2: Values and Principles in Public Management

Background

If one were to explore a single most important aspect of an NGO, then he or she should examine the organization’s core values or principles. Organizational structure and goals are important but these become meaningless if they are not rooted in the organization’s core values.

The National Center for Refugees and Immigrants (NCRIC), unfortunately, does not explicitly list its organization’s values or principles on its website. Furthermore, the main organization, USCRI, also does not indicate the values and principles the organization holds on to while pursuing its mission.

During my internship experience with NCRIC, although my supervisor did not tell me clearly of what USCRI’s or NCRIC’s core values are, there are two values that prevail within the organization--responsibility and accountability.On the other hand, I believe NCRIC’s limitation in terms of values is the lack of equity in delivering service.

Analysis

Through our class discussions and readings, we have learned that organization’s mission needs to be aligned with its core values. Furthermore, all organizations as well as its staff members should act upon their espoused values within and beyond the organizations. Since NCRIC does not have an explicit list of core values, the first step is to have the leaders and the staff members gather together to reflect, discuss, and develop a set of core values that are aligned to its mission.

As I mentioned earlier, the two values--responsibility, a personal value, and accountability, a process value--prevail within NCRIC. Interns and volunteers are called “Immigration Assistant” and each of them has his/her own cases of children and is responsible for these cases until the case is closed, which means the judge has declared his/her decision towards the child. The immigration assistants are responsible to contact the child and develop a trust relationship with him/her in order to be able to get the details of the child’s life story/journey to the U.S. Immigration assistants are accountable to these children because they have to write a detailed, compelling, and truthful memo summarizing these children’s situation and why they deserve to receive a legal status to remain in the U.S. These memos are then submitted to the case managers for edits and are sent to a network of pro-bono lawyers that support NCRIC’s work; thus, the accountability system also exists among immigration assistants, case managers, and pro-bono lawyers. However, NCRIC lacks this one particular value that causes conflict between the organization and the immigration assistants--equity.

As an immigration assistant, my personal value of impartiality conflicted with the organization’s refusal of accepting cases whose children are accompanied by a parent or other family member. Although NCRIC’s priority target audience is “unaccompanied” and its mission specifies to help “unaccompanied children,” it has always been a challenge as an immigration assistant because there are many referrals and constant phone calls from accompanied children who seek help from NCRIC. It certainly needs more research and exploration but I believe that accompanied children are also vulnerable because the majority of the parents or the family member accompanying the child are undocumented, which is a significant factor for vulnerability; these undocumented adults are vulnerable because they also have to cross the U.S.-Mexican border illegally. Children, in general, are indeed more vulnerable when they are by themselves than when they have an adult, but when these adults are also vulnerable and cannot protect or defend themselves, I believe that children who are accompanied are as vulnerable as those who are unaccompanied.

There are instances when NCRIC takes cases of children who are accompanied; however, these cases have to be referred by a major donor of the organization, the Vera Institute. Whenever these cases were taken, I felt that my personal moral principle, specifically the value of impartiality, was challenged. When this issue was brought to a discussion with my supervisor, she explained that this limitation is present due to lack of funding. In addition to the fact that refusing “accompanied children” cases conflict with important personal values in public management, equity/impartiality, since there are many “accompanied children” cases referred in general and due to the fact that the organization’s definition of vulnerability is challengeable, I believe that NCRIC should begin to find ways to expand its service towards a broader target audience.

Recommendations

• • NCRIC should develop a set of core values that are align to organization’s mission and vision. Furthermore, the organization’s leaders should ensure that the staff members as well as themselves act upon NCRIC’s espoused values within and beyond the organization.

  • NCRIC should evaluate its mission statement and the extent of vulnerability of the children who are accompanied.

  • NCRIC should begin a project to expand its target audience by requesting grants from previous or new donors. Moreover, the organization should also begin to explore new ways to generate more income, such as fundraising events.