Case Study #1

Laura is the associate director of a nonprofit agency that provides assistance to children and families. She is the head of a department that focuses on evaluating the skill-building programs the agency provides to families. She reports directly to the agency leadership. As a whole, the agency has been cautious in hiring this year because of increased competition for federal grant funding. However, they have also suffered high staff turnover. Two directors, three key research staff, and one staff person from the finance department have left.
Laura has a demanding schedule that requires frequent travel; however, she supervises two managers who in turn are responsible for five staff members each. Both managers have been appointed within the last six months.
Manager 1: Kelly has a specific background in research. She manages staff who provide research support to another department that delivers behavioral health services to youth. Kelly supports her staff and is very organized; however, she often takes a very black and white view of issues. Upper-level leadership values Kellys latest research on the therapeutic divisions services. Kelly is very motivated and driven and expects the same from her staff.
Manager 2: Linda has a strong background in social science research and evaluation. She manages staff that works on different projects within the agency. She is known as a problem solver and is extremely supportive of her staff. She is very organized and has a wealth of experience in the evaluation of family services. Linda is very capable and can sometimes take on too much.
The managers are sensing that staff are becoming overworked as everyone takes on increased responsibilities due to high staff turnover. The staff has also mentioned that Lauras “glass half-empty” conversation style leaves them feeling dejected. In addition, Laura has not shared budgets with her managers, so they are having difficulty appropriately allocating work to staff. Laura said she has not received sufficient information from the finance department to complete the budgets. The finance department said they have sent her all the information they have available.
As staff becomes distressed, the managers are becoming frustrated. They feel like they are unable to advocate for their staff or solve problems without key information like the departmental budget.

Using content from this semester, how would you analyze this scenario What would you suggest in this scenario and why?

Case Study Assignment Description
Goal: The goal of the case studies is for you to demonstrate the application of the knowledge you have learned throughout the semester to actual organizational scenarios. In your responses I want you to focus on 1,) identifying the critical information in the scenario and 2) applying course content to the scenario. This exercise is intended to be an opportunity for you to show all you know. I would expect that you would incorporate multiple ideas from course content into each response.

(I attached powerpoints from the class)