CASE 3 Building a Coalition Learning Goals Many of the most important organizational behavior challenges require coordinating plans and goals among groups. This case describes a multi-organizational effort, but the same principles of accommodation and compromise also apply when trying to work with multiple divisions within a single organization. You'll create a blueprint for managing a complex development team's progress, steering team members away from negative conflicts and toward productive discussion. You'll also be asked to help create a new message for executives so they can lead effectively. Major Topic Areas Group dynamics Maximizing team performance Organizational culture Integrative bargaining The Scenario The Woodson Foundation, a large nonprofit social service agency, is teaming up with the public school system in Washington, D.C., to improve student outcomes. There's ample room for improvement. The schools have problems with truancy, low student performance, and crime. New staff quickly burn out as their initial enthusiasm for helping students is blunted by the harsh realities they encounter in the classroom. Turnover among new teachers is very high, and many of the best and brightest are the most likely to leave for schools that aren't as troubled. The plan is to create an experimental after-school program that will combine the Woodson Foundation's skill in raising private money and coordinating community leaders with the educational expertise of school staff. Ideally, the system will be financially self-sufficient, which is important because less money is available for schools than in the past. After several months of negotiation, the leaders of the Woodson Foundation and the school system have agreed that the best course is to develop a new agency that will draw on resources from both organizations. The Woodson foundation will provide logistical support and program development and measurement staff; the school system will provide classrooms and teaching staff. The first stage in bringing this new plan to fruition is the formation of an executive development team. This team will span multiple functional areas and establish the operating plan for improving school performance. Its cross-organizational nature means representatives from both the Woodson Foundation and the school district must participate. The National Coalition for Parental Involvement in Education (NCPIE) is also going to be a major partner in the program, acting as a representative for parents on behalf of the PTA. Conflict and Agreement in the Development Team While it would be perfect if all the groups could work together easily to improve student outcomes, there is little doubt some substantive conflicts will arise. Each group has its own interests, and in some cases these are directly opposed to one another. School district representatives want to ensure the new jobs will be unionized and will operate in a way consistent with current school board policies. They are very concerned that if Woodson assumes too dominant a role, the school board won't be able to control the operations of the new system. The complexity of the school system has led to the development of a highly complex bureaucratic structure over time, and administrators want to make sure their policies and procedures will still hold for teachers in these programs even outside the regular school day. They also worry that jobs going into the new system will take funding from other school district jobs. Woodson, founded by entrepreneur Theodore Woodson around 1910, still bears the hallmarks of its founder's way of doing business. Woodson emphasized efficiency and experimentation in everything he did. Many of the foundation's charities have won awards for minimizing costs while still providing excellent services. Their focus on using hard data to measure performance for all their initiatives is not consistent with the school district culture. Finally, the NCPIE is driven by a mission to increase parental control. The organization believes that when communities are able to drive their own educational methods, students and parents are better able to achieve success together. The organization is strongly committed to celebrating diversity along racial, gender, ethnic, and disability status categories. Its members are most interested in the process by which changes are made, ensuring everyone has the ability to weigh in. Some demographic diversity issues complicate the team's situation. Most of the students served by the Washington, D.C., school district are African American, along with large populations of Caucasians and Hispanics. The NCPIE makeup generally matches the demographic diversity of the areas served by the public schools. The Woodson foundation, based in northern Virginia, is predominantly staffed by Caucasian professionals. There is some concern with the idea that a new group that does not understand the demographic concerns of the community will be so involved in a major change in educational administration. The leadership of the new program will have to be able to present an effective message for generating enthusiasm for the program across diverse stakeholder groups. Although the groups differ in important ways, it's also worth considering what they have in common. All are interested in meeting the needs of students. All would like to increase student learning. The school system does benefit from anything that increases student test scores. And the Woodson Foundation and NCPIE are united in their desire to see more parents engaged in the system. The Case Study for this week is Building a Coalition, which appears on page 580 of the textbook. Each student is required to analyze this week's case study and submit a two- to threepage paper addressing the key questions identified below. Remember that all case studies present both too much and too little information. There may be information presented that is not really relevant, and there may be scant information about a key area. This analysis does require interpretation of the information, and there is no one right answer; however, you must explain and defend any assumptions you made, or conclusions resulting from your analysis with citations from the text, or from the case itself. There is no need to research outside sources for this paper. Your paper must include the following labeled sections. Category Point s Description Part I: Group Development 15 Identify and summarize the stages of group development. Reflecting on the case and textbook material, what stage is the group at now? How could an understanding of the stages of group development have assisted the Woodson Foundation in building a cohesive coalition? Support your conclusion with evidence from the case and our text. Part II: Problem Identification 30 Identify key problems. Identify primary and secondary problems the Woodson Foundation is facing. Identify what the organization should have understood about individual membership in teams in order to have built group processes that were supportive of her groups' goals. Do not necessarily limit yourself to only team theory here. Plumb any concepts we have covered to date if you feel they are relevant. Part III: Retrospective Evaluation 40 Given that there is no one perfect solution for this situation, identify, describe, and defend two possible solutions to the primary problem(s). Clearly identify and defend both courses of action. Identify and discuss specific steps needed to implement your selections. Support your selections with evidence from the case, the text, or weekly discussion. Remember that deciding on a course of action entails envisioning and planning the steps to success. Be sure to identify implementation steps for both possible solutions. Almost every situation presented with relation to group dynamics and behavior Category Point s Description can have multiple avenues for remedy. It is important to develop the ability to critically evaluate more than one alternative, and rationally identify pros and cons of each. Presenting pros and cons for the identified alternative solutions in a table format within the paper is acceptable. Part IV: Reflection 15 What would you advise as a strategy for managing diversity issues for program leaders? Grading Rubrics Criteria Failed to Meet Minimu m Standar ds Met Minimum Standards 60% = 60 points, D Satisfactor y 70% = 70 points, C Good 80% = 80 points, B Superior 90% = 90 points, A Part I: Group Developm ent (15 points) No problem summar y included 0 Identifies the stages of group development with some summary; does not tie theory back to the case 9 Identifies the stages of group developmen t with some summary, and ties theory to the case situation with minimal supporting evidence from the case and text 11 Identifies the stages of group developmen t and ties theory to the case situation with supporting evidence from the case and text 13 Clearly and accurately identifies the primary issues presented by the case with clear supporting evidence from the case 15 Part II: Problem Identificat ion (30 points) No possible solution s discusse d0 Discusses case in general terms with no insight into the real Discusses issues presented by the case generally, without Identifies the primary issues presented by the case with some Clearly and accurately identifies primary and secondary issues Criteria Failed to Meet Minimu m Standar ds Met Minimum Standards 60% = 60 points, D Satisfactor y 70% = 70 points, C Good 80% = 80 points, B Superior 90% = 90 points, A issues presented 20 supporting references; identifies secondary issues, not primary issues 23 supporting references to the case 26 presented by the case with clear supporting evidence from the case 30 Part III: Retrospect ive Evaluation (40 points) None provide d0 Does not clearly identify or explain selected recommenda tion for solutions 27 Identifies recommend ed solutions with no implementat ion steps 31 Clearly identifies recommend ed solutions with discussion of implementat ion steps at a summary level 35 Gives a clear and focused analysis with implementatio n recommendati ons; directly relates selection to course readings 40 Part IV: Reflection (15 points) None provide d0 Perfunctory effort at answering question 10 Summary level reflection on leadership 11.5 Good faith effort in examining leadership issue with supporting material 13.0 Wellpresented insights into leadership issue with supporting material 15 Building a Coalition Definitions Coalition, it's a process of partnering with certain group of people with set agendas and common purpose. Category Part I: Group Development 1.Orientation stage points Setting of policies,objectives,structures 2.Storming stage Opinion scyronised,power struggle and mandates 3.Norming stage Mutual respect, full cooperation ,honestly members, leadership powers 4.performing stage Group unity, power struggle, members focus 5.Closer stage School closer,critism from members, resume shortly break description .The members joint one another; they set policies and mandates, goals, objective guidelines, structures and a way to operate together. .The group now get progressed, with power struggle, it's here some few challenges might be encountered because everyone is involved with different views but later the stage will be better if opinions synchronized. .At this stage the group members are of more active, with a full cooperation, mutual, selfrespect, honestly, enjoyable and in case they might be difference among the members, actually it's easier to resolve such a conflicts . .The group members focus ahead to another level with a sense of group unity and power struggle because they have knew one another well with a deep understanding of their morals. . This is a normal part of school calender,where schools gets for holidays for given period of time, students must be keen because the group should resume immediately after the break, groups members are advised to be of sense simply students might surely demoralize them,critizes the members with untruly statements Part II: Problem Identification The foundation have understood and clarify the challenges that they will face during the start of the foundation, first, raising funds for the foundation was the main key challenge also they needed enough support because they are nonprofit organization with the aim of improving and raising students from challenged environment and getting to aware them the concern of the harsh environment at school Throughout the stage, the foundation have clearly understand that success is possible if one get to find a way of help one another with the potential principals set during the five stages of success 1.Inadeguate funds 2.low performance 3.high crime rate 4.complexity of the system 5.Environmental condition 1. Inadequate funds, enough capital needed for coordination and raising expert and skilled personnel's 2. Low performance, due to insufficiency of skilled teachers and harsh environment 3. High crime rate, poor security in the region have undermined the woodson foundation to coordinate their activities and finding the ways for improving their performance level and strategies as well. 4. Complexity of the system and strict policies and regulation set by the ministry of education among the administrative powers that's very tiresome concerning guarantee of teacher's jobs. 2. Harsh environment, entirely the region doesn't understand the importance of the education system; it should be with the remedy and firm solutions. Part III: Retrospective Evaluation 1.school absenteeism 2.Low level of competition 2.Reqular present of the teachers 3.Low attendances Regular absents of the students will lead to poor performance level in the school, solution is to participate in sports .the school find it difficult to compete with other performing schools thus would rather accept the situations, solution is to sources skilled personnel. .the teachers team s up with the students in all ways for better performance level. .due to harsh and unfavorable environment, most professional teachers would rather run away to a very secured institution for more alternative, leaving the school with no alternative measures, security to be tighten. 1.Sourcing enough funds 2.proper policy 3.Seek advice from appropriate authorities 3. Employ enough skilled persons. Part IV: Reflection 1.Availbility of funds 2.sourcing of information's 3.competent personnel's .to source enough funds for operation to be done .to employ skilled personnel's carrying the operation with no or minimal supervision .to seek enough critical advice from appropriate authority Building a Coalition Definitions Coalition, it's a process of partnering with certain group of people with set agendas and common purpose. Category Part I: Group Development 1.Orientation stage points Setting of policies,objectives,structures 2.Storming stage Opinion scyronised,power struggle and mandates 3.Norming stage Mutual respect, full cooperation ,honestly members, leadership powers 4.performing stage Group unity, power struggle, members focus 5.Closer stage School closer,critism from members, resume shortly break description .The members joint one another; they set policies and mandates, goals, objective guidelines, structures and a way to operate together. .The group now get progressed, with power struggle, it's here some few challenges might be encountered because everyone is involved with different views but later the stage will be better if opinions synchronized. .At this stage the group members are of more active, with a full cooperation, mutual, selfrespect, honestly, enjoyable and in case they might be difference among the members, actually it's easier to resolve such a conflicts . .The group members focus ahead to another level with a sense of group unity and power struggle because they have knew one another well with a deep understanding of their morals. . This is a normal part of school calender,where schools gets for holidays for given period of time, students must be keen because the group should resume immediately after the break, groups members are advised to be of sense simply students might surely demoralize them,critizes the members with untruly statements Part II: Problem Identification The foundation have understood and clarify the challenges that they will face during the start of the foundation, first, raising funds for the foundation was the main key challenge also they needed enough support because they are nonprofit organization with the aim of improving and raising students from challenged environment and getting to aware them the concern of the harsh environment at school Throughout the stage, the foundation have clearly understand that success is possible if one get to find a way of help one another with the potential principals set during the five stages of success 1.Inadeguate funds 2.low performance 3.high crime rate 4.complexity of the system 5.Environmental condition 1. Inadequate funds, enough capital needed for coordination and raising expert and skilled personnel's 2. Low performance, due to insufficiency of skilled teachers and harsh environment 3. High crime rate, poor security in the region have undermined the woodson foundation to coordinate their activities and finding the ways for improving their performance level and strategies as well. 4. Complexity of the system and strict policies and regulation set by the ministry of education among the administrative powers that's very tiresome concerning guarantee of teacher's jobs. 2. Harsh environment, entirely the region doesn't understand the importance of the education system; it should be with the remedy and firm solutions. Part III: Retrospective Evaluation 1.school absenteeism 2.Low level of competition 2.Reqular present of the teachers 3.Low attendances Regular absents of the students will lead to poor performance level in the school, solution is to participate in sports .the school find it difficult to compete with other performing schools thus would rather accept the situations, solution is to sources skilled personnel. .the teachers team s up with the students in all ways for better performance level. .due to harsh and unfavorable environment, most professional teachers would rather run away to a very secured institution for more alternative, leaving the school with no alternative measures, security to be tighten. 1.Sourcing enough funds 2.proper policy 3.Seek advice from appropriate authorities 3. Employ enough skilled persons. Part IV: Reflection 1.Availbility of funds 2.sourcing of information's 3.competent personnel's .to source enough funds for operation to be done .to employ skilled personnel's carrying the operation with no or minimal supervision .to seek enough critical advice from appropriate authority