When organisations, families and
communities are more and better organised, they are stronger. When they
more resemble a rational, formal organisation, they have greater capacity
to achieve what their members want them to achieve.
If we want to strengthen communities,
families or organizations, how can we know when we have succeeded, or to
what extent? As scientists engaged in social research, how do we
measure the strengthening of them, when they are increasing their capacities,
or becoming more empowered? Unfortunately, we do not have a little electronic
metre that, when it moves from 62 to 79, we can say that strength has increased
by 17 points.
We can analyse the concept
of "strength," "power" or "capacity," as applied to organisations, families
or communities, look at its various components, and identify a set of observations
that will indicate to us that some empowerment or increase in capacity
has taken place.
The sixteen elements are: altruism;
common values; communal services; confidence; communications; context;
information; intervention; leadership; networking; organisation; political
power; skills; trust; unity; and wealth. These are somewhat more
comprehensive than Weber’s five elements of bureaucratic strength, but
identifying them is based on the same sociological principles used
by Weber.
Empowerment goes well beyond
political or legal permission to participate in the national political
system. It includes capacity to do things that members want to do. Empowerment
includes capacity development and strengthening in various dimensions.
Here are the sixteen elements of a community that change as the community,
organization or family gets stronger.
Altruism
Altruism
is the proportion of, and degree to which, individuals are ready to sacrifice
benefits to themselves for the benefit of the community as a whole, reflected
in degrees of generosity, individual humility, communal pride, mutual supportiveness,
loyalty, concern, camaraderie, sister/brotherhood. We borrow the concept
from Biology rather than from Philosophy. As a community develops
more altruism, it develops more capacity. Where individuals, families
or factions are allowed to be greedy and selfish at the expense of the
community or organisation, this weakens the community or the
organisation.
Common Values
Common
values as a factor of organisational or community strength is the degree
to which members of the community share values,
especially the idea that they belong to a common entity that supersedes
the interest of members within it. This relates to the values dimension
of culture. The more that community members share, or at least understand
and tolerate, each others values and attitudes, the stronger their community
will be. Racism, ageism, sexism, prejudice and bigotry weaken a community
or organisation.
Communal Services
For
human settlements, these are facilities and services (such as roads, markets,
potable water, access to education, health services), their upkeep (dependable
maintenance and repair), sustainability, and the degree to which all community
members have access to them. This relates to the
technological dimension
of culture. The more that members have access to needed
communal facilities, the greater their empowerment. In measuring the capacity
of organisations, this includes office equipment, tools, supplies, access
to toilets and other personal staff facilities, working facilities, and
the physical plant.
Communications
Within
a community, and between itself and outside, communication includes roads,
electronic methods (telephone, radio, TV, Internet), printed media (newspapers,
magazines, books), networks, mutually understandable languages, literacy
and the willingness and ability to communicate (which implies tact, diplomacy,
willingness to listen as well as to talk) in general. As a community
gets better communication, it gets stronger. For an organisation,
this is the communication equipment, methods and practices available to
staff. Poor communications means a weak organisation or
community.
Confidence
While
expressed in individuals, how much confidence is shared among the community
or organisation as a whole? This factor includes an understanding
that the organisation or community can achieve what ever it wishes to do.
Positive attitudes, willingness, self motivation, enthusiasm, optimism,
self-reliant rather than dependency attitudes, willingness to fight for
its rights, avoidance of apathy and fatalism, a vision of what is possible
are all included. Increased strength includes increased
confidence.
Context (Political and Administrative)
An
organisation or community will be stronger, more able to get stronger and
sustain its strength more, the more it exists in an environment that supports
that strengthening. This environment includes (1) political (including
the values and attitudes of the national leaders, laws and legislation)
and (2) administrative (attitudes of civil servants and technicians, as
well as governmental regulations and procedures) elements. It includes
the legal environment. When politicians, leaders, technocrats and
civil servants, as well as their laws and regulations, take a provision
approach, the community is weak, while if they take an enabling approach
to the community acting on a self-help basis, the community will be stronger.
Communities, families and organizations can be stronger when they exist
within a more enabling context.
Information
More
than just having or receiving unprocessed information, the strength of
the organisation or community depends upon the ability to process and analyse
that information, the level of awareness, knowledge and wisdom found among
key individuals and within the group as a whole. When information
is more effective and more useful, not just more in volume, the community
will have more strength. (Note that this is related to, but differs
from, the communication element listed above).
Intervention
What
is the extent and effectiveness of animation (mobilising, management training,
awareness raising, stimulation) aimed at strengthening the organisation
or community? Do outside or internal sources of charity increase
the level of dependency and weaken the community, or do they challenge
the community to act and therefore become stronger? Is the intervention
sustainable or does it depend upon decisions by outside donors who have
different goals and agendas than the community itself? When a community
or organisation has more sources of stimulation to develop, it has more
strength.
Leadership
Leaders
have power, influence, and the ability to move the community. The
more effective its leadership, the more stronger is a community.
While this is not the place to argue ideologically between democratic or
participatory leadership, in contrast to totalitarian, authoritarian and
dictatorial styles, the most effective and sustainable leadership (for
strengthening the community, not just strengthening the leaders) is one
that operates so as to follow the decisions and desires of the community
as a whole, to take an enabling and facilitating role. Leaders must
possess skills, willingness, and some charisma. The more effective
the leadership, the more capacity has the community or organisation. Lack
of good leadership weakens it.
Networking
It
is not just "what you know," but also "who you know" that can be a source
of strength. (As is often joked, not only "know-how," but also "know-who"
gets jobs). What is the extent to which community members, especially
leaders, know persons (and their agencies or organisations) who can provide
useful resources that will strengthen the community as a whole? The
useful linkages, potential and realised, that exist within the community
and with others outside it. The more effective the network, the stronger
the community, family or organisation. Isolation produces
weakness.
Organisation
The
level of organisation
in a community is the degree to which different members of the community
see themselves as each having a role in supporting the whole (in contrast
to being a mere collection of separate individuals), including (in the
sociological sense) organisational integrity, structure, procedures, decision
making processes, effectiveness, division of labour, interdependence and
complementarity of roles and functions. This relates to the institutional
or interactional dimension of culture and society. The more organised,
or more effectively organised, is a community or organisation, the more
capacity or strength it has.
Political Power
The
power
of a community or organisation is the degree to which it can participate
in national and district decision making. This relates to the political
dimension of culture. Just as individuals have varying power within a community,
so communities and organisations have varying power and influence within
the district and nation. The more political power and influence that
a community or organisation can exercise, the higher level of capacity
it has.
Skills
The
ability, manifested in individuals, that will contribute to the organisation
of the community and the ability of it to get things done that it wants
to get done, technical skills, management skills, organisational skills,
mobilisation skills are all included. The more skills (group or individual)
that a community or organisation can obtain and use, the more empowered
is that community or organisation. Those skills must be relevant
to the purpose of the organisation; a highly skilled juggler, for example,
might not be a great asset for a transport company or a police
force.
Trust
Trust
is the degree to which members of the organisation or community trust each
other, especially their managers, leaders and community servants, which
in turn is a reflection of the degree of their integrity (honesty, dependability,
openness, transparency, trustworthiness). More trust and dependability
reflects its increased capacity. Dishonesty, corruption, embezzlement
and diversion of community resources all contribute to community or organisational
weakness.
Unity
Unity
is a shared sense of belonging to a known entity (the group composing the
community), although every organisation and community has divisions or
schisms (religious, class, status, income, age, gender, ethnicity, clans)
or personal rivalries. It is the degree to which organisational or
community members are willing to tolerate the differences and variations
among each other and are willing to co-operate and work together, a sense
of a common purpose or vision, shared values. When a community or
organisation is more unified, it is stronger. Unity does not mean
that everyone is the same, but that everyone tolerates each others' differences,
and works for the common good.
Wealth
Wealth
is the degree to which the organisation or community as a whole
–
in contrast to individuals within it
–
has control over actual and potential resources, and the production and
distribution of scarce and useful goods and services, monetary and non
monetary, including labour, land, equipment, supplies, knowledge, skills.
This relates to the economic dimension of culture. The more wealthy
a community or organisation is, then the stronger it is. When greedy
individuals, families or factions accrue wealth at the expense of the community
or the organisation as a whole, that weakens the community or organisation.
Families that have much wealth are likely to last longer than a few generations.
See Economic
Dimension.