You and the other members of your team will use the results of your organization needs assessments to decide on a team project.

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1 FELLOWSHIP ASSIGNMENT I: INSTRUCTIONS Nature of Assignment: In preparation for Workshops II and III (WSII and WSIII) in July, which will focus on building capacities and managerial skills for leadership and organization development, we ask you to do some advance reading and complete the assignment below. At the Workshops the assignments will be discussed in your Mentor-Coach groups, and subsequently as inputs into your team s project concepts. As it is the first step in developing your team project, it is important that it be clear, concise and informative. English language does not need to be completely correct, as long as it conveys your thinking. Description of Assignment I Individual Assignment: Each Fellow will undertake an organization/needs assessment in her/his workplace for one of the following purposes: 1) To determine the needs and service requirements of a population or customer group served by the Fellow s organization; 2) To determine the capacities and priority needs of the Fellow s organization in order to more effectively support the organization s mission; or 3) To determine the capacities and priority development needs of a particular group of employees within the organization (e.g., supervisors, engineers, scientists, teachers, secretaries, etc.) You and the other members of your team will use the results of your organization needs assessments to decide on a team project. In the following pages you will be provided guidelines on the specific requirements of your report s output, as well as general tips on the process of conducting a needs assessment. In addition over the next few months you will be offered guidance by UNITAR s team of Mentors, Coaches and Afghan resource persons. Format for submission: The needs assessment report (4 pages maximum plus annexes, typed in MS Word), should be prepared and submitted by each Fellow by to humaira.kamal@unitar.org, and sabahuddin.sokout@unitar.org. Deadline: To be submitted to UNITAR by 24 June Background Readings for Assignment: The Fellows are required to review the readings listed below and included in this file, before pursuing this assignment. 1. Development of human resources, Part 1 -- Beyond Training, A perspective on improving organizations and people by Robert H. Rouda & Mitchell E. Kusy, Jr., Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry 2. Development of human resources, Part II Needs Assessment, the First Step by Robert H. Rouda & Mitchell E. Kusy, Jr., Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry 3. Excerpts from Methods for Conducting Educational Needs Assessments by the University of Idaho Extension Program 4. Conducting an Environmental Analysis by Lamb & Lamb and UNITAR Fellowship Alumni

2 ASSIGNMENT CONTENT AND REPORT OUTPUT REQUIREMENTS: The assignment results should be divided into three main sections which will address the following topics: A. Your Organization Assessment of: 1) the needs and service requirements of a population or customer group served by your organization; or 2) the capacities and priority needs of your organization in order to more effectively support your organization s mission; or 3) the capacities and priority development needs of a particular group of employees within the organization (e.g., supervisors, engineers, scientists, teachers, secretaries, etc.) B. Your Assessment of Your Sector or Industry in terms of what might be some issues or needs throughout your sector/industry that are similar to what you discovered with your own organization assessment C. Your Conclusion which includes a brief summary of your key points A. Questions to Respond to if Your Organization Needs Assessment is Focused on the Needs and Service Requirements of a Target Population or Customer Group Served by Your Oganization Section I: Your Organization Assessment Begin with no more than one brief paragraph of general information about your organization and attach an organogram as an annex 1) What is your organization s mission? 2) What are the key environmental factors that may affect your organization s mission and effectiveness over the next 2 3 years? (Note: Refer to the handout, Conducting an Environmental Analysis for key factors) 3) Who are the users of your organization s services or products? 4) What target populations does your assessment focus on? What are the demographics of the population(s)? 5) What were the objectives of your needs assessment? (e.g., To identify the three new services most needed by this population To determine the extent of public understanding about the services available through this office To understand the service strategies that would be most effective with this population To know what the target group thinks we re doing well and what services we need to improve on) 6) What data did you review related to the objectives of your needs assessment?(can be listed in an attachment) 7) What questions did you ask in your assessment? (Can be listed in an attachment) 8) What method(s) did you use to get answers to your questions? 9) What were your key findings in answer to your objectives? 10) What changes would you recommend to your organization s policies, operations, products or services in response to your key findings?

3 Section II: Your Assessment of Your Sector or Industry 1) Which issues, concerns, needs, etc. that you identified in your needs assessments do you think might be common throughout your sector or industry? 2) What ideas do you have about a team project that would address one of these issues, concerns, needs, etc.? Section III: Your Conclusion 1) What were your main findings about the issues, concerns, needs, etc. of the target population(s) you were focused on? 2) What are the key recommendations you have for your organization in response to these findings? 3) What ideas do you have for a team project that will address a need in your team s sector or industry?

4 B. Questions to Respond to if Your Organization Needs Assessment is Focused on the Capacities and Priority Needs of Your Organization in Order to More Effectively Support Your Organization s Mission Section I: Your Organization Assessment Begin with no more than one brief paragraph of general information about your organization and attach an organogram as an annex 1. What is your organization s mission? 2. What were the specific objectives of your needs assessment? (e.g., To assess the general effectiveness of our organization s operations in accomplishing its mission To assess the effectiveness of our work processes and information management technology To determine how to improve our organization communication processes to ensure timely information and collaborative planning/problems solving To assess the effectiveness of our performance management system 3. What data did you review related to the objectives of your needs assessment?(can be listed in an attachment) 4. What questions did you ask in your assessment? (Can be listed in an attachment) 5. What method(s) did you use to get answers to your questions? 6. What were your key findings in answer to your objectives? Note: Here is a framework you can use if your objective is to assess the general effectiveness of your organization s operations in accomplishing its mission: a. What external/environmental factors help your organization to be successful? (See Conducting an Environmental Analysis for key ideas). Consider: Physical/geographic issues (e.g., Being located in easily accessible and safe areas; good buildings and facilities to work with; improved road systems; more power generating facilities) Economic conditions (e.g., Availability of government or donor agency funds; skilled labor; minimal corruption; availability of banking facilities) Technological developments (e.g., Increased availability of the internet; mobile communications and increased TV exposure throughout the country; people in your organization who are knowledgeable about the use of electronic technology) Political conditions (e.g., Government plans and social development projects for specific provinces, privatization efforts, growing sense of pride in democracy in Afghanistan, new regulatory policies focused on eliminating corrupt practices) Demographic/cultural factors (e.g., More women becoming educated, increased communications and knowledge about what is going on in the country due to mobile communications, opportunities to use TV stations for distance learning) Your sector or industry (e.g., New markets for your services or products, the development of partnerships with other organizations, improved ways to deliver services to customers) b. What external/environmental factors are keeping your organization from accomplishing its mission in terms of any of the following factors? (See Conducting an Environmental Analysis for key ideas). Consider:

5 Physical/geographic issues (e.g., Being located in areas that are less safe and difficult to access; having to work or teach in dilapidated buildings with poor equipment; serving rural areas where the road systems are still unimproved; a lack of power generating facilities) Economic conditions (e.g., Decreasing availability of government or donor agency funds; lack of skilled labor; extensive corruption; unavailability of banking facilities) Technological developments (e.g., Not having access to the internet; not having people trained to use available electronic technology; lack of mobile communications and increased TV exposure in some rural areas that your organization serves) Political conditions (e.g., Unclear government policies, rules and regulations; regulations that are nearly impossible to implement; growing threat of the Taliban in some areas of the country; concerns about whether or not there can be fair elections) Demographic/cultural factors (e.g., inability of people from different tribal backgrounds or geographic areas to work well together; high unemployment rates with millions of young Afghans entering the labor force; increased fears about safety and security among the population) Your sector or industry (e.g., New businesses that are competing with you for your markets; other organizations having access to new technology that your organization doesn t have access to; other organizations having more influence with the donor agencies that help fund your services) c. What internal factors help your organization to be successful? (See list of items below for ideas that you may want to inquire about as you conduct your organization assessment): Appropriateness of the organization s strategy Clarity of organization roles and responsibilities Effectiveness and efficiency of work processes Access to information and information sharing systems Appropriateness of the organization s structure to support its mission Effectiveness of planning and coordination processes Effectiveness of communication processes Leadership and supervisory skills of organization leadership Appropriateness of recognition and reward systems to support performance Effectiveness and fairness of recruiting, hiring and promotion processes Effectiveness of training and development processes Physical lay-out; equipment and facilities Appropriate technology Cultural norms (the written and unwritten rules of behavior) d. What internal barriers are keeping your organization from accomplishing its mission, in terms of any of the factors listed above? e. What changes would you recommend to your organization s policies, operations, products or services in response to your key findings? Section II: Your Assessment of Your Sector or Industry 1. Which issues, concerns, needs, etc. that you identified in your organization needs assessments do you think might be common throughout your sector or industry? 2. What ideas do you have about a team project that would address one of these issues, concerns, needs, etc.?

6 Section III: Your Conclusion 1. What were your main findings about the organization issues, concerns, needs, etc. in response to your objectives for the assessment? 2. What are the key recommendations you have for your organization in response to these findings? 3. What ideas do you have for a team project that will address a need in your team s sector or industry?

7 C. Questions to Respond to if Your Organization Needs Assessment is Focused on the Capacities and Priority Development Needs of a Particular Group of Employees within the Organization (e.g., supervisors, engineers, scientists, teachers, secretaries, etc.) Section I: Your Organization Assessment Begin with no more than one brief paragraph of general information about your organization and attach an organogram as an annex 1. What is your organization s mission? 2. What are the key environmental factors that may affect your organization s mission and effectiveness over the next 2 3 years? (Note: Refer to the handout, Conducting an Environmental Analysis for key factors) 3. What were the objectives of your needs assessment? (e.g., To assess the effectiveness of our organization s orientation program To assess the strengths and priority development areas of our first-line supervisors To determine the needs for cross-training in the organization) 4. What data did you review related to the objectives of your needs assessment?(can be listed in an attachment) 5. What questions did you ask in your assessment? (Can be listed in an attachment) 6. What method(s) did you use to get answers to your questions? 7. What were your key findings in answer to your objectives? 8. What training and development opportunities/programs would you recommend as priorities for your organization to offer? Section II: Your Assessment of Your Sector or Industry 1. Which training and development needs that you identified in your needs assessments do you think might be common throughout your sector or industry? 2. What ideas do you have about a team project that would address one of these issues, Section III: Your Conclusion 1. What were your main findings about employee learning and development needs in response to your objectives for the assessment? 2. What are the key recommendations you have for your organization in response to these findings? 3. What ideas do you have for a team project that will address a need in your team s sector or industry?

8 GUIDELINES FOR CONDUCTING ORGANIZATION OR NEEDS ASSESSMENT By Howard and Sue Lamb, Lamb & Lamb Associates Be sure that you have the right sponsorship for the assessment the individual(s) who: Have the authority to direct that the assessment be done Have the resources to support implementation of the assessment Will understand the results of the assessment and be able to approve any recommendations Have agreement with the sponsor(s) about the purposes for doing the assessment and what will be done with the results Are the purposes understood and supported by those who will be assessed? To whom will the results of the assessment be reported? How? Focus on what s working well as well as what s not working well Select the assessment methods that will accomplish the purposes of the assessment most effectively Individual interviews? Focus group interviews? Surveys? Observations? Review of written materials? Use interview questions that: Focus specifically on what needs to be assessed (rather than trying to learn everything ) Are unbiased and don t influence the interviewee s answers Are open-ended (e.g., What do you think is working well? What do you think are the two most important concerns? ) to get people to talk about their thoughts and concerns Help you gather factual information, not just opinions (e.g., How many times did that happen? How many people were involved? When did that happen? ) For each major concern identified, one way to help you understand the concern fully is to ask the following series of questions: How do you know this? What have you personally seen, heard or experienced? What is the impact of this concern (e.g., on customer service, work quality, safety, budget, schedule, etc.)? What has been done about this concern in the past? What were the results? What would you like to see done about this realistically? Check the accuracy of your notes with those whom you interview by summarizing what you have heard