Official Reference in MLA: Mwangi, Baarũ. “Community Organization Leadership Evaluation and Analysis.” Fall 2024 Official Business Report. EPH Editorial, vol. 3, no.2, 2024, pp. 9-10
Status: Accepted but not Approved |
Once Approved by the Editorial Department – in-text citations and relevant references will be visible |
Community Organization: Justice Connect, Justice Connect’s Not-for profit Law
Country: Australia
Justice Connect Leadership Evaluation
Provision of legal services to the Australian communities constitutes both a fundamental human right and a functional community development framework. Justice Connect is a popular organization designed to deliver legal services and interventions to individuals and communities seeking legal help but have no access to proper legal services in Australia. Registered as a charity organization, Justice Connect offers a successful legal framework designed to provide progressive social justice with an aim to close the existing justice gap through legal support. Services offered by the Justice Connect’s Not-for profit program include personalized legal support through provision of self-help tools and digital resources, targeted legal help for at risk and marginalization groups, representation after a natural disaster, and pro bono legal assistance. Their pro bono legal services provide a strong defensive support through their vast network of over ten thousand qualified lawyers within the nation. A successful legal standpoint against inaccessibility of quality and affordable legal services can be attributed to a strong organizational governance and leadership delivered through expertise-oriented board of members.
To effectively delivery progressive legal support to the Australian communities, Justice Connect Not-for profit legal program uses specific leadership theories and attributes such as behavioral theory and contingency theory. Through behavioral theory of governance and leadership, board members demonstrate their acumen in desired behavior attributes such as strategic thinking, critical thinking, advocacy, and collaborations. These examples make up essential behavioral characteristics needed to run successful legal services for community-based organizations. For instance, Justice Connect’s board members Tristan Cutcliffe, a philanthropic and commercial expert, and Vicki Jamieson, an expert in community development, provide aligning backgrounds that promote the organizations primary objectives. Their expert collaborations enhance community development through financial advice, strategic thinking, beneficial philanthropic support, relationship building community activities, and community engagements. Contingency theory of leadership and governance suggest that the effectiveness of Justice Connect stems from emerging context issues. Through the board members Jidah Clark, an expert in advocacy and Indigenous rights, and Michael Horin, an expert in financial and legal aspects of law, Justice Connect can address legal issues concerning the rights of First Nations Australians and deliver community-based initiatives that are respectful and inclusive Horin’s expertise allows the organization to navigate financial aspects associated with legal support through stability and that the firm operates within legal frameworks.
Five Modes of Governance and their Effectiveness
Executive Governance
Justice Connect’s executive board is lead Chris Povey who is the organization’s Chief Executive Officer. His responsibility is to manage their daily activities and operations in accordance with the organization’s primary goals. The effectiveness of executive governance is attributed to the delegation of daily operations and authority to the executive team. This ensures that Justice Connect can swiftly make decisions quickly, adapting to the emergence of legal needs.
Stakeholders Governance
The organization has incorporated various stakeholders within its framework to ensure efficiency in decision making. These stakeholders include legal professionals, lawyers, volunteers, and community groups. Through a strong stakeholder’s governance, Justice Connect ensures that the organization can leverage available resources and expertise manpower to respond to arising community needs.
Operational Governance
Through its operational level programs, such as digital resources, self-help programs, legal guidance programs, and pro bono legal assistance program, Justice Connect can implement guiding procedures and policies. Operational level governance ensures that emerging legal needs are delt with effectively and efficiently satisfying their community needs.
Policy Governance
Policies set for adherence within the organization and its framework are set strategically by the board to provide a legal framework that supports community engagements, community-based advocacy, and legal assistance. Policy setting and adherence is critical for the organization’s survival. They ensure that Justice Connect’s ventures align with its primary goals and mission statement.
Network Governance
Justice Connect’s networking and collaboration programs are defining factors for the organization’s success in legal support services. The organization collaborates with legal professionals, community groups, lawyers, and other law firms to deliver its legal assistance to the Australian community. Programs such as pro bono legal assistance solely depend on networking, governance, and collaborations to enhance effective and efficient legal representation.
This combination of corporate governance structure ensures that Justice Connect operate within a clear framework, respond effectively to emerging legal issues, and provide legal assistance through leveraging stakeholder’s resources and expertise. Through collaborations and swift decision-making processes adopted by the organization, Justice Connect can effectively create legal awareness and address existing systemic legal issues. For example, systemic legal challenges facing marginalized communities in Australia such as the Aboriginal People and the Torres Strait Islander People, institutional racism affecting growing communities of African and Asian Heritage, systemic racism and stigmatization facing the Muslim community, and financial challenges arising from recurring economic shocks!
Employees’ Challenges at Justice Connect
Some of the challenges facing employees at Justice Connect community organization include an enormous amount of workload, emerging resource limitations, and emotional exhaustion. Because of the nature and intensity associated with legal work and procedures, providing legal assistance and support requires employees to commit to huge workloads. Often Justice Connect employees face high levels or burnout and stress. Working with vulnerable individuals, groups, and communities can be emotionally taxing due to the specifics of said vulnerabilities and the complexity of their legal cases. In other cases, employees at the organization face limitations of funding, manpower shortage for legal assistance in specific field of expertise, and other essential resources making it difficult to provide quality legal support to the community.
Theories of Motivation as a Remedy
To keep employees motivated plays an essential role in the success of the organization. Without it, Justice Connect can experience shortcomings when responding to legal need in the community. As a remedy, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need can be used.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need argues that individuals in organizational settings are often motivated by a number of hierarchical needs that must be fulfilled to ensure employee’s consistency. These needs include physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization needs. Physiological needs allow employees to have a comfortable working environment with ample breaks and resource availability. Safety needs provide employees with mental health care and wellbeing and assure employees about their job security. Social need enriches open communication within the organization and foster team building engagements. Esteemed needs are designed to recognize achievements and reward commendable behaviors. They also offer personal and career development opportunities for the employees. Self-actualization needs provide support to employees and make it possible for them to pursues their interests and passions. They also provide opportunities for employee’s creativity and growth to prosper.
References
Justice Connect, (n.d.). Get legal help for your situation. https://www.nfplaw.org.au/free-resources/who-runs-the-organisation/responsibilities-of-the-board-and-committee-members
Justice Connect, (n.d.). Our pro bono members. https://justiceconnect.org.au/about/our-members/
Justice Connect, (n.d.). Our team and board. https://justiceconnect.org.au/about/our-team/