ALICE SADDY

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Answered step-by-step
Asked by BaronOstrichPerson809
in the case of Alice saddy:saving the community:

1.Support Workers were frustrated with decision-making processes and workload assignments as they may be reporting for
direction to as many as four (4) Managers of Support Services. what two three changes in organizational structure which would
help improve/rectify the negative employee culture through a skills gap analysis, followed by professional development and
training actions to cope with ever increasing cohorts of special-needs individuals, and ongoing assessment of the changing
needs of the aging population of "people supported".

2.Given the possible paths forward set forth in Slide 21, Alice Saddy - Potential Changes to Organizational Design, with most
decision-making formerly vested in the Supervisor of Support Services now being driven down to lower levels in the
organization, what four management aspects/initiatives of the Alice Saddy Association highlighted in the Case Study, should
now be the focus for Supervisors of Support Services, and why?

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Answer & Explanation

Solved by verified expert
Answered by deanbriones
Here are two or three changes in organizational structure that could help improve the negative employee culture at a support services
organization:
1. Reduce the number of managers that support workers report to. This would help streamline decision-making processes
and workload assignments and give support workers a clearer sense of their direct supervisor.
2. Create a more cross-functional team structure. This would allow support workers to collaborate with colleagues from
different departments, which would help them to develop new skills and knowledge. It would also help to break down silos and
create a more collaborative and supportive work environment.
 3. Implement a regular skills gap analysis. This would help the organization identify the skills support workers need to
effectively meet the needs of the ever-increasing cohorts of special-needs individuals and the aging population. The
organization could develop professional development and training programs to address these gaps.
In addition to these structural changes, the organization could also take steps to improve the employee culture by:
 Creating a more open and transparent communication environment. This would help to build trust and understanding
between employees and managers.
 Encouraging feedback from employees. This would help the organization to identify and address any concerns that
employees may have.
 Celebrating employee successes. This would help to boost morale and create a more positive work environment.
By making these changes, the organization can help to improve the negative employee culture and create a more supportive and
productive work environment for support workers.
Here are some additional thoughts on how to improve the employee culture at a support services organization:
 Empower employees to make decisions. This will give them a sense of ownership and responsibility and help them feel more
valued.
 Provide opportunities for professional development and growth. This will help employees to stay up-to-date on the latest
trends and best practices, and it will also help them to feel challenged and motivated.
 Create a positive and supportive work environment. This includes providing a safe and comfortable workplace, offering
flexible work arrangements, and celebrating employee successes.
By taking these steps, the organization can create a more positive and productive work environment for support workers. This will
benefit the organization as a whole, as well as the people that they support.
Here are four management aspects/initiatives of the Alice Saddy Association that should now be the focus for Supervisors of Support
Services:
1. Managing change. The decision to devolve decision-making power to lower levels in the organization is a significant change,
and it will be necessary for supervisors to manage this change effectively. They must communicate the change to employees,
help them understand its reasons, and support them through the transition.
2. Empowering employees. The new organizational structure will give employees more power to make decisions, and
supervisors will need to be able to empower them to do so. This means giving them the authority to make decisions, providing
them with the resources they need, and trusting them to make the right decisions.
3. Building relationships. The new organizational structure will require supervisors to build relationships with employees at all
levels of the organization. This will help them understand employees' needs, get their input on decisions, and build trust.
4. Coaching and mentoring. Supervisors must be able to coach and mentor employees in the new organizational structure. This
means helping them to develop their skills, providing them with feedback, and helping them to navigate the new system.
These are just a few management aspects/initiatives that should now be the focus for Supervisors of Support Services at the Alice
Saddy Association. Supervisors can help ensure the new organizational structure is successful by focusing on these areas.
Step-by-step explanation
Approach to solving the question:

Detailed explanation:
In addition to these four areas, supervisors should also focus on:
 Communication. It is essential to communicate effectively with employees about the changes that are taking place. This will
help to reduce uncertainty and anxiety, and it will help employees to understand their new roles and responsibilities.
 Support. Employees may need support during the transition to the new organizational structure. Supervisors can provide this
support by being available to answer questions, offer guidance, and help employees to solve problems.
 Monitoring. It is essential to monitor the effectiveness of the new organizational structure. This will help identify any
problems that need to be addressed, and it will help ensure that the new structure meets the organization's needs.
Supervisors can help ensure that the new organizational structure is successful by focusing on these areas.

Alice Saddy2

Question 1: What four management aspects/initiatives of the Alice Saddy Association should now be the focus for Supervisors of
Support Services, given the potential changes to the organizational design?
Response:
 1. Training and Skill Development: To ensure staff are prepared for the shift towards decentralization and increased decision-
making responsibilities. This should involve ongoing training and professional development opportunities.
2. Empowerment and Engagement: Supervisors should cultivate a culture of trust and encourage initiative from their
employees. This includes communicating the organization's mission and values, and recognizing the contributions of staff.
3. Monitoring and Evaluation: It's important to measure the outcomes of decisions made at lower levels. A robust system for
monitoring and evaluating performance should be implemented, with regular reviews to identify areas for improvement.
4. Communication and Collaboration: Supervisors should prioritize effective communication channels and collaboration
among different levels and departments to prevent any communication breakdowns due to decentralization.
Question 2: What three changes in the organizational structure would help improve the negative employee culture through a skills gap
analysis, followed by professional development and training actions?
Response:
1. Streamline Reporting Structure: Simplify the reporting system so that each support worker reports to only one Manager of
Support Services. This would alleviate frustrations and prevent conflicts arising from receiving instructions from multiple
managers.
2. Specialization and Division of Labor: Create specialized roles or teams based on skill sets and needs of the individuals they
support. Conduct a skills gap analysis to identify areas for training and professional development to facilitate this transition.
3. Dynamic Support Roles: Introduce flexible roles that can be adjusted based on the evolving needs of individuals served.
These dynamic roles, supported by ongoing training, would enable support workers to effectively cater to diverse and changing
needs.

The answer above will satisfy your question/requirements. If you want a more comprehensive answers, please see the Explanation.
I've also included a table to help you understand it easily. I hope it won't confuse you.
Step-by-step explanation
1. In the Alice Saddy case, given the shift towards decentralization, the Supervisor of Support Services should consider
refocusing on the following four management aspects/initiatives:
1. Training and Skill Development: As decision-making is being shifted down to lower levels of the organization, it's essential
that all staff members possess the necessary skills to make informed, sound decisions. To ensure this, the Supervisor should
focus on offering ongoing training and professional development opportunities. This could take the form of regular workshops,
external courses, or mentorship programs. The training should be designed to enhance both technical and soft skills, such as
problem-solving, critical thinking, leadership, and communication. The supervisor should also facilitate an environment of
continuous learning where staff members are encouraged to seek out new knowledge and skills.
 2. Empowerment and Engagement: To motivate employees and make them feel valued, the Supervisor should strive to foster a
culture of empowerment and engagement. This means promoting a sense of autonomy and ownership among the staff, and
giving them the authority to make decisions within their roles. The Supervisor should clearly communicate the organization's
values and mission to align all efforts and enhance the sense of purpose among the team. Recognizing and rewarding staff
contributions, both large and small, is another way to increase engagement and create a positive work environment.
3. Monitoring and Evaluation: With a decentralized decision-making process, there's an increased risk of misalignment between
individual decisions and the overall organizational goals. To manage this risk, the Supervisor should develop a robust
monitoring and evaluation system. This involves setting clear, measurable performance metrics, regularly reviewing these
against actual results, and providing constructive feedback. By doing so, any issues or areas of improvement can be identified
early and addressed promptly. The evaluation results can also be used to further refine the training and development programs.
4. Communication and Collaboration: Decentralization could lead to communication breakdowns if not managed effectively.
To mitigate this risk, the Supervisor should establish clear communication channels and protocols. This includes regular team
meetings, feedback sessions, and open-door policies that encourage dialogue at all levels. The Supervisor should also
encourage collaboration across different levels and departments, which can lead to more comprehensive and innovative
solutions. This could be facilitated through team-building activities, cross-department projects, and collaborative tools and
platforms.
Management
Description Implementation Reason Why
Aspect

Ensures all staff members have the

Enhance the skills of staff
Training and Skill
members to make informed
Development
decisions.
Implement regular workshops, external
competencies to make effective
courses, or mentorship programs. Foster an
decisions, thereby improving service
environment of continuous learning.
delivery and reducing risks.

Promote a sense of autonomy Increases job satisfaction, motivation,

Communicate the organization's values and
Empowerment and and ownership among staff. and productivity among staff, which
mission clearly. Recognize and reward staff
Engagement Enhance the sense of purpose can result in higher quality of services
contributions.
and motivation. and lower employee turnover.

Ensures alignment with the

Manage the risk of
Monitoring and misalignment between
Evaluation individual decisions and
organizational goals.
Develop a robust monitoring and evaluation
organizational goals, facilitates
system. Set clear, measurable performance
continuous improvement, and allows
metrics and provide constructive feedback
for prompt identification and
based on regular reviews.
rectification of issues.
 Management
Description Implementation Reason Why
Aspect

Establish clear communication channels and Promotes understanding and

Mitigate potential
protocols, including regular team meetings alignment across the organization,
communication breakdowns due
Communication and feedback sessions. Facilitate leads to more comprehensive and
to decentralization. Encourage
and Collaboration collaboration through team-building innovative solutions, and enhances
innovative solutions through
activities, cross-department projects, and teamwork and organizational
collaboration.
collaborative tools. cohesion.
The reasons underscore the significance of these aspects in navigating the transition towards a decentralized structure effectively and
ensuring the ongoing success of the organization.

2. The following three changes in organizational structure could potentially address the current issues:
1. Streamline Reporting Structure: Currently, support workers may be reporting to multiple Managers of Support Services,
leading to confusion and frustration. To alleviate this issue, the reporting structure should be simplified so that each support
worker reports to a single primary Manager. This not only streamlines communication but also clarifies roles, responsibilities,
and expectations.
2. Specialization and Division of Labor: With the increasing cohorts of special-needs individuals, the organization might benefit
from a more specialized approach to service delivery. This could involve creating dedicated teams or roles based on the types
of needs they are best equipped to handle. A comprehensive skills gap analysis can be performed to identify areas of training
needed to prepare the staff for these specialized roles. As a result, workload assignments can become more efficient, and
support workers can develop deeper expertise in their respective areas.
3. Dynamic Support Roles: Given the changing needs of both the employees and the individuals they serve, the introduction of
dynamic roles can offer much-needed flexibility. These roles can be adjusted based on the evolving needs, allowing for a
personalized approach to providing support. Crucial to this approach is continuous training and development, equipping
support workers with a broad set of skills to handle various situations and needs effectively.
Here's how this looks in a table format:
Organizational
Description Implementation Expected Outcome
Change

Streamline Reporting Simplify the reporting system so Define a primary Manager of Support Enhanced clarity in communication, clear
Structure each worker reports to one Services for each support worker. responsibility assignments, and reduced
 Organizational
Description Implementation Expected Outcome
Change

manager. employee frustration.

Create specialized roles or teams
Specialization and
based on skill sets and needs of
Division of Labor
the individuals they support.
Perform a skills gap analysis to More efficient workload assignments,
identify areas for training and deepened staff expertise, and improved
professional development. service quality.

Introduce flexible roles that can Provide ongoing training to equip Personalized support services, ability to
Dynamic Support
be adjusted based on evolving workers with a variety of skills to adapt quickly to changing needs, and
Roles
needs. handle changing needs effectively. increased job satisfaction among staff.
These structural changes should be implemented alongside ongoing efforts to foster a positive and supportive organizational culture.

Alice Saddy: Caring for the Community

The main issue in The Alice Saddy Association is the growing size and complexity of the

company. As the company grows it becomes more complex and the Association is unsure of how

to deal with this and stick to their philosophy at the same time. When the company was small

their informal way of going about things worked well, however with more people being

supported a more formal way of going about things needs to be established.

The philosophy of Alice Saddy forces its organizational structure to be one that works for

the betterment of their people supported. Their structure is very informal and one of adhocracy.

Every time a person supported needed a change or a person supported was added to the

Association the whole team would adjust so that the person supported had the best supporter for

their needs. The organizational structure also places a strong emphasis on the support staff
because these are the people who are working towards the Association’s mission

statement/philosophy. Within the Association, “cross-reporting” occurs as a result of support

workers working on cases that are assigned to two, three, or all four support service managers.

This structure worked until the company began to grow in the late 2000s. The growing number

of people supported, support workers, and high-needs people doubled the workload and made

things like scheduling more complex therefore requiring a change in the organizational structure.

The Association went from having a relatively stable environment to one of uncertainty

as it grew in size. Support workers started receiving conflicting feedback on their performances

from the managers and the managers started disagreeing about the best way to manage their

employees. The amount and rate of change within the Association brought about challenges that

were not around when the company was of smaller size. For example, coordination became more
difficult because of the increasing amount of people supported, support workers, and managers.
In order to help the environmental uncertainty an organic structure should be established. This
would allow the manager to monitor the environment from different internal perspectives which
would help the Association to maintain their flexibility while the environment changes.
I would recommend that the Association use professional bureaucracy. Under
professional bureaucracy the support workers would be able to work relatively independently of
each other, but closely with the person they are supporting. This would help to eliminate the
current “cross-reporting” structure that is causing some of the complexity in the Association.
With the mix of vertical and horizontal differentiation the Association would be performing in a
way that is still consistent with their mission statement. Vertical differentiation would set rules
and procedures as well as plans and schedules to reduce the “cross-reporting” that occurs within
the company. With set rules, procedures, plans, and schedules some of the confusion in the
company would be reduced resulting in less uncertainty. Horizontal differentiation would allow
the support workers to specialize in certain tasks and use these with the specific person they are
supporting. Coordination would become much easier once standardized because the current
informal way of coordinating is not working as well for the Association anymore.
With the growing size of the Association things are becoming more complex and there is
no escaping that something needs to be done. By initiating a professional bureaucracy structure
the expertise of the support workers would be emphasized which is definitely an important part
of this non-profit organization. The Alice Saddy Association needs to stick as close to its
philosophy as possible and therefore should make sure that they keep this at the core of their
changes. By focusing on stabilizing the structure and environment of the Association, the
employees and people supported would both receive the benefits. It is inevitable for a company
to become more complex as it grows, but by utilizing the techniques and tools described above
the Alice Saddy Association could become a very efficient company.
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