Case Analysis Format

Solution Preview

Case Analysis Form

I. Problems
A. Macro

Project employees may see OD as a fad, remembering past "fads" such as quality circles, management by objectives, and zerobased budgeting. As was noted above, the project manager and his OD initiatives must be used not just as a fad or new program, but must be related to key organizational problems, needs, and outcomes.
In another vein, workers may see the project manager as only concerned about the project , not staff needs. Management initiatives focused on concerns such as budget or cost will not resonate with beleaguered line workers. Furthermore, staff may see quality as not needing attention: they may believe that their services are already excellent or that quality is a peripheral concern in these days of cutbacks and multi problem clients.
Partly because of heavy service demands, and partly because of professional training of human service workers, which places heavy value on direct service activities with clients, there may be a lack of interest on the part of many line workers in the OD efforts of the project manager or even turning out results as anticipated.

B. Micro
Historical worker antipathy to the use of statistics and data in the human services may carry over into views of OD, which encourages the gathering and analysis of information. At another level, management resistance to employee empowerment is likely. They may see decision-making authority in zero sum terms: if employees have more involvement in decision-making, managers will have less. In fact, one principle in employee involvement is that each level will be more empowered, and managers lose none of their fundamental authority.
This resistance can lead to cost overruns, time schedules being violated, specifications of the project not being correctly addressed and chronic friction among employees.

II. Causes
The causes have to do with alignment among various teams and the company. For example, human resource systems, including job design, selection processes, compensation and rewards, performance appraisal, and training and development must align with and support the new team leader and his organizational ...