SCENARIO: PERSONNEL CHANGES
Eleana was not a new manager but was new to the Boxwood unit. She had been assigned “to clean up the mess.” Her last assignment was very successful. She had taken over an important evaluation project, analyzed the defects, gotten approval for major design changes, and implemented them in relatively short order. The small staff, which had been floundering without good leadership or a good design, was very grateful. In her new assignment at the Boxwood unit, Eleana quickly assessed the problems by personally analyzing the work. The cases flowing through the unit were being handled in the old production-line fashion, so three to five people handled each case. Unfortunately, the manual login system was time-consuming and out of date, no one took ownership over individual cases, and the physical flow of the cases was often inefficient. Following successful models elsewhere in the agency, Eleana decided to institute an electronic monitoring system for the cases and to have them processed by a single-case manager and reviewed by a single supervisor. This would mean installing a new monitoring system and doing extensive cross-training. The unit was slightly understaffed but was unlikely to get additional staffing. Therefore, efficiency changes would be difficult.
Eleana brought the unit together and announced the changes. She described the changes clearly and set out detailed plans for implementing them. Although initially stunned by the sweeping changes, most of the employees went along with them. Because Eleana made it clear that she would replace those unwilling or unable to adapt, there was a good deal of fear in the unit. At first, people seemed to throw themselves into accomplishing the changes. However, soon a number of problems occurred, despite Eleana’s planning. The custom-designed case-monitoring program ran into many glitches and was just as cumbersome to use as the old one. The cross-training in different programs was extremely time-consuming so that productivity was lower and the error rate rising. Eleana knew that these problems were customary in this type of work redesign, but the employees in the unit were discouraged. Because of the backlog, Eleana got permission to order overtime. She thought the employees would be pleased with the opportunity for time and a half, but instead they did a great deal of grumbling and resented having to work overtime. Several of the best workers transferred out or found other jobs despite Eleana’s urging them to stay. It was unclear whether Eleana would eventually succeed in the long term, but in the middle term, the workers in the unit were unconvinced of the benefits of her plan and found her distant and uninvolved.
