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Greenhill Community Center Case Study

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Greenhill Community Center Case Study
March 28, 2013
Introduction
According to The Oxford Handbook of Public Management (Ferlie, et. all, 2005) nongovernmental organizations can face complex management dilemmas when dealing with growth.
There are four key challenges that are faced: assessing performance, governance, sustainability and infrastructure support, and collaboration and cooperation. At Greenhill Community Center we see an organization that is looking to bring about change (and in particular growth). The board of trustees unanimously agrees on a promising young woman, Leslie, to help move them towards their goal. What they get is someone who does in fact grow the community center, but at the expense of the …show more content…

Analysis
The first problem that arises is a disconnection between the staff and Leslie. Based on our readings, it appears that there was a drastic difference in management types from Leslie and the previous executive director with Leslie taking a “hard” approach and the previous director taking a “soft” approach. The Oxford Handbook of Public Management (Ferlie, et. all, 2005) defines a hard approach to management as “a rise of audit, performance measurement, performance management, and performance-related finance” and a soft approach to management as being
“associated with the human relations school of private sector management, rather than accounting logic. The emphasis [here] is on user orientation, quality improvement, organizational and individual development and learning” (pp. 431).
One of the first things Leslie did when she arrived at Greenhill Community Center was to take a more “business-like” approach to the workplace, giving everyone a specific task to do and boundaries to keep within. From the case study readings it appears the previous manager let her program directors manage their own areas as well as help out and organize other departments and community center events. Having worked with several different management styles myself, I know that it can be a culture shock to go from one management style to another. Especially when you are talking about moving from one manager who wants everyone involved in everything

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