Metropolitan Welfare Department Summary

In this case of The Metropolitan Welfare Department, the core problem identified was organizational structure. Structure is the pattern of relationships among positions in the organization and among members of the organization. Structure defines tasks and responsibilities, work roles and relationships and channels of communication (Mullins L., 2005). It determines how the roles, power, and responsibilities are assigned, coordinated and controlled. When designing an organization’s structure there are six key elements that must be addressed: work specialization, chain of command, span of control, formalization, centralization and departmentalization. In this case three key elements stood out, these were: work specialization which (Robbins &

The third key element chain of command is defined by (Robins and Judge, 2013) as “the unbroken line of authority that extends from the top of the organization to the lowest echelon and clarifies who reports to whom”. In discussion on the chain of command it is important to make mention of the terms authority and unity of command. Authority refers to the inherent rights of those in managerial positions to give orders and expect them to be obeyed. Within the case, the presence of authority at the Cleary Street Office resided with the recently appointed staff director John L. Johnson. Before Mr. Johnson’s appointment there was no clear discernible chain of command, with the length of service as the only system used in differentiating between caseworkers. Robert Baxter however, challenged Johnson’s authority as an informal leader as he had assumed most of the reporting and communications functions within the district office, and not to mention, other office workers looked up to him and frequently sought his advice on procedural matters and day-to-day

The mechanistic structure of the organization in its entirety did not afford Johnson enough autonomy to successfully lead; even though he was the formal leader and staff director, he was still acting under the authority of the welfare director. Fiedler 's Contingency Theory (Fiedler, 1971b, 1978) suggests that leadership effectiveness is a function of the interaction between the leader and the leadership situation. According to this theory, leaders can be characterized on the basis of their scores on the Least Preferred Co-Worker (LPC) scale, as being either task oriented or person oriented. John Johnson can be labeled as task oriented since he was the one who proposed implementations on making positive changes to enhance the department’s productivity and maintaining the department set goals. Fiedler 's theory also predicts that leaders with a task-oriented leadership style will be more effective in either highly favorable or highly unfavorable leadership situations. In this case it seems Johnson might be on the highly unfavorable leadership side, due to staff members not in collaboration with