1. What strategic design is Kathleen suggesting to the city council? Be sure to present the ACTUAL PLAN and the SUPPORT for the decisions and recommendations Kathleen proposes.

2. What design should the city council adopt with respect to facing the issues facing the Department of Public Works? The third part of the city council meeting will be a discussion among Kathleen and the city council members regarding specific design actions should be taken that will deal with the town's issues and yet fulfill the town's strategic direction with respect to employees and customers.

3. What are the issues that the Department must consider prior to designing and agreeing on restructuring strategy?

Reference:

Kathleen Pool is a human resources officer with a municipal government in a town of just

over 25 000 people. A well-known consulting firm, in cooperation with senior

government officials, recently completed a detailed audit of government operations.

As a result of the audit, selected government departments (including the Department of

Public Works) were targeted for restructuring

The consultants made it clear in their report that they believed that the budget allocation

for the Department of Public Works was "adequate" and recommended that the

department receive a 1.5 percent annual increase in funding for the next two years

and

operating costs for the department are projected to increase at a rate of about 3.5 percent

annually.

Kathleen has been given the responsibility of managing the restructuring at the

Department of Public Works.

Rather than directing the department to cut a specific number of jobs, Kathleen has been

asked to develop a restructuring strategy that will meet the town's mission of "providing

quality service to its residents in a cost-effective manner."

She is currently reviewing the operating policies at the Department of Public Works.

The Department of Public Works is responsible for tasks such as garbage collection, basic

sidewalk and road maintenance, city parks and arenas, installation of street signs and

parking meters, and snow removal.

At the present time, employees work in one of three subunits: garbage collection, parks

and recreation, or city maintenance

.

Each of the subunits is housed in a separate building,

and has its own equipment, supplies, and operating budget.

As well, while employees can formally apply to transfer to a different subunit, the

managers of the subunits involved and the Director of Public Works (who is responsible

for the overall operation of the Department) must all agree

Unless a vacancy at one of the subunits arises, it is rare that any employee transfer will be

approved.

In 2012, the Department of Public Works underwent a considerable downsizing and 4

percent of its permanent positions were cut. In addition, the department stopped its

practice of hiring summer students from local high school and universities in an effort to

cut costs.

Prior to this, students were employed over the summer to help with special projects and

to cover vacation periods for full-time employees. In 2015, a smaller cutback of 2 percent

of the workforce took place

In 2016, the municipality brought back the practice of hiring summer students.

This decision was welcomed by the full-time employees at the Department of Public

Works, in particular because it allows the employees much more flexibility in selecting

their vacation time. From 2012 to 2015, management put considerable restrictions on

when employees could go on vacation; employees with 10 or more years of service could

have a maximum of one week's vacation in July or August while employees with less

than 10 years of service were not permitted to go on vacation during these two months.

Under the collective agreement, management has the right to determine the vacation

schedule of unionized employees.

In reviewing turnover data for the Department of Public Works, Kathleen found that very

few full-time employees quit their jobs to pursue other employment opportunities

In addition, dismissals for cause were rare; over the past 10 years, only two employees

were terminated for cause. In both cases, the union lost the discharge grievance at an

arbitration hearing.

Since the early 2000s, the municipality has had a local consulting firm conduct surveys of

both municipal employees and the users of government services.

A summary of the findings from the employee survey (for Department of Public Works

employees only) is contained in Table 10.1. Note that each of the items (such as

employee morale) is measured on a 5-point scale (1 = very low; 5 =very high). Similarly,

Table 10.2 contains summary information from the survey of municipal residents

concerning the performance of the Department of Public Works. Again, respondents were

asked to reply using a 5-point scale (1 =very low; 5 =very high). Note that on both the

employee survey and the users of government services survey, there were only minor

differences in the results when the data were broken down by subunit (garbage collection,

parks and recreation, or city maintenance