Welding motivation and innovation through a language teacher association’s strategy statement

Abstract

Language teacher associations are quite often seen as not needing to imitate what happens in thebusiness world. However, research comparing non-profit and for-profit organisations seems toindicate that the former stand to learn a lot from the strategies employed by the latter. Forinstance, a study on the use of relationship cultivation strategies by Fortune 500 corporations andnon-profit organisations involved in philanthropy shows that businesses use assurance strategies –i.e., assuring people that their concerns matter – more often than non-profits (O’Neil, 2014). Onaverage firms respond to the users of their social media channels 75% of the time, whereas non-profits respond 45% of the time (O’Neil, 2014). What this example demonstrates is that there are areas where a non-profit organisation like alanguage teacher association can borrow from the strategies employed by businesses. Doing somight first require being as clear as possible about the organisation’s strategy. A clearly expressedstrategy statement can impact an association’s ability to cultivate the motivation of its volunteersand create an innovative culture.