 When Elizabeth Parker takes the job in the Water Division, what are her strengths

and weaknesses?

Answer- The strength that Elizabeth Parker brought to the job were:

a) She was a woman and brought diversity of thought and working

b) She had prior experience of organizing and working with data for public policy in
League of Women Voters
c) She was non- partisan and had a good governance image
d) She was well connected to the political establishment

Her Weaknesses were probably

a) The lack of credibility to handle such a position

b) The fact again that she was a woman and hence her authority may be
undermined due to her gender

 What does she do in the Water Division that makes her so effective?

Answer-

1. She first visits and makes a comprehensive list of all the items where she can
make a change that would yield positive results for the division
2. She then uses the right channel of communication by discussing the
implementation first with Benson and then when Benson doesn’t agree she
rallies the support from Walters.
3. She had studied the system thoroughly on ways and means where additional
revenues can be generated, where the investment of every single dollar can yield
3 dollars and she made a detailed presentation outlining this findings
4. Her research was so thorough that after putting in the bar charts, the graphs and
summary of profit and loss she had made a incontrovertible argument of
investing the extra budget

This approach led her to bag extra budget from the government agency when no such
increase was given to the other departments

 What does she do when she moves to the Environmental Standards Division?

Answer- When she moved to the environmental standard division she immediately set
down to do work, instead of understanding how the department works, which areas are
weak and strong in implementation she set herself to work for the policy on pollution
that was to be set by environmental department. She started studying the field reports
that were submitted however to her dismay she realized early on that the field reports
weren’t taken as per established procedures for measuring pollution. Although this was
her understanding, the same was not shared by the deputy directors and the field
inspectors, the urgency that she felt was required was again not believed by others in
the team. So she started have focused group discussion trying to convince her
stakeholders internally on the urgency of the matter for the regulations to be passed in
January 1999.

Through the group discussions she also tried to set common goals that would
eventually lead to the completion of collecting the pollution data for the policy

 What are the differences between the two jobs she has undertaken in the
Environmental Affairs Agency?

Answer- Primarily the difference between both of her jobs were

a) In the Waterworks department she was brought in to maintain all that was
happening whereas in the environmental department she was the architect of a
policy with a deadline
b) She did not have any time constraints in the earlier department versus time
constraints in the new job
c) She was helped by her superiors in the form of Walter and her friend Ralph from
the budget department whereas in the new job she hadn’t tapped into her
network.
d) A lot of her work in the water department was individual contribution where she
studied and researched on data to elicit compelling reports to get the grants
whereas in the environmental affairs agency she was dependent on field
inspectors and deputy directors
e) Though she tried to explain her vision with group discussions in the
environmental affairs agency yet she did not actually try and find the root cause
of why were the field inspectors not gathering data from the field and what was
the root cause of the ways that they have been working all the while

 What could she do now to meet the deadline she faces at the end of Case B?

Answer-

1) First address the root cause of why data is not being collected by the field
inspectors
2) Map out the different stakeholders who can provide her with authentic data about
the pollution levels, they can be industry representatives, Citizen advocacy
groups and other independent researchers
3) She can also employ adhoc workers who may collect the data at an outsourced
per hour rate to provide the required data for the pollution levels
4) She can speak with Benson and get suggestions from him as to how can the task
be best handled since they have another 5 months before which they need to
present the policy
5) She can explain both the positive and the negative impact of not being able to
meet the deliverables at deadline to all the staff of the environmental affairs
agency and ask them for suggestions if the agency were to complete the task
properly by January 1999.