Dunes, Indiana

This Practical Exercise is designed to serve as a "hands-on" reinforcement of many of the theories, concepts, techniques, etc., that you will encounter in this course, and/or have encountered in your previous MPA courses or work experiences. The exercise is a simulation in which you must place yourself in the role of a newly-appointed department head in an agency of a small city in Indiana. In this role you must analyze the situation you are entering, make decisions which, hopefully, will reflect a clear understanding of the political context in your city and state and the organizational context of your department, and be able to develop and present the rationale behind your decisions clearly and concisely, both to your organizational ‘superiors’ and, through them, to the Council and Mayor.

The instructions for the completion of each section of the exercise will be included in the raw data from which you will be working. Follow them carefully. The exercise may appear to be a little disjointed. This is intentional. In the ‘real’ world, management problems are not laid out for you to follow in lock-step. You must assess the totality of the problem, recognize where areas of the problem intersect, and begin laying out conceptually which alternative actions you might take may have desired impacts. In this regard, I suggest that you read the exercise in its entirety--and think about it--before you begin to work on the individual sections. Nothing happens in public management isolated from the context of the organization and the polity.

V502 Practical Exercise: Data for Dunes Indiana; Instructions for completion

Section 1 Planning

In your meeting with your department director, she shares with you the objectives of the next fiscal year. The city manager has announced the following policy:
 
 

Policy Statement of the Mayor, Lester Ficksit
Dunes, Indiana
Our City’s Goals for 2009-2010

Provide leadership and management of all human and fiscal resources within the city of Dunes so as to elicit high morale and team cooperation, enhance community relations, and deliver high quality, cost-effective services to the public. Responsibilities include administration, planning and research, personnel, and public safety. These objectives will be realized in the following manner:

1. Institute an active minority recruitment program so that the representation of minority employees in the city, as per the Consent Decree signed with the Office of Contract Compliance Programs, will be accomplished at an early date.

2. Restore the faith of the general public in city administration. This will initiated through the establishment of Citizen Review Boards for each department. These boards will have oversight responsibility for departmental operations. The selection process for board members will begin immediately. Establish measures that will indicate the degree of success attained.

3. Increase the level of professionalism within city administration by increasing the level of in-service training throughout the city.

4. Increase the cost-effectiveness of city operations by eliminating less productive activities and simplifying procedures so as to reduce the operating budget by two percent in FY 2010.

5. Promote an atmosphere of community safety and security by promptly and courteously delivering services and discharging mandated duties and responsibilities.

6. Investigate and report to the City Manager’s Task Force on Good Government all complaints concerning misconduct of city officials.

7.  Promote ethical conduct in city operations and establish measures that will indicate the degree of success attained.
 

**Adapted from Figure 5-1, Starling (1986) Managing the Public Sector, p. 169.
 
 

Your task now is to examine the Mayor’s policy statement and draw up a plan of action by specifying the objectives to be attained within your division. The next step is to develop a program intended to implement your plan. You should indicate the planning model you choose for drawing up your plan and be able to defend your choice of model.

What are the things you have to take into consideration here? What are your operating constraints? How realistic can your plan or program be? Be prepared to modify your plan! In the process of performing the balance of this exercise, it may become necessary to change your initial plan. If that is the case, include the original and all subsequent changes in your status report.

This part of the exercise should take about three pages.

Remember: This planning document should be consistent with all other activities in this exercise.
 
 

Section 2 Financial Management

You and all division administrators have been requested by the mayor to develop your FY 2009 budget as well as an FY 2010 expenditure budget. The FY 2010 budget is to be calculated by increasing the 2002 budget byeight percent for all items that are to be carried over into the next fiscal year. [Please note: your budget analysis is to include two parts--a capital budget and an operations budget.]

The Year 2010 Operating Budget should be based on FY 2009:
Budget Items (2009 Costs)
Salaries (including FICA, federal, state and local tax) compute total
Rent $42,000
Heat $17,000
Electricity $4,000
Phone $2,700
Supplies $3,978
Equipment $6,789
Travel $5,200
Entertainment $2,175
Petty Cash $1,000

The addition of the Inspection Section is likely to increase each of the above items by 22 percent. When putting together your budgets be sure to include the cost of the vehicles for the new section.

A Capital Budget will be necessary only if you decide to purchase the vehicles for the Inspection Unit.
 
 

Remember the budget is a planning and management tool. Therefore, it has to be coordinated with the other plans you have for the division.

These budgets should be arrayed on spreadsheets. The resulting graphics that will be a part of the executive summary should reflect your budgetary analysis. Include the spreadsheets in your status report as backup documentation.
 
 

Section 3 Political Environment

One of the political issues which led to the election of a new majority on the City Council was the valid complaint from women and minority citizens of Dunes that they [as groups] were significantly underrepresented in the administration. The anger associated with this issue went unanswered by the previous Mayor and the Council Chair, John Small, except that both denied that the administration discriminated against minorities or women. They were unable, however, to provide convincing evidence to support their claims in this matter. Finally, tired of the seeming run-around, these loosely organized interest groups filed an official complaint with the Office of Contract Compliance [OCC], the cognizant federal agency for affirmative action. A subsequent OCC field review substantiated that Dunes had consistently underutilized women and minorities as employees. It also found unresolved incidents sexual harassment and racial discrimination. After a court hearing, the city was forced to sign a consent decree stating that these problems would be corrected and setting time guidelines for compliance.

Dunes has a very good newspaper, The Daily Clarion. It has a crusading editor, Benjamin Quill. The outgoing council members and previous mayor have Mr. Quill to thank for their current unemployment. While rumors about the mayor’s competence and honesty--and about some council members’ motives and honesty, as well--had circulated for years, but nothing had ever been proven. At least, not until Quill, in the finest ‘deep throat’ fashion found a disgruntled insider in the mayor’s inner circle. A series of searing editorials and probing news stories laid the inner workings of the council and administration open to public scrutiny. The resultant political furor fueled the outcome of the recent election. Only one of the council members tainted by this particular list of political scandals, Barnabas Reese, survived the election. Although now in the minority, he remains a strong political player in Dunes.

Among the laundry list of problems highlighted in the Clarion are:

1. Sexual and racial discrimination.

2. Misuse of federal grant funds.

3. Failure to accurately keep the public record.

4. Bribery, malfeasance, and ‘sweetheart’ contracts.

5. Inadequate fiscal management.

6. Low morale due to inadequate personnel policies.

7. Cronyism and nepotism.

This list of sins helped to galvanize a formerly ‘sleeping’ public into a more active watchdog of the city’s administration. Quill takes his newly adopted ‘public defender’ role very seriously. He will kibitz often and long with the new administration. The general political climate is highly charged. The public will likely give the new mayor and council a short ‘honeymoon’ period and then will hold both to expectations of substantial improvement.

There are numerous interest groups in Dunes who have suddenly become visible and active players in local politics. They are keenly interested in making sure that Dunes has ‘good government’. They are intrusive, inquisitive, and vociferous. They represent a force to be dealt with by all Dunes managers.

The recent growth of Dunes’s population has put significant pressure on the city’s current sewage treatment capacity. Because of the current lack of capacity, there have been occasions of discharge of untreated sewage into the Old River. Communities downstream from Dunes have complained about this and the EPA is threatening to cite and fine Dunes for it. The mayor has decided that a new treatment facility must be built. You are the person in charge of the division with overall responsibility for getting this new plant on line. What do you need to be mindful of? What can impact your plans? How might each of the following affect your plans: constituents?, cognate agencies?, the watchdog press?, clients? What resources do you have available to facilitate your efforts?, i.e., external support, professionalism, leadership? What strategies are available to you for dealing with the communities downstream and their concerns?
 
 

Section 4 Intergovernmental Relations

The Environmental Protection Agency, responding to complaints from communities downstream from Dunes, decided to investigate charges that Dunes is polluting the Old River (which is a source of drinking water for these communities). Upon investigation, the EPA found that the city of Dunes has been going through a period of tremendous population decline and consequent decline in tax revenues in the past five years, and plant and equipment have deteriorated rapidly, too. There is now not enough sewage treatment capacity at its aging plant to meet current demand. This has resulted in periodic discharges of raw sewage into the river during peak periods.

During negotiations on the matter, the EPA indicated that they would be willing to accept a grant proposal to build additional sewage treatment facilities in Dunes. However, the city must hurry the submission of its grant proposal because 1999 is the last year for the Construction Grants Program which has funded the building of treatment facilities in the past. No grant applications will be accepted after December 31, 2009. The 1993 revision to Title VI resulted in what is, in effect, a new act--the State Water Pollution Revolving Fund. After 2009, the state will be responsible for running these programs--and the emphasis of the program will change from building treatment facilities to funds for operating and maintaining them.

Federal responsibility for Clean Water Grants will be decentralized to the state level. Despite the intent of the changes--to reinforce the states’ role in the new federal partnership, to cut back direct federal involvement in the construction of treatment facilities, and to streamline the construction process--the new administration of Dunes has it on good authority that , at least initially. Application through the new program will be cumbersome and time-consuming. For this reason and because of pressure from neighboring communities, the city manager is determined that a grant will be submitted to Region V before the December 31 deadline. The EPA insists that a grantee must have a construction engineer ‘on board’ before January 1, 2010, to qualify for one of the last grants under the old program.

Your Engineering Division will have responsibility for completing and submitting the grant and for managing the project from start to finish. The following are the time frames for accomplishing what must be done to meet these ‘witching hour’ deadlines:

1. Complete the grant proposal--two months.

2. Submit the grant proposal--one day.

3. Correct and resubmit the flawed grant proposal [your first attempt is not perfect, after all]--three weeks (not later than December 31).

4. Secure a design engineer--two months.

5. Draw up plans and specifications--two months.

6. Cost out the project--decide which parts, if any, can be contracted out.

7.  Secure a construction engineer--one month

You will notice that there is not much leeway here, as far as time goes.

You will find Coley & Scheinberg (1990) Proposal Writing  or other similar texts of great help for this part of the exercise. Data needed to complete the grant can be found in the part of the exercise entitled "Implementing and Evaluating the New Section".

In the past the EPA spent a lot of time in programmatic activities, such as construction inspection. Since 1984, they have been de-emphasizing this. When and where possible, they are encouraging grantees to perform their own inspections. Hence, part of the justification for the new inspection unit that you are designing.

What must you be mindful of? What can impact your plans? How might each of these affect your plans: constituents? cognate agencies? the watchdog press? clients? What resources do you have available to you to facilitate your efforts--external support? professionalism? leadership? What strategies are available to you for dealing with the communities downstream?
Note: You do not have to actually write the proposal--you do have to insure that all information is available for the proposal and decide who will write the proposal.
 
 

Section 5 Organizational Design

You currently have the following employees in your organization, broken out by section:
 
 

Engineering Division Personnel

By Section, including unit responsibilities

Administration

Name              Race    Gender                    Position                     Salary

You                                            Division Administrator             $40,000
Mays, Bill          W        M          Asst. Administrator                 $32,000
Jones, Mary       W        F           Secretary I                             $16,000
Reese, Geoffrey W        M          Finance Officer                       $32,750

       Responsible for providing all staff functions for the Division.

Permits Section

Smythe, Sam   W         M            Permits Manager                     $30,000
Cobb, Sally     W         F             Secretary II                             $13,000
Jones, Slim      W         M            Permits Clerk                          $16,500
Coe, Leroy      B          M            Permits Clerk                          $12,500

This is a line unit. It is responsible for granting permits/sewer hook-ups, etc.
 
 

Construction Engineering Section

Hayes, Joe      W           M          Chief Engineer                         $38,000
Burton, Tom    W           M          Engineer                                  $34,000
Gold, William   W          M           Engineer                                  $32,000
Hayden, Ron    W          M           Engineer                                  $32,750
Brown, Pam     B           F             Secretary II                             $11,000

This unit is responsible for construction program management. It is also the unit that will be responsible for all phases of the sewage treatment facilities.
 
  Proposed Inspection Unit

Chief Inspector $25,000
Inspector $18,000
Inspector $18,000
Inspector $18,000
Secretary $15,500
Tech Clerk $10,900

This unit will be responsible for inspection. Other than that, its charge is a little nebulous. The permit section has been crying for some inspection capability, as has the drainage engineering section. However, you know that once the sewage treatment project is underway, it will occupy all of the time of the inspection unit.
   

Drainage Engineering Section

Michaels, Sam      W   M                   Chief Engineer          $33,000
Rinaldi, Gene        W   M                   Engineer                   $32,000
McGuain, Pete      W  M                    Engineer                   $28,000

This unit is responsible for drainage reviews and the issuing of building and renovations permits. Given the problems Dunes is currently facing, this is a very busy unit. They are also short-handed. Michaels constantly complains that they are overworked and underpaid. He has to do all his own typing and filing. You find out that this unit was not one of your predecessor’s favorites. He, in fact, hated Michaels and had refused him raises for the past two years. Yet, your review of this unit shows that it is the most conscientious and productive one you have.

As is the norm, your division’s organization is of the ‘pyramid’ type. Review the data provided above and draw this structure. You have some tricky decisions to make. The proposed new Inspection Section is being fought over by the heads of the other sections.

The Drainage Engineering Sections thinks that at least part of Inspection’s time should be allocated to it because they are currently understaffed and, at the present time, the engineers are performing all aspects of their charge, including inspections. Drainage maintains that because of this they must constantly make quality/quantity tradeoffs in the performance of their jobs. They complain that, if they are to be treated as stepchildren in terms of pay and staff support, "do not expect them to cure cancer too, while the ‘chosen ones’ in other divisions sit around and polish their haloes."
 
  The Permits Section also wants to have a piece of Inspections. They maintain that they often need to check to see whether clients actually qualify for the permits they are requesting. They say that they have been "flying blind" for a long time. Permits have been issued that probably should not have been. You assess the situation and determine that while their request has some merit, their need is not as great as is that of the other two sections.

Study the situation and ask yourself, "What actually has been going on in this Division? What ought to have been going on? What is our organizational mission?" Draw an organizational chart which depicts the desired state for your organization. How will you handle the following:
span of control? division of labor? hierarchy? Is the pyramid structure the best one for your organization? If not, why not? Defend your choice of organizational structure/design. How will you handle the politics of reorganization?

Your offices are located outside of City Hall. Space is not a problem now, nor will it be in the foreseeable future. However, communication within the department and between the department and the balance of the city administration does pose a problem now and again. Try to solve the communication problem with your new organizational structure.

This part of the exercise should take you about three pages. It is to include, as well, two structure charts--the way things are now, and what you think the organizational design should be. You’re the boss--be creative.
 
  Section 6 Organizational Behavior

Upon entering the office on your first day, you are met by waves of rejoicing. All but a small cadre of the employees are generally glad to see you (the exceptions are the ‘insiders’--your predecessor’s cronies). A few in particular have a lot to say with regard to your predecessor! After conducting staff interviews, document analysis, and generally observing the operations of the office, you determine the following:

1. Morale is very low.

2. The atmosphere has been repressive. Your predecessor ‘ruled’ through intimidation and harassment.

3. There is an informal chain of command that supersedes the formal one. A small group of ‘insiders’ ran the organization. Supervisors could not effectively supervise their employees because they would be overruled by your predecessor. This has eroded all authority structures in the organization.

4. Many people are working outside of their job descriptions and have not had salary adjustments to reflect their increased duties in the past two years. However, your predecessor’s cronies have been handsomely rewarded and you can find little evidence to justify that differential treatment.

5. Sexual and racial harassment had been both routine and was overlooked or condoned by your predecessor.

6. Rewards and punishments were meted out in an arbitrary and capricious manner. Rewards include remuneration and punishments include termination.

The net effect of all of this is that the division is inward-looking and playing office politics has become more important than discharging one’s responsibilities. Productivity is down. Absenteeism, sloth, and irresponsibility are up. Your job as ‘leader’ is to motivate your employees, boost morale, and increase productivity. How are you going to do this? Remember, the city manager is looking for budget cuts. What models, theories, and/or concepts for both your conduct and for the organization in general will you use to create a more positive and more productive division? Defend your choices.

This part of the exercise should take two to three pages.
 
 

Section 7 Human Resources Management

A coalition of interests representing women and minorities has complained of under-representation in the city administration. They staged a series of protests, including a sit-in on the steps of City Hall. The Clarion has given their complaints both space and editorial support. By taking the protest to the Office of Contract Compliance, the coalition forced the city to sign a consent decree promising early corrective action for the now verified under-representation.

Lester Ficksit, the new mayor, has made active recruitment of qualified female and minority employees a priority for his new administration. He expects every division administrator to assess operations to determine if there is an under-utilization problem and to create a corrective action plan where there is before any new hiring can take place. This could hurt you--all of your plans--the grant, the sewage treatment plant, the inspection division, etc., require new staff, and quickly. You, therefore, have to conduct a utilization analysis within your shop as it is currently constituted and, if there is a problem, you might try to use your hiring decisions to correct it.

Refer to the "Organizational Design" section for a current breakdown of your division. You might want to consider the impact of recent US Supreme Court rulings on Affirmative Action on your thinking about this problem.

Your investigation has uncovered that the people in the Drainage Engineering Section have not been given raises for two years. Yet, they are probably the best section you have. You are determined to correct this injustice. A five percent raise has been discussed with that section and they were tickled. However, you are at a loss to figure out how to do it without creating an inflationary salary spiral in your division. What will you do?

You discover that Geoffrey Reese is the nephew of Council member, Barnabas Reese, one of the few remaining ‘old’ council members. Barnabas may need to be more circumspect in his exercise of influence due to his close call in the election, but remains a powerful political leader in Dunes. He had been accustomed to using his nephew to influence the policy of your division prior to the change of administration. Geoffrey Reese, you discover, knows little about finance. The books are in terrible shape. He has a bad attitude. You would like to get rid of him, but at least for now you need him to help make sense of the financial mess you have inherited. Think of preparing the grant proposal without adequate records! You are committed to getting rid of him as soon as possible. How do you get what you need from him while at the same time giving him no illusions about his future in the division?
 
 

Section 8 Administrative Responsibility and Ethics

Dunes has a very good newspaper with a crusading editor. His series of news articles (deep throat) and editorials, as detailed in the section of this exercise titled "Political Environment", brought the change of city administration of which you are a part. Recall the specific problems uncovered by the Clarion and the mayor’s mission statement and commitment to good government.

Your division was formerly headed by a crony of the powerful council member, Barnabas Reese. The former mayor could not bring himself to chastise your predecessor for breaches of good conduct in the division, though all would agree that such action would have been justified. Because the Engineering Division was so irresponsibly managed, it has taken a lot of flak, both from the public and from the newspaper. You are, as a result of all of this, on the hot seat. You have to restore a sense of accountability and responsibility in the division. How will you do it? Also, ethical standards have been a little loose in the past--’situation ethics’ have been the order of the day. How will you instill appropriate standards of ethical conduct in the division?

Defend your choices.

This part of the exercise should not take more than two pages.
 
 

Section 9 Implementing and Evaluating the New Section

You have to implement the proposal for the reorganization for your division. It is necessary to maintain control over the process. You have begun by making a list of everything that needs to be done in order to accomplish your task. This process resulted in a bewildering list of activities. You are not even sure that this list is complete. Some of the activities include subactivities; you have to further refine the list. [Do so: include the new list in your report documentation. Cross-check the entire exercise for things that you have to include that are not on the list that follows. Hint: some were purposely left off.] Your preliminary list follows:

1. Design organizational structure of inspection unit.

2. Hire inspectors.

3. Train new staff.

4. Perform legal study to determine the mandates of the inspection unit.

5. Calculate the costs for the new unit.

6. Submit the grant proposal for the sewer interceptors and the new sewage facilities.

7. Write grant proposal.

8. Final submittal date for grant proposal.

9. Secure transportation for the new inspection unit.

10. Have program approved by the department director [your boss].

11. Have program approved by the city manager.

12. Put together a bid for the automobiles.

13. Bid the automobiles.

14. Secure a design engineer.

15. Secure a construction engineer.

In order to get better control of the situation, you find it necessary to draw a Gantt Chart as a control device. Draw the chart; include it in the backup documentation for your report.

Do all of this carefully. It may be necessary to modify the schedule of activities from that which you had originally developed.
 
 

Section 10 Program Evaluation

Your Division has never had an inspection section before. In the past, the city had always let contractors self-inspect. Therein lies the reason for so many of the problems that have plagued the city in the past. Indeed, many of the scandals derive from contractors using substandard materials in their construction projects while reporting that everything was being done according to plans and specifications filed with the city. Some old hands in the city are dubious of the enterprise. They do not think Dunes will be able to do a better job than the contractors did. You, however, do not think that your new section can possibly do any worse. Your department director publicly supports you in your efforts to build the new unit. However, privately, he has told you that he is dubious, too. He is going to give you two years to prove that you can make a go of it. But, if you fail, he will contract out the work. Realizing that you will be called upon to defend the inspection section’s performance, you decide to evaluate it and to generate written reports demonstrating that performance. Your task is to develop an evaluation program for the new unit. Sketch out how you would go about this. Be as specific as possible.

This part of the exercise should not take more than three pages.
 
 

Section 11 Providing Transportation for the Inspection Section

You have to decide how your new inspection division will get around: they must have transportation. You have two options: lease vehicles or buy them. You call around to the local dealerships and find that the type of automobile that best meets your requirements is the six-cylinder Chevrolet Lumina. The dealer gives you the following information regarding the costs of purchasing as opposed to leasing a Lumina. [Note: given the public bidding laws, you are just doing the background research for putting together a recommendation to your boss, the department director. You will only be submitting one recommendation. For you, cost is the critical factor. However, you know that your boss has her own preferences. She leases an automobile now and is often heard extolling the virtues of leasing.]

Comparison of Purchasing and Leasing a Chevrolet Lumina

                                        Leasing                                                   Purchasing

Total Costs:                       N/A                                                      $22,495

Monthly Payment                (a) $399 1st year                                    NA
Security Deposit (b)
Mileage Adjustment (c)

O & M Costs:

Gasoline mileage               (d) 19 mi/gallon                                     19 mi/gallon
Oil Change (e)                    @ 3000 mi.                                          @ 3000 mi.
Tune Up                                  $50                                                        $50

Title & Plates                          $72                                                         $72
Insurance (f)
Purchase Residual (g)                                                                            N/A

Notes:

a  The dealer is willing to give you a discount on the monthly payments for each year beyond the first one. The discount rate is 2.5 percent reduction on the previous year’s monthly payment amount.

b   The security deposit for a Chevrolet Lumina is figured by rounding the monthly payment down to the nearest $25 and adding $1000.

c    The monthly lease payment remains constant for the entire year unless the mileage amount exceeds 13,000 in a year. If the car was leased for only one year, there is an adjustment to cover the increased depreciation on the car. It is figured at one percent of the monthly payment per thousand miles over the 13,000 mile allotment. The mileage adjustment can be paid in cash at the end of the lease period or rolled into the next year’s monthly lease payments.

d    The current price of gasoline is $1.55 per gallon.

e    The going price for an oil change is $35.

f     Dunes is self-insured. Insurance costs on either option do not come out of your budget.

g    At the leaser’s option, (s)he can buy the car leased by paying the residual costs, the original purchase price minus all costs paid in lease payments.
 

Using this information, you are to figure which is the better option for your division--lease or purchase. The city has a habit of keeping its vehicles for ten years. Which is the more cost-effective means of securing transportation for your new section? [Include the computations you made. What method did you use to make the decision?]

The problem gets more complicated regardless of which option is the most cost-effective. You know your department director is partial to leasing. You also know that she is not easily swayed. [The following decision-making scenario is based on question 4, page 283, in Starling] Read and answer the following question:

You must decide whether to include either the buy option or the lease option in your status report to the department director, who, in turn, must submit it to the city manager. You estimate that there is a 70 percent chance that the department director would accept the lease option, but only a 45 percent chance that the city manager would accept it. The city manager likes the buy option; indeed, you are certain that he would accept it--if, that is, it ever got past the department director (only 3-to-2 odds of this happening). You prefer the buy option and evaluate its utility at 1.00. In fact, because you think it is the most desirable, even if the department director accepts and has it rejected by the city manager, you would assign a utility of 0.40 to these consequences. Of course, if the reject came first from your boss, the department director, the utility would be somewhat less, say 0.20. However, the lease option, if accepted by the city manager, has a utility of 0.80 to you. But the worst situation is to have your recommendation rejected; there would be no utility in such case for you What do you do?

Is there enough information provided for you to make your decision? If not, what else is needed? You are to draw the resulting schematic on a sheet of paper and include it as backup documentation to your report.

Note: this part of the exercise should not take you more than three pages to complete.
 

**This practical exercise is adapted from one created and used by Dr. Charles Washington, Cleveland State University, 1990.
 
  Summary of instructions

Each of you will be responsible to complete the practical exercise independently. This exercise is meant to allow you to experience what it might be like to work and experiment with the kinds of decisions that public managers [not agency heads, but ordinary working managers] come up against in their practice. The exercise has no absolutely ‘correct’ or ‘true’ answer. There are pros and cons for any choice you make. The key is to apply your intellect and your style preferences, and especially, your creative imagination, to the kinds of routine problems which make their home in the public sector.

The completed exercise will consist of: the executive summary, the divisional status report [including planning for the reorganization] and backup documentation [including charts, graphs, worksheets, spreadsheets, memos, etc.], with a cover page for the purposes of identifying course number, student, student number and date. Hint: The order in which the sections have been presented is the order for your completed project. However, you will not truly be able to write them in that order. Budgets and executive summaries appear first, but are constructed last.

You are reminded of the following:

Whatever you decide in any of the sections, the whole plan of action must be internally consistent and reasonably do-able. Make all your documentation as ‘real’ as possible--reflecting the interconnection between various phases of the manager’s role in a public organization.

While creative solutions to the problems posed in the exercise will reap substantial rewards, it is the justification you provide for choices which will carry the day.

You are encouraged to reflect and research at length on this project. This exercise represents a significant portion of your grade for this course. Do not attempt to do it in the last week of class--work on it throughout the semester.

I am looking forward to learning from your solutions, not only how well you have absorbed the persona of the head of the Engineering Division and the concepts and theories presented in this course and others, but also some new and fresh approaches to the problems we, as managers and teachers, come up against in our practices.

Good Luck!

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