Running head: PROMOTING PLANNED PARENTHOOD Rivera 1

Promoting Planned Parenthood

Maria Rivera

South Texas College

ORGL 4351- Management Theory II

Dr. Romeo Benavidez

Spring 2020
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Promoting Planned Parenthood

Managers working in a profit or non-profit organization will always face challenges such

as knowing how to manage employees efficiently. Being a manager is not an easy job, it might

come with a good salary but it is not a job that anyone can handle. To be an effective manager it

takes having a combination of good interpersonal skills, planning skills, conflict management

skills, decision-making skills, self-control along many other skills needed to be a superior

manager. It doesn’t mean that every new manager will come with all the necessary skills but the

new hired manager will need to be a motivated individual willing to learn what it takes to be an

effective manager.

I have selected Planned Parenthood to demonstrate how certain strategies could be used

in order to make the clinic successful. Planned Parenthood is a nonprofit organization originally

founded by a nurse named Margaret Sanger in the year 1916. Sanger “had a revolutionary idea

that women should control their own bodies-and thus their own destinies” (Planned Parenthood,

2019). Margaret was raised in a large Irish family that consisted of 10 siblings. Sanger’s mother

went through a total of 11 pregnancies and 7 miscarriages causing her overall health to weaken

within time. With such a weak immune system Sanger’s mother contracted tuberculosis causing

her death at an early age of 50 years old. Her mother’s story was Margaret’s inspiration to

educate herself about birth control methods.

It’s been over 100 years since the start of Planned Parenthood. What once started with

only three women and one clinic, has now reached over 600 clinics in the United States and has

about 1,200 employees. Planned Parenthood offers low cost or no-cost health care for anyone

who is sexually active or is curious to know about safe contraception methods or anything

involving sex. Many individuals are under the misconception that Planned Parenthood only
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offers abortions which is not the case. These clinics offer more than we know, some of their

services include preventative health care services such as HIV testing, STD testing, pregnancy

testing, and LGBT services along with other general health care services.

Many folks believe these types of nonprofit organizations are funded by the taxpayers,

which is not the case. The doctors and nurses working for the clinic are compensated by

Medicaid for providing preventative medical services. Medicaid is a government-funded health

insurance program that helps low-income individuals receive the necessary preventative health

services. Planned Parenthood also receives a big part of its funding from Title X government

funds. The remaining of their funds are received by donations.

One of the most well-known methods that managers from Planned Parenthood should use

is the Management by Objectives (MBO). The MBO method can be used when evaluating an

employee or when setting new goals for the employee. Management by Objective is a strategy

that will benefit both the employee and the organization and will help them reach the desired

goals that were set in place. “In brief, the system of management by objectives can be described

as a process whereby the superior and subordinate managers of an organization jointly identify

its common goals, define each individual’s major areas of responsibility in terms of the results

expected, and use these measures as guides for operating the unit and assessing the contribution

of each of its members” (Odiorne, p.53)

Just like most strategies, there are some advantages and disadvantages when using the

MBO method. One of the disadvantages is that managers at the time of doing the evaluations do

not focus on each objective as they should. “Many organizations look to MBO as an instant

solution to their problems. They fail to realize that MBO programs require careful planning and

implementation to be successful” (Meggison, 1989). Managers end up focusing on all objectives

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at the same time causing to not give the best feedback to the employee. Other disadvantages

towards the MBO are the lack of following up with the goals not only from the managers but

from the employee as well. Also, it can cause difficulties in creating a set of goals and objectives

if the position is not well understood. If the manager does not understand what the employee's

position objective is then the performance review will not be effective.

Some of the advantages of Management by Objective would be the creation of a clear

strategy that would help both the organization and the employee improve in order to achieve

certain goals that will benefit both. For instance, if an employee at Planned Parenthood

constantly achieves their goals such as bringing in a certain amount of new patients every month

then that employee will have a higher chance of becoming a manager. As for the clinic, they

would have gained new patients, making it a win-win situation. Another important advantage

would be the outcome which should be higher productivity from the employee.

The first plan of action for planned parenthood would be to promote themselves as much

as possible. In order for that to happen, it would have to start with the employees promoting the

organization. Planned parenthood has many health care services that are unknown to many

citizens. An objective that should be in place for every employee should be to plan an outreach

activity at random places or at community events. The purpose of this would be to educate

people about the services that are offered at planned parenthood. By doing this the number of

patients will increase gradually. Below is a 3-year plan to produce new patients.
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growth in New Patients

400

350 374

300
297
250
New Patients

240
200

150

100

50

0
2020 2021 2022

There is another method which is the Balanced Scorecard that could be used to help the

clinic in four different ways. The balanced scorecard is a tool used by an organization to find out

which project they need to prioritize. The balanced scorecard is made out of four measuring units

that will help identify and monitor the progress towards a certain goal. The four sections that are

monitored are customer service, organization's financials, internal operations and the outcome

which is the learning and growth section.

An ideal plan of action could be to bring in more monetary donations into the

organization. As previously mentioned Planned Parenthood receives government grants and

donations in order to keep the clinic running. Planned Parenthood could send managers from the

clinic along with doctors to talk to businesses in hopes to get their support and possibly become

prospective monetary donors for Planned Parenthood. Below is a 3-year plan that could be

expected to achieve financial gain if the communication between the clinic and the potential

contributor is effective.
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Monetary Donations

2022 $407,000.00

2021 $341,000.00

2020 $237,000.00

0 50000 100000 150000 200000 250000 300000 350000 400000 450000

Management by Objective and Balanced Scorecard is one of the most used strategies in a

business. If these methods are used correctly, then Planned Parenthood can and will see a

difference in their financial gains and on their new customer growth. Planned Parenthood needs

to promote themselves in order to continue to offer low cost or even free health care services for

those who qualify.

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References

Dennis G. Erwin Andrew N. Garman, (2010), "Resistance to organizational change: linking

research and practice", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 31 Iss 1

pp. 39 – 56

Landwehr, C & Pauls J. (2015). “Vitae Foundation.” https://vitaefoundation.org/part-one-

strengths-weaknesses-planned-parenthood-brand.

Megginson, L.C., Mosley, D.C. & Pietri, P.H. (1989). “Management: concepts and

Applications”. HarperCollins Publishers.

Odiorne, G. S. (1979). “MBO II, a system of managerial leadership for the 80s.” Fearon

Pitman Publishers

Planned Parenthood Federation of America. (2019). “Who We Are”

https://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are

Skow, A. (2016). “Planned Parenthood of America SWOT Analysis.”

https://umnjour1001.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/swot-planned-parenthood.pdf

Synnott Kevin, (2017) Management by Objectives: An Overview SSRN Electronic Journal

(Distributed). Research Gate.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320386901_Management_by_Objectives_An_

Overview_SSRN_Electronic_Journal_Distributed/citation/download
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