Introduction (Jose)

Captain Hopes Kids is a non-profit organization located in Dallas, Texas that helps
support homeless children within the North Texas area. During the 1980s a group of wellknown comedian/actors led by Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, and Whoopi Goldberg began a
campaign to raise awareness of the growing number of homelessness in the United States. This
movement sparked a curiosity to the original founder who wanted to make a change, said Jeanne
Reyer. As a self made millionaire, this individual grouped a circle of his friends to form Hope
Foundation in 1989. Hope Foundations original mission was to provide monetary grants to local
homeless shelters, but in early 1990s, Hope Foundation refocused their attention to the rising
number of homeless mothers and children living in local shelters. In 1994, the organization voted
to change the name of the organization to Captain Hopes Kids and redirected their resources to
meet the immediate needs of homeless children.
In Dallas, approximately 1,100 children live in shelters, in churches, with relatives, or
friends. Essentially these children do not have a permanent place they can call home. The
shelters are unable to provide the necessities for each family, so Captain Hopes mission is to
fulfill the critical needs of homeless children across the metroplex with the help of donors,
partnerships, special events sponsors, and programs designed to collect a particular household
item each month. They pledge to make every effort to provide clothing, critical needs, and
warmth to the young homeless. The children range from infants and toddlers to school-age
teenagers with an emphasis in hygiene, school supplies, holidays, and birthdays. Items are
collected from large corporations to individuals or through an organized collection drive and
they also accept cash donation or volunteer time.

Captain Hopes Kids is led by a Board of Directors, an Advisory Board, and Staff. Board
members meet every third Friday of every month and receive no compensation for their
continued support. The Advisory board gets together twice a month to discuss strategic plans and
planned events. The staff meets weekly to discuss their ongoing task, issues, and goals. Their
main office of operation is located at 10555 Newkirk, suite 580 Dallas TX 75220. The small
office space was generously provided by a donor for use and includes a small warehouse space
for inventory. Recently, Captain Hopes acquired a second location dedicated for storage not far
from their existing location.
Jeanne Reyer is the executive director for Captain Hopes with twenty-plus years
working in a non-profit organization. Sam Maddox is the program director who is responsible of
the warehouse inventory, event planning, and distribution. As technology director, Brenda
Cannon brings her Information Technology expertise to help support the social media
applications, the communication channels to volunteers and sponsors, while keeping everything
current with up-to-date feeds. Recently, the organization expanded their staff with an accounting
assistant, warehouse assistant, driver, and a part-time position that assists all areas.
Volunteers are welcome to assist the organization daily or at special events. The Texas
Workforce Commission provides up to five volunteers weekly. Stream Energy, the largest
marketer of energy in America, has dedicated their time to supporting Captain Hopes with
diaper drive, school supply drive, or Hawaiian Falls admissions. Craig Miller, a local sports radio
personality, hosts the annual golf tournament each year at Prestonwood Country Club and
promotes the organization on-air during his rush hour morning show, The Dunham and Miller
Show.

Throughout the year, Captain Hopes campaigns three major special events geared at
collecting items for a particular cause. In spring, they collect plastic eggs, candies, and Easter
baskets, then host an Easter Egg Extravaganza to the children who are unable to attend one of
their own. The summer event focuses on school supplies for all grade level. The objective of this
drive is to provide the children with all of the materials needed to succeed in school. A typical
backpack in the Dallas Independent School District can account for an average cost of $90. Their
goal each year is to fulfill enough supplies for 3,000 children. Finally, Christmas is a season
precious to most of the staff because every child should have a present to open. They collect
toys, used clothing, and winter coats for winter.
In conclusion, Captain Hopes Kids mission to provide the critical needs to homeless
children has been difficult the past several years. The economic downturn of recent years has
placed a damper to their fundraising effort of achieving their goal. Financial grants are difficult
to request because there are now a large number of organizations seek the same reward. The
strain caused by the lack of funding can have a huge impact to the core team of Captain Hopes
stress level, motivation, job satisfaction, and the overall commitment of the team.

Organizational Commitment (Dorothy)

One of the two key factors of the Individual Outcome is Organizational Commitment
(OC). OC is a psychological state that shows the desire to be continuing as a member/worker at
an organization. OC is the most important influence to whether an employee will continue to
work with the company or engage in turnover. Usually, an employee with low OC will has
higher chance of engage in withdraw behavior. Withdraw behavior is showed when an employee
behave in the way that they can avoid work, and certain situation. At Captain Hopes Kids,
majority of employees and volunteers have really strong commitment to what they are doing.
Organizational behavior defined them as affective commitment people. Affective commitment
refers to the degree to which a person who wants to continue to work for their organization due
to emotion-based such as feeling of involvement and enjoys. A great example of affective
commitment is Jeanne, an executive director of Captain Hopes Kids. Jeanne has been work with
Captain Hopes Kids for 11 years and other non-profit organizations for the rest of her life.
Jeanne has really strong passion in giving and helping others. Jeanne would love to continue to
work with Captain Hopes Kids if she doesnt have problem with her leg, that is the reason why
she still with Captain Hopes Kids at the age of 68.
I mentioned that Captain Hopes Kids volunteers are really strong in organizational
commitment too because lot of them are commit to their passion. They show up weekly, or
biweekly to volunteer, an uncompensated work. They do it because they enjoy it and they feel
the passion. However, organizational commitment can be affect by many different factors such
as job satisfaction, stress, ability, flexibility, motivation and etcetera. Sam, a program director, is

an example of a person who is lowering down his organizational commitment level due to stress,
ability and flexibility. Sam was a successful corporate worker. He has a small family with two
kids. He started working for Captain Hopes Kids because of his passion of giving and helping
children. Sam gave up lot of his family time because of long work hours and long drive; he also
gave up a higher pay job. After close to three years with Captain Hopes Kids, Sam feels that he
need to move on with a different job, so he can spend more time with his family, and make more
money to save for his kids education. In brief, organizational commitment is major psychological
state that leading a person to leave or to stay with an organization. Any company/organization
should always raise their bar and keep up with their employees or members commitment so they
can make change to improve and keep those employees.

Stress (Tue)
Stress is a visible aspect of the operations at Captain Hopes Kids. All three executives
that we interviewedJeanne, Brenda, and Samdisplayed a high level of stress. They suffer
from hindrance stressors, but also benefit and grow by overcoming challenge stressors. They also
practice some stress-coping techniques to maintain high productivity and healthy relationships.
Jeanne, Brenda, and Sam all share the work hindrance stressor of role overload. Working
for a small non-profit that combats a huge problemchild homelessnessthe three executives
must handle several areas of operations that usually dont overlap. Long hour work weeks are a
norm: Sam usually works more than 60 hours per week while Jeanne describes her and Brendas
schedules as very busy year-round.
Brenda is in charge of financing, marketing, and information. Previously a Microsoft
employee, Brenda can work effectively in with computer systems and social media, yet she lacks
the insight of a business marketer and a financial planner. Brenda admitted that she knew little
about non-profit financing when she first joined Captain Hopes Kids seven years ago, and has
been educating herself in this area ever since. Financing is especially stressful to her, because
any revenue generated would trickle down and affect everything the organization does. Brenda is
most occupied during the early months of the year, when fundraising from the previous year rolls
over and Brenda has to create a workable budget.
Brenda copes with this stress creativelyand naturally. She takes joy in learning new
things, and thus views her responsibilities as an opportunity to learn and grow. When marketing
and fundraising results dont match her expectations, Brenda simply opens business textbooks
and teaches herself how to get better. She utilizes cognitive methods of coping with work
stressors, and turns those stressors from hindrance to challenge.

Tasked with overseeing all operational activities, Jeanne, the executive director, is likely
the one most loaded with roles and duties. She must wear every hat there is in the organization,
and help any staff member in need. Jeanne is also the human resources person for Captain
Hopes Kids, responsible for keeping her staff happy and motivated.
Jeanne has an advantage over Sam and Brenda in coping with stress: shes too familiar
with it to notice much strain. Whereas her reports switched to Captain Hopes Kids from big
corporations, Jeanne has been in non-profits for nearly 30 years. Jeanne has stopped seeing her
work as stress, and simply deals with challenges as they come. She also enjoys the little things,
like reading a newspaper during lunch, to distract herself off of stress.
As Captain Hopes Kids maintains two large warehouses of various items, Sam is
constantly at work trying to deliver those supplies to homeless kids. He deals with stress a bit
differently from Brenda and Jeanne. When things get very busy, Sam would just work harder and
longer. Sam goes to the office very early in the morning, and he oftentimes works during the
weekend as well. On those Saturdays and Sundays that he works, Sam would bring his daughter
to the office so he can spend some time with her. He also shows his little girl the great things he
does to help homeless children; this, for him, is a great joy and a greater stress relief.
Nonwork hindrances are a bigger source of stress for Sam. He lives far away and has to
commute about an hour each way to get to work. More importantly, the long hours spent at work
and on the road mean that Sam cant be with his family as much as he would like. A true family
person, Sam regards this as a pain, and he doesnt have any good coping mechanism for it. His
plan is to work his hardest every week, burn himself out, and then leave the organization in about
three years. Driven by and committed to his work as ever, Sam acknowledges that this is the way
it has to be, and strives to bring Captain Hopes Kids to new heights before he leaves.

Motivation (Dina)
What really motivates Sam, Jeanne, Brenda, and the rest of the workers? It can be safely
said that compensation would be on the lower scale of the meter. Finding funding and donors are
an aspect of their jobs that the executives pay very close attention to. Working for a non-profit
organization requires a lot of dedication and patience. Sam, Jeanne, and Brenda have not only
that, but also a vision of what Captain Hopes Kids should be in the future, even though a couple
of them are stepping down in the next few years.
Sam has given up a successful corporate career in order to be a part of the non-profit
world. Even though he cannot spend nearly as much time as he would like with his family,
giving back to the community is something Sam feels very strongly about. He truly feels that this
is the happiest period of his life. Sams main motivator is for the kids to not get bullied and stay
in school and he has worked very hard over the past few years to get closer to his desire.
Jeanne has been in the non-profit world for all of her working life, including eleven years
with Captain Hopes Kids. Like other staff members and volunteers, Jeannes motivation behind
all of her hard work is to help others and give back to the community.
Brenda, on the other hand, does not seem to be too motivated to continue working with
Captain Hopes Kids. She has joined the team after only a few volunteering events and has been

working there for seven year; yet, she feels that there is something else she could be doing and
that this job is not the right place for her.
Most of the workers are motivated by the desire and joy of seeing the homeless kids
smiles as they are receiving items that could contribute in achievement of their goals and dreams.
Emotional cues are a big part of the jobs; the feelings and thanks that the workers get before,
during and after the donation process are priceless and cannot be replaced by any materialistic
matters.
There is a substantial level of engagement required from every staff members. Every
single one of them is fully on board and will work extra hours, battle traffic, work on their days
off in order to provide the kids with basic needs, such as diapers, water and clothes.

Teams (Tyler)
The team of Captain Hopes Kids is broken down into three characteristics: team types,
team interdependence, and team composition. The organization has two separate teams, the
volunteers (who are as not as permanent) and the administrative staff. The volunteers of the
organization are classified as a project team because they mostly help with the physical and
inventory labor and volunteer for any special events the organization does. There are some
volunteers who have a longer time span with the organization, while other volunteers are there
for a brief period of time. They are usually sent by the Texas Workforce Commission (part of the
unemployment services). The administrative staff (the more permanent workers), unlike the
work teams, who focus on doing the core operational-level production and service tasks (Colquitt
pg), are described as management teams, because they are mostly responsible for coordinating
the activities of different departments. These members are directors of their department.
The team interdependence of the organization varies between the two kinds of teams. The
volunteer teams task interdependence would be described as a sequential interdependence, in
which different tasks are done in a prescribed order and the volunteers are set up where each
member has a specific task they do (Colquitt pg). For instance, tasks such as unloading trucks,
counting stock, and filling stock shelves are all done in sequential order, relying on each
volunteer to do their task so that the others can proceed to the next step. This degree of
coordination is low compared to the administrative staffs task interdependence.
The administrative staffs interdependence is classified as a comprehensive
interdependence, where the level of interaction and coordination among members is high; staff

members significantly rely on one another for task completion (Colquitt pg). The staff at Captain
Hopes Kids are directors of their own department, for example, theres a board of directors, to
whom the Executive Director (Jeanne) reports to, the Financing/ Branding director (Brenda), the
Inventory director (Sam), and the accountant, reports to Jeanne. The three that reported to
Jeanne, also must rely on each other. When it comes to goal interdependence, overall, both of the
two separate teams has a shared vision of the organizations cause or goal to help out homeless
kids in Dallas. The two teams outcome interdependence, or the level of feedback and outcomes
they receive are low because the organization is more concerned that every worker does their job
right and on time. There is no evidence of an annual evaluation or rewards for co-workers tasks
are not very frequent.
The staffs composition is made up of five characteristics: team size, member roles,
member ability, member personality, and team diversity. The team size consist of 6 members, the
organization is small for a management team. The member roles are distinguished by a leaderstaff team. The Executive Director, Jeanne, provides direction and control over members who
performed assigned tasks (Colquitt pg). Most of the staff under Jeanne, have roles of being
procedural-technician, or doing tasks to keep progress moving in the organization. Jeanne role is
the coordinator because of her authority over the staff members. However, because of Sams (the
inventory director) enthusiasm and motivating others to do their best, his role is an energizer.
The staffs member ability is more based on their cognitive abilities, the staff learns and is aware
of others tasks and roles. These member abilities result in additive tasks, where the staffs
abilities add up to determine organizations performance (Colquitt Pg). The member personality
of the staff is seen as very agreeable, everyone is cooperative and has positive attitudes while
working. Another personality trait of the staff, that compliments their cooperative and positive

behavior is that they are high conscientious, they are all very hard working and reliable towards
one another. Lastly, the staffs personality has diverse attitudes from one another, however, these
attitudes do not affect the staffs task performance. Some staff members have more optimistic
attitudes than others, however, these different attitudes don't interfere with the staffs task
objectives. Since the size of the staff is small, there is no similarity-attraction approach evident,
the staff has relative cohesiveness.

Recommendations
1. Managing stress
High stress level quite heavily strains the team at Captain Hopes Kids. The intensive
amount of work is burning out Sam, who already plans for his exit three years from now. Jeanne
and Brenda didnt talk too much about stress, but they admitted that they feel occupied by work
all year, without any off time or easy season.
To relieve stress for the staff, Jeanne can implement a stress management program at the
office that begins with a stress audit. As the executive director, Jeanne may sit down with her
staff members and listen to their main concerns. The point is for Jeanne to understand what the

source of the stress is. With this knowledge, she can either reduce the stressors or provide more
resources accordingly.
In Brendas case, a lot of the stress comes from overwhelming work and lack of expertise
in finance and marketing. Jeanne can allot two or three days each month for Brenda to stay off
work and focus on skill development. For example, in those sabbatical days, Brenda can take a
course in fundraising or marketing, or attend networking events to expand her connections and
learn from the professionals. As Brenda progresses in her learning, she will feel more
comfortable with her roles and be able to work more effectively. Jeanne can also provide
additional resources by personally tutoring Brenda and giving her emotional support.
The main stressors for Captain Hopes Kids staff, work overload and slow-growing
revenue, primarily result from a lack of manpower. The organization is only truly complete with
the additions of a fundraiser and a marketer, or someone who can perform well as both. The
former is crucially important. Here, the deficiency creates a self-perpetuating cycle: Captain
Hopes Kids needs a fundraiser to increase revenue, yet it cant afford a new employee with its
current financials. The longer the cycle exists, the more stress Jeanne, Brenda and Sam would
experience.
Captain Hopes Kids can only break this cycle with a drastic, and difficult, action:
limiting the scope of its overall operations and using the spare resources to hire a good non-profit
fundraiser. This action will affect some of the organizations programs, but in the long run it will
be beneficial in two ways. First, the new fundraiser will help secure more funding from donors
and corporates. This is no wild guess: Sam describes the organization as one of the largest nonprofits youve never heard of, meaning that Captain Hopes Kids only needs more outreach to
realize its full operational potential. Second, as theyre freed from financing responsibilities, the

current staff can focus on their specialized areas. They can work less hours and yet get more
things done. Both these effects will inevitably reduce individual stress for Jeanne, Brenda, and
Sam.
2. Minimizing team disruption during the hiring process
In order to continue their success, Captain Hopes Kids will need to begin the process of
hiring a replacement leader for Jeanne, who will leave some time in the next 12 months. The new
hire will need to understand the role of all staff members and how they interact to accomplish the
teams work. In addition, the organization is in dire need of a fundraiser, who focuses on
generating revenue from large corporations, philanthropists, and foundations. With two new
members being added, the team structure at Captain Hopes Kids will surely see changes. New
members will experience a stage of storming, in which they remain committed to their previous
ideas or behaviors. A high-level hire is always challenging in this aspect.
One way Captain Hopes Kids can overcome the storming process is to stagger their
hiring processes. They should look for a fundraiser first, and get her aboard before Jeanne leaves.
Jeanne can train the fundraiser thoroughly, thanks to her vast experience in the industry and her
familiarity with Captain Hopes Kids. Jeane can clarify the responsibilities of the fundraiser,
which is to promote the mission of Captain Hopes Kids directly to each donor and procure their
financial support.
Once the fundraiser has successfully adapted to her new work environment and
colleagues, Jeanne and the board can start their hiring process for the new executive director.
Another storming process will occur, both for the new hire and the existing staff. Having one
storming process follow another in this manner, instead of stacking them or reversing the order,

will ensure that the team viability remains high. The new executive director will also get
comfortable faster if she has an already functional team under her command.
The new hires must be interconnected with the other members. The new director should
possess a team task role as an initiator-contributor. The importance of this role is to find
alternative solutions to better the efficiency in the workflow. The fundraiser role of providing
information to others will help manage the stress of financing the non-profit. Information should
be given to potential donors to inform them of the rising number of homeless children in the
metroplex. Most businesses are unaware of the growing problem but are willing to provide
support. Both positions are deemed an important factor to the continuous growth of the
organization.

3. Creating a constructive annual review process

In such a small organization, assigned jobs are an enormous part of productivity. Captain
Hopes Kids consists of a very small number of dedicated employees that know their job and do
it very well. They proclaim themselves the specialists in what they do, and rightly so. Yet, one of
the staff members, Brenda, seems to not know if she is doing a good job, and may be feeling
under-appreciated. Although she puts in a lot of hours both inside and outside of the office, it is
never communicated to her by the executives whether or not she is doing a good job or if there
are areas in her job skills that need improvement.
Lack of communication within the workforce can be a very big issue that will affect job
performance and organizational commitment. Based on this observation, the organization should
implement an annual 360-degree feedback program. Each one of the employees of the

organization, including the executives, should give every worker a performance review,
including self-assessed feedback.
Once the data have been collected, it should be put together, excluding the name of the
contributors, thus guaranteeing anonymity and avoiding difficult situations and relationships
between the workers. Performance recommendations should be given based on the comments
received. Not only should the reviewer give constructive criticism to the employees, but also he
or she should point out the strengths of each team member, raising their self-esteem and, thus,
motivating them to work harder.