Abstract:
This case deals with different management problems in one of the world's largest and most important non-government organizations, CARE. From its origin as a post-World War II emergency feeding program, CARE has taken up the task of encouraging successful agriculture and spurring Third World economic development, as well as continuing its emergency role where needed. Assessing Headquarters and Field Service Performance at CARE is a vehicle for discussing the kind of communications and trust difficulties which arise between headquarters and field offices in a wide variety of non-profit and for-profit organizations. In CARE, relations between the two were colored by the fact that front-line field office workers often labored under grueling, crisis-like conditions when battling to deliver food to famine-struck regions, in which (as in Somalia or Haiti) war may be raging. Reports to headquarters inevitably seem like unnecessary paperwork in such situations. CARE headquarters, for its part, wants assurance that funds are being wisely spent and that plans for the non-emergency aftermath of development work have been well thought out.
Learning Objective:
This case looks at the organization's efforts to develop a straightforward survey form mechanism which will allow headquarters and field to stay in touch in a non-confrontational way. See also Managing Change or Running to Catch Up: CARE USA and its Mission in Thailand.
