TALENT ACQUISITION AND RETENTION CHALLENGES FOR RURAL MARKETING
Submitted to Submitted by
Proff Vijaya Lakshmi R Mohan Shantha Kumar
Abstract
Over the years there has been a phenomenal growth in the number of social enterprises in
India. This is partly a consequence of a new policy of the government to gradually withdraw
from social development activities. The gap thus created is being filled by social enterprises. A social enterprise can be a ‘for-profit’ or ‘not- for-profit’ venture engaged in income-generating activities with an agenda of bringing about a positive change in the society. While social enterprises are engaged in the development of people, it is ...view middle of the document...
Collectively these strategies seem to suggest that social enterprises adopt a ‘partnership paradigm’ for managing their employees.
Introduction
Social development in developing countries has traditionally been viewed as the responsibility of the governments because of the massive scale of its operations and the limited or no capacity of its beneficiaries to pay for the services. While the need for social development in developing countries is enormous, the resources available even with the governments are limited. Besides, the government machinery and the bureaucracy are ill-equipped to monitor the implementation of social development projects at the grass-root level. Hence, over the years, governments in the developing countries adopted a policy of gradual withdrawal from various social development activities. This has created multiple voids in the social realm which have been filled by nongovernmental agencies commonly known as nonprofits. The nonprofits play an increasingly important role in providing services, for which the public and the private sector lack time, information, resources and inclination. They advocate for a variety of social, political, environmental, ethnic, and community interests and concerns, contribute to the social and cultural life of the society, and actively participate in community building (Salamon, Sokolowski & List, 2003). They combine economic and market forces with social goals (Vigoda & Cohen, 2003) and their employees are expected to fulfill business requirements as well as strictly adhere to ethics, accountability, and equity in services. The nonprofit organizations, in the course of their service, face several challenges in terms of reductions in government funding,
decline in charitable contributions, competition from for-profit providers of certain services, and demands for increasingly higher levels of accountability.
In recent times, however, an increasing number of non-profits have been seeking additional
revenues by behaving more like for-profit organizations. According to Dees (1998), the
nonprofits are scrambling to find commercial opportunities for a number of reasons. First, a new pro-business zeitgeist has made for-profit initiatives more acceptable. With the apparent triumph of capitalism worldwide, market forces are being widely celebrated. There is a growing confidence in the power of competition and the profit motive to promote efficiency and innovation in development organizations. Second, many social enterprises believe that
institutional charity can undermine beneficiaries’ self esteem and create a sense of
helplessness and dependence; self-reliance is the new mantra. Third, the sources of funds
available to nonprofits are tending to favor more commercial approaches. There is greater
availability of money for operating on a more commercial basis. Lastly, and most importantly, social enterprises view income-generating activities as a more reliable funding source than...
