to receive training and serve for a triennium (2009-2011). Again, the Girl Scout organization has set the precedent within the community and United States for leadership and management. The Girl Scout organization started out as a flat organization in the year 1912. But by the year 1950 the Girl Scouts was chartered by the U.S. Congress. The Girl Scout organization applies the four functions of management on a daily basis. Planning, organizing, learning, and controlling are used to keep the organization above par. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and trends also play a role. But with the roles of the leaders and management the Girl Scouts have maintained the volunteer levels increased the number of Latina Girl Scouts by twenty percent since 2003. One way the organization can improve a healthy organization is by using the external and internal factors that impact management. The factors are rapid change, globalization and technology. By using these factors the Girl Scouts can broaden the Girl Scouts to all diversity groups. Technology would be beneficial for the Girl Scouts if Facebook was implemented. This would also attract a larger group of volunteers and Girl Scouts. With rapid change, the Girl Scouts organization has to keep one step ahead of other volunteering organization that may offer some of the same qualities. The Girl Scouts has developed the globalization aspect of the organization. But they continue to improve ways of the organization and the different levels of volunteering. When providing this type of leadership some levels of the organization may be looked over. Others may be polished. In my own personal experience with the Girl Scouts I quickly learned that each level of Girl Scouts is rewarding. This organization will provide benefits that are not expressed in other programs. Each level is a promotion for the individual. Some levels of the organization will promote self esteem and confidence. Other levels may create an uncertainty but can be resolved quickly by the troop leaders. While being a Girl Scout I was challenged at every meeting to think outside of the box. The Girl Scout organization instilled in me the importance of achieving goals, communication, and the importance of volunteering. If changes had to be made within this organization, I would start and end with cookie sales. A cookie store would resolve the issue of having to pack cookies from location to location. If a cookie store was open during the cookie sale season, the troop leaders and troop members could work the store and make more of a profit. If you have ever had to pack cookies from one location to another and ensure that you and your troop are the most cookies sold badge in the process winning, then you will clearly understand the pain of thousands of troop members. References Bateman, Thomas S., & Snell, Scott A. (2009). management: Leading & Collaborating in a Competitive World (8th ed.). : McGraw-Hill. Gutierrez, Linda Mason, (2009) Leadership in the Girl Scouts, retrieved October 20, 2009 from, http://www.girlscouts.org