An Organizational Analysis of the Ronald McDonald House of Chapel Hill

Chandler Briggs

PUBA 710

Spring 2023

March 7, 2023
Introduction

The Ronald McDonald House of Chapel Hill (RMHCH) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit affiliated

with the Ronald McDonald House Charities and NC Children’s Hospital. The purpose of

RMHCH is to enable access to affordable and quality healthcare for low-income and medicaid

families of NC Children’s Hospital. Through the structural lens, it is clear that the organization

includes components of vertical and lateral coordination in order to integrate its four-tier

hierarchy and three department structure. Conversely, through the human resource lens, it is clear

that positive relationships within the organization lead to high motivation, support from

supervisors, and minimal conflict. The intent of this paper is to provide an overview of the

organization and subsequently analyze the organization from a structural and human resource

perspective.

Background

The Ronald McDonald House of Chapel Hill (RMHCH) is affiliated with Ronald

McDonald House Charities of North Carolina and Ronald McDonald House Charities Global

(“About the House'' 2023). However, RMHCH has its own 501(c)3 tax-exempt status (“About

the House '' 2023). McDonald’s is the organization’s largest corporate donor and funds roughly

5% of the annual operating costs (“About the House'' 2023). The mission of RMHCH is “to care

for families in life-altering moments, days and months that children spend in area hospitals”

(“About the House'' 2023). In other words, the purpose of RMHCH is to enable access to

affordable and quality healthcare for low-income and medicaid families of NC Children’s

Hospital (personal interview with Cizek 2023). RMHCH provides free housing and warm meals

during their child’s hospital stay (personal interview with Cizek 2023). Furthermore, the

organization provides emotional support to their residents by connecting families in crisis, giving
free toys to patients and their siblings, and offering fun, stress-relieving activities (personal

interview with Cizek 2023). In order to be served by RMHCH, families must receive a referral

from NC Children’s Hospital, typically from a hospital social worker (personal interview with

Cizek 2023). Once a family has received a hospital referral and completed their first stay, they

can submit a self-referral to return to the house for additional service (personal interview with

Cizek 2023).

Structural Frame Analysis

Analyzing the Ronald McDonald House of Chapel Hill using the structural frame allows

us to determine how the division and coordination of work impacts the organization. First, I will

provide an overview of the general structure of the organization and analyze this structure using

the Mintzberg model. We will also look at how this structure allows for differentiation in the

workplace. Finally, we will examine how vertical and lateral coordination efforts support

integration throughout the organization.

The Ronald McDonald House of Chapel Hill has four employee levels according to their

organizational chart (RMH Organizational Structure 2023). The executive director, Oie

Osterkamp, and the twenty-person board of directors are placed in the highest level of leadership

(personal interview with Cizek 2023). Next, there are three senior directors who each oversee

different departments of staff (RMH Organizational Structure 2023). The third level of staff

members include directors and coordinators for different functions, such as the development

coordinator, the director of special events, etc (RMH Organizational Structure 2023). The

director of guest services is located at this third level and is the only position that has a fourth

level of staff under their supervision (RMH Organizational Structure 2023). The director of guest
services oversees guest services staff, many of whom are part-time workers (personal interview

with Ciznek 2023).

Upon my exploration of the Ronald McDonald House of Chapel Hill, I have concluded

that the organization operates as a machine bureaucracy. As part of the Mintzberg model, a

machine bureaucracy is a structure which includes the strategic apex, middle leadership, the

operating core, the technostructure, and support staff (Bolman and Deal 2017). The strategic

apex makes the big decisions in this model (Bolman and Deal 2017). Cizek (personal interview

2023) defines the senior leadership team as the three senior directors, the executive director, and

the board of directors. Although there are two hierarchical levels within this team, I consider this

group to be the strategic apex since they function as the decision-making body for big decisions

according to Cizek (personal interview 2023). The director of guest services serves as middle

management since they supervise and provide resources for the operators. The operating staff

consists of the guest service employees who provide service to the families staying at RMHCH.

The other directors/coordinators are on the same hierarchical level as the director of guest

services, but they are part of the support staff and technostructure. They perform tasks that

facilitate the work of the others within the organization, such as planning special events,

launching marketing campaigns, and updating the database of guests.

A characteristic of the machine bureaucracy is that operation is efficient and effective

(Bolman and Deal 2017). With the support staff and technostructure setting standards, the

operating core can provide consistent and uniform service (Bolman and Deal 2017). For

example, the family room coordinator at RMHCH sets standards for the family room activities

and hours of operation, which the guest service staff members must uniformly communicate and

enforce to guests (personal interview with Ciznek 2023). Another characteristic of machine
bureaucracies is that middle management can face tensions with the strategic apex (Bolman and

Deal 2017). The strategic apex and the operating core may have competing needs and desires,

and the middle manager must aim to balance the needs of each (Bolman and Deal 2017). An

interview with the director of guest services would help to diagnose whether RMHCH middle

management experiences this tension.

The structure of the Ronald McDonald House of Chapel Hill allows for differentiation,

which Max Weber identifies as an essential element of bureaucracy – an idea that could be

applied to both government agencies and private businesses (Rainey 2014). With division of

labor, organizations increase efficiency and enhance performance because employees specialize

in specific tasks (Rainey 2014). Grouping people into divisionalized units can be done based on

knowledge or skill, time, product, clientele, place, or process (Bolman and Deal 2017). From my

observation, RMHCH creates divisionalized groups based on knowledge or skill. The three

departments, each led by a senior director, are: operations, volunteer services and community

outreach, and philanthropy (personal interview with Lambert 2023). Each staff member within

these departments must have the knowledge and skills to work on these very different job tasks.

The counterpart of differentiation is integration (Bolman and Deal 2017). While

allocating work is important for efficiency, the diverse efforts must also be integrated to ensure

organizational harmony (Bolman and Deal 2017). Integration is primarily done through vertical

coordination and horizontal coordination (Bolman and Deal 2017). Vertical coordination occurs

when higher levels of leadership control the work of subordinates and lateral coordination occurs

as an interactive form of teamwork (Bolman and Deal 2017). One way RMHCH ensures vertical

coordination is through authority. The organization’s hierarchical structure places the executive

director and senior directors in positions of authority, in which they are expected to keep actions
aligned with the goals and mission of the organization (Bolman and Deal 2017). Another method

for implementing vertical coordination is via rules, policies, and standards, which ensure that

behavior is predictable (Bolman and Deal 2017). My assumption is that RMHCH has numerous

rules, policies, and standards; however, I would have to learn more about them before

determining how much they establish vertical coordination.

As Bolman and Deal (2017) state, staff behavior is sometimes unchanged by rules and

command, so lateral coordination is necessary to fill this void. Meetings and coordinating roles

are two ways in which RMHCH establishes lateral coordination. Each department holds regular

departmental meetings in which staff members discuss the projects they are working on and

inform their team of ways they wish to be supported (personal interview with Lambert 2023).

Furthermore, the entire staff meets once per month in what the organization calls their “staff

huddle” in order to provide updates applicable to each department (personal interview with

Lambert 2023). In addition to these formal meetings, the staff are also able to have quick

exchanges with one another regularly since everyone shares an open-concept office space.

Bolman and Deal (2017) note that these informal contacts and exchanges are essential for

coordinating within fast-paced and turbulent environments.

Furthermore, RMHCH has several coordinating roles, including the family room

coordinator, the marketing and communications coordinator, and the development coordinator

(RMH organizational chart 2023). Bolman and Deal (2017) say that coordinators have

diplomatic status and deal across specialized turfs. For example, the development coordinator,

Emily Cizek supports the initiatives of her coworkers as needed, such as helping with special

events and database management (personal interview 2023).

 Although RMHCH implements several methods for vertical and lateral coordination, it is

my observation that integration efforts could still be improved. Lambert (personal interview

2023) says that she has seen a disconnect between the development and operations departments

in the past, where each group prioritized their own goals and disregarded others. The

development team tended to think about money and put family needs on the back burner while

the operations team tended to think about family programs and disregarded finances (personal

interview with Lambert 2023). This prioritization of department goals over the overall mission is

called suboptimization and it occurs when integration is missing (Bolman and Deal 2017).

Incorporating new task forces into the organization where staff members from diverse specialties

join together to collaborate on projects could help solve this problem of missing

interdepartmental integration (Bolman and Deal 2017). Task forces are useful once organizations

become more complex and when lateral communication is missing (Bolman and Deal 2017), as

in the case of RMHCH.

Human Resource Frame Analysis

Examining the Ronald McDonald House of Chapel Hill through the human resource

frame allows us to explore how human strengths, skills, and relationships are harnessed to serve

the organization. In this section, we will analyze the ways in which RMHCH employees are

motivated to do their jobs. We will also analyze the management style utilized by the leadership

team and how basic human resource strategies are used to mobilize human capital for the

organization. Finally, we will discuss the interpersonal dynamics of the organization.

Esteve and Schuster’s (2019) motivation framework includes six types of motivation,

which range between being other-regarding and self-regarding and between being extrinsic and

intrinsic. An intrinsic motivator means that one is motivated by the activity itself while an
extrinsic motivator means that one is motivated by the outcome of that activity (Esteve and

Schuster 2019). Other-regarding means that the activity benefits others while self-regarding

means the activity helps oneself (Esteve and Schuster 2019). Prosocial motivation is extrinsic

and other-regarding (Esteve and Schuster 2019). With this type of motivation, one works hard

because of the positive outcomes they are creating for their community (Esteve and Schuster

2019). Group identification is both other and self-regarding and it is an extrinsic motivator

(Esteve and Schuster 2019). One who identifies with a particular group may be motivated to

work hard in order to receive good outcomes for the group (Esteve and Schuster 2019).

Incentives are self-regarding and extrinsic (Esteve and Schuster 2019). One works hard to

receive tangible or intangible outcomes that benefit themselves (Esteve and Schuster 2019).

Warm glow is considered other-regarding and intrinsic (Esteve and Schuster 2019). Warm glow

occurs when one feels good about helping others (Esteve and Schuster 2019). Relatedness is

categorized as intrinsic and falls between other and self-regarding (Esteve and Schuster 2019).

Relatedness occurs when one feels emotionally connected to others at work and feels motivated

due to these relationships (Esteve and Schuster 2019). Lastly, enjoyment is intrinsic and

self-regarding and occurs when one finds joy and interest in doing the activity itself (Esteve and

Schuster 2019).

From my viewpoint, prosocial motivation is the main source of motivation for the staff at

RMHCH. Ciznek (personal interview 2023) states that her favorite part of working at RMHCH is

the impact she is able to make on the community. Similarly, Lambert (personal interview 2023)

mentions that it is very important for her to see the impact that she makes. Lambert (personal

interview 2023) also says that it is really clear that each staff member is very passionate about

the mission of the organization. It is clear to me that the staff members are motivated by their
mission and their desire to make positive impacts for their community. In addition to prosocial

motivation, staff members also seem to be motivated by relatedness. Ciznek (personal interview

2023) mentions that she loves the warm community they have with the staff and families and

Lambert (personal interview 2023) states that the staff all gets along so well. From these

statements, I conclude that RMHCH staff members feel quite emotionally connected to each

other, which serves as a motivation to support their coworkers through doing good work.

Bolman and Deal (2017) say that organizations with effective people management have

more productive and innovative employees. They describe six basic strategies for approaching

people management: build and implement an HR strategy, hire the right people, keep them,

invest in them, empower them, and promote diversity (Bolman and Deal 2017). Through my

observation of RMHCH, I have determined that the senior leadership strongly employs the

strategies to invest in and empower staff. Ciznek (personal interview 2023) describes her

supervisors as being very open and direct with feedback. She says they regularly provide

feedback as needed (personal interview with Ciznek 2023). Additionally, Lambert (personal

interview 2023) explains that everyone has weekly one-on-one meetings with their supervisors to

discuss goal setting and needs for support. Through open and direct feedback and the strong

willingness to support employees, I can see that the leadership team works to empower their staff

members. Furthermore, Lambert (personal interview 2023) describes the executive director, Oie

Osterkamp, as being highly dedicated to professional development for his staff. Investing in

employees includes dedication to staff learning and training because undertrained employees

complete poor quality work (Bolman and Deal 2017), and it is clear that Osterkamp puts ample

effort into investing in his staff.

 I also observed that Osterkamp is dedicated to experimenting to figure out what works –

groping along as Behn (1988) calls it. Groping along includes experimenting with various

initiatives to reach goals and modifying those initiatives based on results (Behn 1988). Managers

must be innovative to grope along and understand that there are many ways to complete tasks

and reach goals (Behn 1988). Osterkamp was presented with a dilemma when his special events

coordinator, Ellison Lambert admitted she felt burned out in her position (personal interview

with Lambert 2023). Osterkamp was innovative in my opinion with his solution to allow

Lambert to transition to a fresh role within the organization (personal interview with Lambert

2023). According to Behn (1988), the true determination of whether Osterkamp successfully

gropes along will be whether he reflects on this innovative solution and modifies it as needed.

Finally, we will analyze the interpersonal dynamics of RMHCH. Lambert (personal

interview 2023) acknowledges that she has never been in a workplace in which the staff

members get along so well. In fact, Ciznek (personal interview 2023) fails to recall a time when

she experienced or witnessed any severe conflict between staff members. She states that in her

time with the organization, around one year, the staff have always been able to solve conflict

among themselves without needing mediation from leadership or human resources (personal

interview with Ciznek 2023). It appears to me that the employees of RMHCH have high levels of

emotional intelligence, the ability to be aware of oneself and others and to handle emotions and

relationships appropriately (Bolman and Deal 2017). Bolman and Deal (2017) note that personal

relationships are at the center of daily life, so having employees with high emotional intelligence

who can handle interpersonal relationships well is a great strength for RMHCH.

Conclusion
 The Ronald McDonald House of Chapel Hill works to provide affordable healthcare for

low-income and medicaid families with children being treated at NC Children’s Hospital. Having

a sound structure with vertical and lateral coordination largely supports the organization in

reaching its mission. Additionally, the positive interpersonal relationships and effective

leadership style of managers creates an environment where staff can thrive with high motivation,

support from supervisors, and minimal conflict. Structural and human resource components are

both essential to organizational success. The Ronald McDonald House of Chapel Hill is able to

reach the goals of their mission because they emphasize both effective and coordinated structure

in addition to positive people management.

References

“About the House.” Ronald McDonald House Chapel Hill. n.d. Accessed March 6, 2023.

https://rmhch.org/about-the-house/

Behn, Robert D. 1988. "Management by Groping Along." Journal of Policy Analysis and

Management 7 (4) (Fall): 643-663.

http://libproxy.lib.unc.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals

/management-groping-along/docview/229602818/se-2.

Bolman, Lee G. and Terrence E. Deal. 2017. Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and

Leadership. 6th edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Cizek, Emily. 2023. Interview by the author. March 3, 2023.

Esteve, Marc and Christian Schuster. 2019. Motivating public employees.

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108559720.

Lambert, Ellison. 2023. Interview by the author. March 6, 2023.

Rainey, Hal G.. 2014. Understanding and Managing Public Organizations. New York: John
Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. Accessed March 8, 2023. ProQuest Ebook Central.

“RMH Organizational Structure” Ronald McDonald House Chapel Hill. 2023.

Appendix A: Interview with Emily Cizek

Please provide a brief overview of RMH.

● Enable access to quality healthcare for families that travel
● Emotional support
● Family support
● Free housing and warm meals
● Serve low income medicaid families
How are services paid for?
● No asking for donations to families
● Bill medicaid
● Past was sliding scale
How do families get connected with you?
● Referral required
○ Usually from social worker
● Self referral afterwards
What do you love about working at RMH?
● The impact on the community
● Not interacting with families daily but love when I do
● Warm community with families and staff
What does your typical day look like in your position?
● Processing gifts
● Thank you letters
● Other projects as needed
● Database management
● Support to special events director
○ Auctions
○ outreach
Can you describe your relationships with coworkers? I.e. how much you collaborate with them,
the culture among you?
● Highly collaborative
● Entering new database is individual
○ Lots of check in with supervisor
How is conflict handled?
● Able to handle it between each other
● Have an HR consultant
Can you tell me about your relationship with your supervisor(s)?
● Approachable
● Feedback given as needed
● Boss is open and direct
● Owie is very supportive and wants you to be in right bucket
 ● Dedicated to helping staff grow
How are big and little decisions made in your org?
● Big decisions joint effort between senior leadership team and board (20 people)
● Board rotates 3 years
● Small decisions are leaders of each department
● Weekly meetings for each departments
● Board meeting would be department head meetings (every other month maybe)
● Informal staff huddles once per month
How are financial decisions made?
● Same as above
What are some improvement areas for RMH?
● On DEI committee
○ Need more diversity in leadership and board
○ Not sure how geographically diverse
○ At least one former family member on board
● Communication with merger but its over communicating
● Where everyone will go in future
What advice would you give to a new employee at RMH?
● Remember why you’re here
● Get ready to have fun
○ Don't take yourself too seriously
● Be open minded with the merger
Appendix B: Interview with Ellison Lambert

What do you love about working at RMH?

● Really clear that everyone is passionate about what we do
● Mission is important to staff and individuals
● Important to me to see impact that I make
● I get to see the families each day that my long hours of fundraising supports
● House has potential to be sad but we support each other during the hard weeks
What does your typical day look like in your position?
● No typical day
● Depends on what event is coming up
● On computer making calls, talking to guests
How does leadership communicate with staff? How do staff communicate across departments?
● Development: weekly marketing and development meeting on Tuesdays to discuss what's
going on and how we can help each other
● Same office and open air spaces
● All get along so well “I’ve never been in a workplace where everyone gets along this
well”
● Huddle once per month where everyone can give updates that affect whole staff
● Moved it to once per month because it became a burden
● Weekly meeting with supervisor, are you hitting your goals, how can I support you
● Email listserv
Can you tell me about your relationship with your supervisor(s)?
● Owie is big on professional development
Does the staff struggle with burnout? How to combat this?
● Heaviness of mission and pressure of events
● Had discussion with owie and he was super supportive of switching her to volunteer
coordinator
● Everyone steps in to carry your load (collaboration on work and projects)
What are some improvement areas for RMH?
● Having clear communication channels of getting message out to people post merge
● Reach out to part-time people who aren’t in huddles
● Has been a disconnect between development and ops in past because they are doing
different jobs
● Development thinks about money and ops thinks about family
What advice would you give new employees?
● Hardest thing for me coming in, hard job because emotionally invested and outcomes are
not always great
● Have an outlet so you can process emotions
● Focus on the good
● Work-life balance in time sense (emotions not so much)
Appendix C: RMH Organizational Structure