Pros
Smart colleagues Lots of responsibility Dinner at works
Cons
Evidence action is managed by people lacking basic organizational management principles; academics and policy thinkers don’t always make good leaders and managers and in this case have changed the course of an innovative organization to one headed for disaster. The programs and a lot of the people have come from Innovations for Poverty Action and based on the reviews of that organization they have taken the systems and techniques with them. This results in frequent turnover for both middle management as well as the executive leadership, leading to an inability to attract good talent which is made worse by the job posting requirements and the sub-market pay, not to mention the lack of trust and respect shown by the people at the top and the ever-present lack of morale. These shortcomings tend to get categorize as the organization is “in the initial stages”, “still a start-up”, “comfort with ambiguity” or “growing pains” but they are just excuses for their inability to meet basic expectations and requirements. The mission and vision has been in the process of being changed for so long and often it is comical. At minimal, a non-profit that claims to have such a big impact and with so much funding should be able to have a clear and consistent vision with accountability for the management team. There is a lack of communication across the organization and employees are unsure which practices to follow and how they are supposed to behave. This is made a lot worse by the awful political environment for ownership and scope and lack of understanding by upper management, as seen in the East Africa fiasco, leading to the dismissal of anyone questioning them. The people leading the organization are only concerned about their jobs, status, and perception and don’t care about their employees, donors, or the people that are supposed to benefit from the initiatives. There is significant negligence within the organization and it is run very haphazardly. The local people, who are doing most of the best work, are treated quite awfully. All of this is particularly evident in the Beta program.
