Subversion can be a rise from the ashes: Building an inverted pyramid in nonprofit sectors

“The inverted pyramid of management” challenges the traditional way of management with bureaucracy. Based on the tenet “The only reason there are staff is because of the mission: there are people to serve. The only reason there are managers is because the staff doing the service need support” (Brinckerhoff, 2009, p.99), the executive director, who used to enjoy absolute authority, turns out to be at the bottom of the pyramid, with the line staff at the top and the people being served at the very top (Brinkerhoff, 2009).

In the book, How to Change the World, Veronica Khosa, who established an organization called Tateni Home Care Service engaging to help people suffer from AIDS in South Africa, adopted the inverted pyramid of management consciously or unconsciously in managing issues within the organization. She definitely knows manager’s mission is to support staffs and she offers this support in many ways. For example, she reserved half of her retirement package to hold up Tateni, and provided health training process for her staffs. Moreover, she knows as well that the people being served should be put at the very top. As we can see from the book, she provided all the services based on people’s needs. She found ways to teach staffs to appraise the patient’s illness and develop a care plan based on patients’ wishes, when she realized that families are reluctant to receive help from Tateni because they didn’t want others know that they are suffered from AIDS, she redefined Tateni as having general approach. In short, she made every decision and every change based on peoples’ will.

Social entrepreneurs are more likely to use the inverted pyramid of management, because they set up their organizations based on their willingness to help people. They see peoples’ needs, feel the insufficiencies these needs are met, and are willing to make changes. From this initiation, they are already put the people being served at the very top. In this case, Khosa saw people who suffer from AIDS lacked basic care from the hospital, and were shocked by people dying before her eyes. These are triggers for her to establish Tateni, and remind her to put people in need at the first place. Also, Social entrepreneurs can put this method management one step further by involving people being served in the staff members, exactly like what Khosa did. She finds a way for patients who are healthy enough to cook to earn money by preparing meals for those who were too ill and teaches students to help their relatives (Brinkerhoff, 2007). By this way, the staffs and the “customers” kind of mixed, which enables staffs to know immediately the “customers’ needs” and find ways to supplement them. It also gives chances for people who used to merely in need to make some contributions to others.