Main Content
Social and Public Management
Collaboration, Assistance, Sociocultural Project Management, Social Economics
Nowadays, social, cultural, and public activities also need to be managed. These include unemployment support centers, workshops for people with disabilities, social services centers, village stores, secondhand furniture stores, clothing and food banks, youth centers, cultural cafés, community meeting places, and much more. Someone, sometimes alone, sometimes collectively, has to ensure that the institution runs smoothly, that it can achieve its goals, and that its employees are doing well. Yes, this also involves economic efficiency and effectiveness, budgets and monitoring, but not only in a monetary, profit-oriented sense. While in business administration, the “stakeholder value,” the value of all factors that affect a company, is one of many factors for successful management, it is precisely this value that plays a decisive role in social management. It is about submitting applications at the right time, knowing who processes the applications, maintaining the association’s structure alongside business operations, balancing the interests of volunteers and employees, resolving conflicts between different visitor groups, reporting to the board, and somehow keeping the whole thing attractive enough that people actually want to take advantage of what is on offer. Social management is the virtuoso playing of the strings of social networks, and who else could be trusted to understand this game but those who know social structures? To move from “understanding” to “doing,” there is still a lot to learn (conversation skills, leadership, project management), but the most important thing is to do “it,” to gain experience, from student council meetings to AStA parties to volunteer agencies.
Possible Tasks
-You locate your institution in the respective functional network and, based on this, identify its tasks and target group(s) as well as other relevant actors within and outside the network. You regularly analyze current and upcoming developments in connection with regional factors and strategically align your institution accordingly.
-You coordinate the institution’s objectives and efforts and assume responsibility for staff. You evaluate staffing requirements and inventory and organize recruitment procedures as well as further education and training efforts.
-You maintain an overview of internal and external communications channels and content and ensure the exchange of information between relevant actors in your field (information and communications management).
-You regularly monitor to check whether targets are being met and adjust the objectives accordingly. You give overviews the work of your institution in reports and present them to funding institutions, in particular (welfare) associations and municipal or state institutions.
-You represent your institution when in contact with project members, members of the political and legislative branches, but also in regional and nationwide specialist working groups or in the context of association work.
-Business management aspects such as budgeting and accounting may also fall within your purview.Industries and Occupations
-Municipal cultural and social institutions
-Non-profit organizations and associations
-Civil society, self-organized mutual aid institutions
-Welfare associations, religious institutionsJob Boards and Professional Associations
