Australias Ageing Population And Its Subsequent Impact On...

1.0 INTRODUCTION The recently commissioned Business Brief Report identified the issue of Australia’s ageing population and its subsequent impact on the volunteering sector (Volunteering Australia, 2012). The brief placed particular focus on the problem with reference to the business and operations of the Green Frog Nursery. As detailed in the brief, the succession of the Green Frog Nursery is dependent on the progressive replacement of its current core team of volunteers with younger, equally enthusiastic members. Given the briefs identified correlation found in both Australian and international volunteering statistics between age and volunteering (M P Henderson Associates Pty Ltd, 2006), the ageing population trend has particular†¦show more content†¦2.0 DEFINING AND FRAMING THE ISSUE The execution of the Green Frog Nursery’s succession plan to gradually replace its current volunteers with younger individuals is contingent upon the effective analyses of the internal and external factors present. This is reinforced by Donaldson (2001, p. 26), who states that environmental contingencies are outside the control of the managers of an organisation and organisations need to adapt to their changing environments. Whilst these difficulties have primarily occurred externally due to previously stated socio demographic trend of an ageing population, a number of internal factors have augmented the issue. The firm’s capacity to attract and retain younger volunteers becomes a more prominent subject, as is the current organisational structure, which fails to establish a clear division of labour or leadership. 2.1 AUSTRALIA’S AGEING POPULATION Figure 1, taken from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2015), shows Australia’s demographic trend of an ageing population between 1995 and 2015. It can be noted that the proportion of Australia s population aged 15-49 years remained fairly stable, however during the same period, the proportion of people aged 55 years and over increased from 11.9% to 15.0% and the proportion of people aged 85 years and over almost doubled from 1.1% of the total population in 1995 to 2% in 2015. Figure 2 (Australian Bureau of