Question

BUS:Leading Strategic Change within Organization

Case Study 'l: Analyzing Opportunities for Organization Development Work at Northern County Lega! Services Read the Northern County Legal Services

"Good morning. Northern County Legal Services," Christina said. "How can I help you?

Yes, I see. okay, why don't I schedule a time for you to stop by and talk with one of us

about your situation and we can see how we can help? l'm free on the l2th at 3:30

p.m. Does that work for you? Excellent. And you know where our office is located? Yes,

right across the street. Good. l'll look forward to speaking with you then."

It was already packed in the office of Northern County Legal SeNices (NCLS), a

nonprofit organization located just outside the downtown district. ln the small waiting

room, nearly 20 clients waited for assistance while a team of staff members handled

walk-in visitors and made appointments. With no air-conditioning, the room was starting to get hot on the sunny August afternoon as the chairs filled up.

"l'm sorry. Mr. Gaines? I think you're next." Christina looked at the growing crowd.

"0h, no, no, no, no." A tall woman rose from her chair and stepped forward, raising

her voice. "l've been here since l0 a.m. and I was here first. l'm next. He needs to wait

his turn." She looked around the room for support, and some heads nodded as those

waiting began to look at one another in frustration.

'Yes, l'm sony that you've waited so long, but Mr. Gaines had made an appoint.

ment," Christina said.

'Yeah, for I I :30," Mr. Caines scoffed.

"lt will only be a few more minutes until someone is with you,' Christina offered.

'You need to get more organized," the woman said as she rolled her eyes. she returned

to her seat, fanning herself with a 2-year-old copy of an entertainment magazine.

Christina looked her watch: l2:20. Her parking meter was already expired. "Have a

seat, sir, and l'll be right with you." She grabbed her purse and quickly headed to the

front door. 'And just where do you think you're going, miss?" a voice came from the

waiting room. "She can't take it anymore," another voice offered, as laughter rose from

the corner.

62 ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT

Christina ran the four blocks to where her car was parked. There was already a yellow envelope with a $25 parking ticket lodged under her windshield wiper.

Northern County Legal Service's mission is to match clients who cannot afford legal

counsel with a lawyer willing to offer pro bono services, NCLS specializes in housing

and employment law but also matches clients with attorneys who assist with almost

any legal need, including domestic violence and family law. The service is free to clients

(though some pay for some services on a sliding scale based on their income). The

remainder of the funding comes from grants, and the center is staffed almost entirely

by a group of l5 volunteers and law school students. Students form the majority ofthe

staff, and they receive internship credit, usually volunteering at the center during their

third year of law school. Most students participate in the center only for one semester,

and competition among students is tough to receive one of the volunteer slots.

The one full-time employee is a director, Julie, who has been at the center for about

2 years. Aside from running the office, managing volunteers and students, flnding

attorneys, and conducting training workshops for both students and volunteer attorneys, Julie's main concern is funding, which is a constant issue.

The small office where NCLS is housed consists of a waiting room and four offices.

Julie keeps one of the four offices as her own, and the other three are taken by students

or volunteers who work for l0 to 20 hours per week, usually in 4- to 6-hour shifu. Each

of the four offices has a computer, and there is one printer shared by the center. At any

given time, there might be as many as eight volunteers who share the three offices,

meeting with clients to perform the "intake" functions.

The intake process begins with a client who anives on a walk-in or appointment

basis, and the inrtial meeting usually lasts for about an hour. Depending on the client's

need, the intake papeMork consists of three to six pages of single-spaced questions

that the staff members ask clients in order to be able to provide the most help. ln take

forms also contain client demographic data, such as household income and household

size, which is needed for the center to compile monthly, quarterly, and annual statistics

that grant funders require in order to measure the center's progress.

It was 7:30 a.m. as Julie walked in to the office. The phone was already ringing,

but she let it go to voice mail as she turned on her computer and quickly sorted

through the phone messages that had piled up since she left yesterday afternoon.

Nothing that couldn't wait until later in the morning, she thought. ln the waiting

room, the staff beqan to gather for the monthly staff meeting. This is the time when

Julie covers the statistics for the prior month with the staff, gives updates, and

answers questions.

"Good morning." Julie looked around the room. About two-thirds of the staff were

seated in the uncomfortable assorted chairs, which had been donated or purchased at

minimal cost over the past several years. Today I want to cover a few things. First, the

importance of getting the intake paperwork complete; second, scheduling; and third,

timely filings." She looked around the room at the bleary-eyed group, many of whom

held coffee cups as they avoided eye contact.

"Fine? Good. Melinda? I noticed that many of you are making the same mistake as

Melinda in failing to fully complete page 6 of the housing intake form. For example,

here's the copy of the one you completed last week. Where the form asks for service

date, we really need that to complete the filing motion for the client. lf we don't have it,

Case Study 1: Northern County Legal Services 63

64 ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT

we have to call them to get it. l've noticed a few of these that have been blank in the

past week or two. Does everyone understand that?" Heads nodded in agreement.

"Where do we put the intake form for housing after it s done?" Eric asked.

"ln the intake inbox on the filing cabinet in Julie's office," Monica offered.

"l thought that was only for urgent motions," Eric said. "l've been putting the nonurgent ones in the inbox in the hallway.'

"That's right," Julie said. 'Actually l'd prefer it if you handed the urgent ones directly

to me and put the nonurgent ones in the hallway box. You can put the urgent ones in

my box if I'm not here."

"What's urqent?" Monica asked.

"Urgent means if it's been 4 or 5 days since the client received an eviction notice,"

Julie said. "The fifth day is the most critical."

"What do we do if you aren't here but it's been 5 days?" Monica asked.

'Then you can either call my cell phone and let me know that it's waiting, or you

can call an attorney from the list," .lulie said. "0r you can do it yourself but wait to file

it until I can veriry it after you're done."

"Do we do that for the domestic violence restraining order requests also?" Annette

asked.

"No, those should be filed in the top drawer of the cabinet until another staff member can take the intake form and call a volunteer attorney to take the case,'lulie said.

"Why can't I just call immediately to get the process started more quickly?'Annette

said. "lf l've done the intake, why can't ljust contanue to the next step?"

Julie was beginning to get frustrated. "Look, everyone, we went over this in training.

It's important that this all be handled as we discussed it before."

Julie continued as, out of earshot, Annette leaned over and whispered to Monica.

'Yeah, training was what, like an hour? I still don't understand why there are so many

procedures."

"l know," Monica said, "and I feel so incompetent about housing law My specialty

has been family law. l'd rather learn about that part of the center, but I keep getting

these eviction intakes. And the paperwork is incredible. I spent an hour with a client

yesterday and only got about tlvo pages'worth of information. I ran over my next

appointment trying to get the rest."

"l had the same experience," Annette said. 'The clients have such detailed histories,

and they need to share their whole story. ltalked to a woman whose boyfriend shoved

her against a wall and broke her wrist. She started to cry, and I was thinking that I can't

very well intenupt her and say, 'So(y, ma'am, but that's Question 65. We're still on

question 14, so can you tell me your combined annual income?'And I had three of

those same intakes yesterday. I went home completely drained last night."

Monica nodded. "l've heard stories like that, too. The part I hate is when I have to

pick up the paperwork out ofthe inbox and file the motion when I didn't do the intake.

The other day Julie started shouting at me because I missed a note on an intake that

Christina did and I had to refile the motion. I almost missed the deadline but lstayed

2 hours later than usual and got it all done. lt was gratirying but emotionally exhausting. lt's hard to even come in sometimes. lwonder, are we even making progress here?"

"Now what's she talking about?" Annette looked up at Julie.

Case Study 1: Northern County Legal Services 65

"So that's why you need to make sure that Dave has your weekly schedule, so he

can keep the appointment schedule accurate with hourly time blocks for intakes," Julie

concluded.

Julie returned to her office. There were two messages from the Dylan Foundation

president wanting to know about last quarter's statistics. He had threatened to pull

funding for next year unless the center began to show more progress in winning cases

where disabled clients were about to be evicted. She knew that the staff had done

great work recently, but they had only begun to compile the statistics and she could

not yet prove it with charts and graphs. He'd be fine after she met with him, she

thought. she made a mental note to bring two recent success story crse studies to her

meeting with him.

Rafael appeared in the doorway. "Julie, what do we do when the service date on the

subpoena doesn't match the date on the submission form? Can you show me how we

address that in the reply?"

'Yes. Well, actually, ask Kyle because I showed him the same thing last week," Julie

said.

"Kyle's not here until 3, and I have to have the motion done for the client to pick

up at noon," Rafael said.

"okay. Just give me a few minutes and l'll be right there,'lulie said.

'Thanks,' Rafael said.

Jean was right behind him. "Julie, I have an urgent housing motion here that needs

to be filed. Do you want this now?"

lulie took the intake form and looked through it. A woman with a $900 monthly

income and an infant son and 2-year-old daughter received an eviction notice for being

one day late on her $800 rent. A court filing would be due tomorrow.

'l have a meeting this afternoon and can't do it today. Why don't you put it in the

hallway box and maybe someone can get to it today, otheMise l'll get to it tomorrow,"

.lulie said.

Jean paused for a moment. "okay, l'll do that," she said

Answer the following questions in your own words in a 2 to 3 page APA formatted paper: a. From what you read in the “Analyzing Opportunities for Organizational Development Work at Northern County Legal Services” case study, what could an OD consultant have offered the leader? How would you describe the leader’s style (using any of the leadership/management concepts from chapter 2; be specific)? Why do you think so? b. What organization development values held by OD consultants about people and organizations are evident in your answer to (a)? In other words, what would OD’s values mean for how you would approach the Northern County situation? Grade will be based upon an appropriate explanation of what OD is and what it can offer to a client, exploration of OD values, and how those values direct certain choices on behalf of practitioners.

Answer 1

1) Answer :- In reading the case study of Northern County Legal Services, it becomes quickly that within this organization’s office the staff and clients are in disarray. The office is overcrowded, with insufficient amount of equipment to effectively assist the clients. The staff isn’t properly prepared nor organized to deal with the day-to-day cases and demands. Essentially the poor working conditions and chaotic environment makes the office a displeasing place to work or conduct any business. Overall this would not be a pleasant place to work as it currently is functioning.

Putting myself in the position of an employee working for Julie, I would not appreciate her leadership style. Her lack of management skills and lack of direction would be very difficult to work under on a daily basis. Julie did not have a proper processon scheduling of clients, lack of delegating skills and did skills and did not create a work in proper way.

2) Answer:- yes , In my point of view OD consultants always help organization problems & it is always for motivating a employess , changing attitude , and also cultural management.

It is very adapting flexibly to environmental changes and
creating a culture that promotes commitment, creativity, shared values and mutual trust. To him, development is an all-embracing term involving.
 Change management
 Team building,
 Culture management
 TQM (total quality management)
 Business process reengineering
 Performance management.

A motivational approach allows clients to be active rather than passive by insisting that they choose their treatment and take responsibility for changing. Do not impose views or goals on clients; instead, ask clients for permission to talk about substance use and invite them to consider information. If clients are free to choose, they feel less need to resist or dismiss your ideas. Some clinicians begin an intervention by stating clearly that they will not ask the client to do anything he is unwilling to do but will try nevertheless to negotiate a common agenda in regard to treatment goals.

OD is always helping or change process always has a target or a client. In most discussions of consultation we refer to "clients" as if they were always clearly identifiable, but in reality, the question of who is actually the client can be
ambiguous and problematical. One can find oneself not knowing whom one is working for, or working with several clients whose goals are in conflict with each other.

There are various types of OD Clients :-

1) contact clients

2)Intermediate Clients

3)Primary Clients

4)Unwitting Clients

5) Indirect Clients

6)Ultimate Clients