| Summary: | Professional associations and professional relationships are a feature of the social structure of all advanced societies. Professional associations perform or provide a number of functions and services for professionals and for the organisations employing them: Continuing education, admission to practice, certification and credentialing, educational standards, enforcement of standards, codes of ethics, and standards of performance, meetings, social activities, newsletters, and journals. Professional association membership is therefore very valuable to professionals and, in turn, for the organisations which employ those professionals, because of the wide variety of important functions served and services provided by such associations. This value cascades through to the economy of the countries in which the associations perform. This study seeks to contribute to the increased effectiveness of professional associations in South Africa by assessing the level of organisational effectiveness within these associations, and the factors that affect such effectiveness. It is hoped that this research will provide the necessary information to enable senior stakeholders within the associations to make better decisions, and formulate better strategies to improve their effectiveness. If challenges of ineffectiveness are not addressed, the risk is that these associations might not achieve optimal effectiveness and growth, with negative impact on the professionals they serve, and the economy. Conversely, and optimistically, improvements in the effectiveness of professional associations, will positively impact the professionals they serve, with cascading benefits to the economy. Convenience sampling was used to target the senior staff or office bearers within the 48 SAQA registered professional associations in South Africa, at the time of survey. Self-constructed instruments were used to measure the variables included in the hypothesised model. Open-ended questions were also included in the questionnaire in order to capture qualitative information about professional associations. Using STATISTICS Version 10 (2010), the data analyses included exploratory factor analyses, the calculation of Cronbach alphas and Pearson correlations, and the content analysis of qualitative data. The most important finding of this study is that being an effective learning organisation (ELO) is an important indicator of a PA’s organisational effectiveness. To be an ELO means that the PA should continuously strive to learn and improve by conducting research that benefits the association itself, its members, its sector and its country. It is therefore important that PA’s focus their efforts on becoming effective learning organisations by planning and directing their resources on achieving this objective. It means that PA’s must employ or contract in intellectual resources that would enable them to stay at the cutting-edge of services that their members and clients want. This would require PA’s to ensure that they have the continuous services of high calibre researchers. The second important finding of this study is the indication that membership growth is another measure of a PA’s organisational effectiveness. It has already been reported above that being an ELO drives membership growth. The fact that being the first-mover in the industry increases membership growth is an indication that PA’s should capitalise on this strength, by always striving to be the first in everything its members and clients require, or will require. This calls for PA’s to conduct continuous environmental scanning, and the required research and development to deliver products and services first to their members and clients. The fact that competitive characteristics drive membership growth indicates to PA’s that they could attract more members if they maintain and improve service levels; continuously and effectively lobby government for better services for their members and clients; develop and deliver unique services to their members and clients; protect themselves against imitation of their resources and skills, outperform their competitors; and continuously enhance their credibility compared to other professional associations.
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