Determining the internal working relationships of the EMB entails creating an organizational structure chart (organigram) that facilitates effective integrated planning, service delivery and management control. Examples of organigrams from South Africa, Afghanistan, New Zealand, Costa Rica and Tonga are provided in Figures 3 to 7 on pages 153–57.
The EMB may design its own organizational structure if it has in-house expertise, or it could hire an expert consultant or organization or another EMB to help. It is important for an EMB or its agents to consult broadly on the development of its organizational chart in order to promote stakeholder involvement in its operations. Stakeholder involvement can ensure that the EMB considers external service delivery expectations, rather than merely internal management needs, when developing or reviewing the organizational structure.
The number of staff positions to be created, their levels of seniority and their management relationships will be determined by what is required to effectively fulfill the EMB’s mandate. Ideally, the structure will wholly reflect the EMB’s objectives and functions rather than be tailored to the staff skills available, although this approach may be more difficult in EMBs that are completely reliant on more inflexible frameworks of public service staffing.
Maintaining the continuity of electoral work is a major consideration when developing an organizational chart. The timing of EMB functions may be as important as the functions themselves. There are basic administrative, review and evaluation, and electoral event planning and preparation tasks that are almost always thought to require a base level of permanent staff. The EMB may also have other powers and functions that require ongoing implementation, such as voter and party registration, oversight of funding, and voter education and information. Even if there are relatively few continuous tasks, the EMB may benefit from maintaining a strong and broadly based permanent management team across all functions to effectively handle peaks of activity.
Creating too many positions on the EMB organizational chart is likely to promote public criticism, especially during the period between elections, when it is difficult for the public to visualize what, if anything, EMB staff are doing. Equally, maintaining too lean a structure may increase efficiency during periods of low activity but may undermine progress and continuity. Before implementing a ‘lean’ staffing plan, the potential availability of additional staff for peak workload periods and the in-house capacity to train new staff have to be carefully assessed. In this respect, EMBs that can draw on additional public service resources to handle peak workloads, particularly Governmental and Mixed Model EMBs, may be better placed to operate continuously at peak efficiency.
The quantity and quality of EMB staff appointments should match the outcomes and outputs required by the EMB’s strategic plan.
Capacity building of teachers of secondary and Higher Secondary Schools on Democratic Election Process