Management was examined within Doylestown Township, in this overview. This paper explains, compares, and resolves the three main issues caused this municipality to deteriorate. There are many examples included from my experience that demonstrate the cause and effect of improper management. I conclude that by reorganizing, adjusting, and rethinking the management structure. All of these topics can be implemented properly to create a cohesive workplace.
In September 2017 my experience with Doylestown Township began. As a special projects intern, I observed a plethora of management issues that related to the MBA core studies at Johnson & Wales University while working on a variety of projects and other tasks. Throughout my employment I identified the following management hurdles. An inadequate management structure, organizational ineffectiveness, and decentralization of management were all relevant at Doylestown Township. While these hurdles are a part of management, my core studies have taught me how to clarify and fix these issues. As a leader in the workplace I will evaluate, assets, and provide solutions through assessment, identification, and leadership execution.
Founded in 1818, Doylestown Township became an official municipality. Named after the local Inn keeper William Doyle, the township is home to a university, high school, various business, restaurants and a lively cultural scene. Doylestown is regarded as one Bucks County’s most beautiful and desirable municipalities. Doylestown also plays home to many artists, musicians, craftsmen and is also the site of several museums. “According to the US Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 15.58 square miles, 15.5 square miles of which is land and 0.08 square miles of which is water. There are 76 miles of township-maintained roads and 33 miles of state-maintained roads within the township” (Doylestown PA, 2017)
The Township provides many services to its citizens such as parks, recreational activities, a police department, water and sewage assistance and general community resources. This municipality holds local government such as an elected Board of Supervisors who oversees the township operations. This Board of Supervisors also holds various governmental powers over the township. This includes the electing of a Township Manager. This appointed figure operates the administrative office for the township which in turn oversees the departments of code, parks and recreation, administration and finance.
Management Structure
Upon beginning my internship, the management structure was one of the first things that I took note of considering my field of study at Johnson & Wales University. I observed their functions and the day to day operation of the management team and took note of several things that I noticed and would continue to observe throughout my time there. The management structure was surely one of them. The Township Manager and the Department heads were some of the most important figures in the entire operation while various key employees carried out the vital tasks and work that took place on a regular basis.
The township of Doylestown is observed as a traditional hierarchy. There are many layers beneath one leader, the township manager. The manager’s job is to delegate various jobs to department heads in order to execute and implement tasks towards the singular goal of achieving what may be in the best interest of the community. In multiple situations, this goal was not met. I observed that on reason this occurred was due to traditional hierarchy. Due to the small size of the administrative office, a poor structure of employee to manager communication was established. There are approximately 20 employees located in the administration office in various departments. Miscommunication, little to no morale, and quality assurance all play a part in the poor management structure displayed.
With a poor management structure in place, the hindrance for the township is now not only in the execution of various tasks, but also the dissemination of information and the way that it is implemented without proper supervision or the knowledge of the proper supervisors and management personnel. For the township to have such a poorly established chain of command is a fundamental failure of principle on the most basic level and is clearly a sign of a misdirected leadership team attempting to create any kind of ladder of communication they can without properly establishing the roles and tasks of each member of the team.
The township administration often displays a broken communication chain between upper management and employees. The communication between management and the many departments, at times, was nonexistent. In turn this caused multiple issues and discrepancies for the township. A notable occurrence related to employees being uncertain to whom to report to or which upper management authority to interact with. This includes an employee reaching out to other departments for assistance. As an example. Doylestown Township does not currently have an official human resources department. As an employee, having a human resources department allows an employee to discuss labour, employee benefits, the job at hand and much more.
Without a human resources department culture in the workplace it is hard to decipherer, leading to poor morale. Currently the township manager and assistant host personnel files, this could cause employees to be uncomfortable and unable to speak out about any issues or problems occurring in the workplace. This is just another pull at the thread of an inadequate management structure. Human resources is extremely vital to the success of any organization not only in finding the right people for the job, but also ensuring that they are properly trained and indoctrinated into the systems that are in place and understand the goals and overall mission of the organization as a whole with a streamlined mission provided by the head manager to the human resources department.
Checks and balances is an essential core concept, demonstrated by James Madison, taught in the MBA program. Maintaining equality between departments is essential in preventing mistakes. The structure at Doylestown Township has clearly broken down due to the lack of communication and culture. This break down not only effects employees but also the residents of the community. Customers issues become unresolved or even forgotten.
Each department is viewed as an individual entity instead of a team. Changing the consistency of communication, creating a safe and valid culture, and enforcing a system of checks and balances will assist in the overall goal of becoming a team based municipality. This can be accompanied by changing from a traditional hierarchy to a team based organizational structure. In order to accomplish this goal, the township would need to create an informal communication basis, include employees input in decision making, and hold frequent online peer run meetings.
Organizational Ineffectiveness
With the changes that I recommended so far for the Doylestown Township Management structure, I also believe that the organizational efficiency of the entire township administration should be restructured to create a capable operation Throughout my time as an intern I observed that the organizational structure was inadequate and did not allow for the best allocation of resources for the Township as a whole. In addition to this, there was a great deal of delegation and performance issues that accrued due to the poor organizational structure.
This is extremely vital to the success of an organization due to the importance of an organized, clearly communicating and properly structured system for utilizing resources and allocating human capital. An organized workforce will be able to efficiently and effectively operate while one that is unorganize
d and operating in a manner that is poorly designed and structured will struggle to even get it’s feet off the ground with most projects. At times, this was the case at Doylestown Township as evidenced by the occasional misallocation of resources and poor communication between departments and the administration.
Within the township administration offices, there are many levels of hierarchy. The elected Board of Supervisors appoints a Township Manager who communicates with the Board of Supervisors on their goals and oversees township staff. Each department is responsible for producing results and overseeing their employees and performing tasks a cohesive unit. The department heads utilize the resources and capital of the township to perform tasks.
Often, due to this poor organizational structure, tasks are not properly disseminated or assigned and are sometimes left undone or not commenced at all. The Township Manager, oversees the staff and each department and often times fails to properly organize each task that is given to the various departments. This organizational failure is multi-faceted considering paperwork regarding tasks or emails regarding their assigned departments are sometimes not properly assigned or communicated and details are not thoroughly hashed out and the overall plan for each assignment is poorly conceived.
Proper organization of the various departments and the people within them would be vital, as the current system in place is poorly developed and not streamlined for efficiency and clarity of instructions. Perhaps several more support systems or supporting employees to handle paperwork or smaller communications and detail could help, however I believe that some of the concepts that I learned about in my Johnson and Wales Core studies would be more relevant to this particular situation.
While the township has organizational structure has its flaws, I do not believe that it is beyond repair. Another way to repair this flawed and unorganized structure is using the six systems of organizational effectiveness taught in the MBA program. These six systems include leadership, accountability, communication, delivery systems, human performance, and metrics (Anderson & Adams, 2015)
The main system that the township fails to achieve is leadership. The leadership position requires supervision of employees in order to spot errors or problems early on, before they fester. Another necessary trait is the organization of resources and using them in an effective way. An example of how the township defeated this point, would be a lack of selecting the correct employees, demonstrated by the township manager. The position created an inappropriate and illogical job of Special Projects Manager. The turnover rate for this position has been a steady rate of every two years. The leader failed to recognize a need to reorganize the position.
Another system that the township does not succeed in is the system of delivery. This technique should be used to create a direct and clear vision and goal for the township as a whole. This can be accomplished by “aligning initiatives and operations with strategy; continuously improving operations; pursuing performance breakthroughs in key areas; using advanced change techniques in support of major initiatives; establishing a pattern of executive sponsorship for all initiatives; and building future capability and capacity” (Wiley, 2015).
Utilizing the six system and starting to re-fabricate the management structure would lead to a capable and well-structured organization that will benefit the entire Township administration, it’s employee’s and citizens through following these guidelines and suggestions for a smooth and operational workplace that is effective. Each system can prove to be an essential component to a well organized and high functioning workplace. The purpose of the six systems would be well realized in the hands of a capable and well educated leader who knew how to implement these systems in a manner that was effective and deployed them to the proper departments and individuals who would benefit most from their various advantages.
Decentralization of Management
In addition to struggling with an unorganized and de-structured office environment, Doylestown Township has also been suffering the ill effects of a decentralized management structure. Poor delegation and miscommunication or lack of communication from the elected board of supervisors and the Township Manager as well as Township department heads has resulted in a lack of effectiveness and efficiency from each department employee. I observed a great deal of confusion and employees mired by a lack of direction, specifically department heads struggling to get their employees the proper instructions from upper management.
The township has demonstrated decentralization. They demonstrate this ability by creating department heads to disperse. This form of management can be improved by expanding the departments into further detailed divisions. By employing individuals with a specific set of skills and a master in their field, management would avoid a centralized form of management. This will lead to a clear vision.
Often, Township employees will receive goals that overwhelm their abilities and resources and will not have the proper support of management to accomplish these goals which leads to a waste of company resources and valuable time. As a specific example, the Township Manager assigned me a task without a time frame, time line or clear outline of the project at hand. Once the project was completed, I learned that it was assigned to another employee without notice to me and that it was executed by this individual without my knowledge, resulting in confusion, double work and the added expense of company resources.
The structure, as described earlier, is poorly designed and allows for flawed execution and poor supervision of employees due to a severe lack of inclusive management. On more than one occasion, an employee is assigned an irrelevant or incomprehensible task that is not properly assigned. In the course of this action, often times another and more competent employee in this field of work will be passed over or ignored for a task due to misinformation and oversight by the management staff.
This provides a poor work flow and jobs are not completed within the constraints and resource requirements of the township resulting in a poor use of resources and time, something that anyone working in a functioning office, knows is more valuable than anything. In the same light, often times employee morale will take a substantial dip if an overqualified employee is working on a task that they feel is below their pay grade or an underqualified employee feels that too much is being asked of them. Just as the poor allocation of resources can be detrimental to employee morale, so can the proper assignment of tasks, and employee morale can be critical in the completion of tasks and the overall feel of a workplace.
In order to resolve this issue a few actions can be taken. This includes restructuring the duties of each department manager and encouraging a synergistic workplace with an emphasis on communication and proactive orientation of new employees in the township. “If you cannot hire good people with the right skills, knowledge and temperament to assist you, you will end up having to do much of the work yourself” (Tracey, 2014). Often times, employees who are not properly oriented, will take far longer to flourish in the workplace and oftentimes, that is the case in the various departments at Doylestown Township. Each department manager should oversee a comprehensive program for training and integrating new employees, and ensuring that they are prepared, capable and willing to the tasks at hand.
In addition to this, promoting the synergistic workplace, which has bee
n so lacking in the township, will allow for fluid communication and coordination throughout the departments and provide a major strategic advantage for each department, allowing them to cross-utilize resources and plan work strategies together and more closely check with supervisors and most importantly the township manager.
While working as a team is often easier said than done, if the management team and administration truly follow through with the promotion of pro-communication policies and allow each department head to utilize resources and capital in a more team-oriented atmosphere, morale an work ethic will likely improve and lead to a more organized and focused workplace that embraces the idea of helping one another without the constraints of dealing with a poor chain of communication.
I believe that the movement in this direction will be exponentially beneficial for the township as having well trained and well adapted employees is vital to the success of any organization and Doylestown Township has certainly been lacking in this area for at least the time that I have been here. On an administrative level, resource management and capital disbursement will become easier with the improvement of competent employees and allow for more active roles for the department managers. The implementation of well-designed and thorough training programs is essential not only to the success of the township but each department.
Conclusion
As my internship comes to an end. I reflect on all of the management issues that related to the MBA core studies I have completed at Johnson & Wales University. Inadequate management structure, organizational ineffectiveness, and decentralization of management, creates an unfocused and inharmonious workplace that often is misguided in their attempts to accomplish assigned goals and carry out essential tasks. The management team here, while somewhat disconnected has attempted to bridge the gap between employee and upper management. Unfortunately, Doylestown Township requires a bigger change in organizational structure and a more centralized, efficient and focused management team that is capable of properly addressing and fixing these issues.
By becoming a team based organization, utilizing a strong leadership figure, and narrowing down the broad vision of a decentralized management structure I believe the Township will accomplish its common goal. A fully synergistic workplace is far more malleable for management and is a positive working environment for employees and administration alike. Seeing this, the Board of Supervisors will likely be pleased and allow for more positive programs for the community and will have increased confidence in the employees and managers at the Township.
The morale of the staff at the Township will be critical and with these changes, the morale and willingness to work towards a common goal will be realized and the employees will likely enjoy coming in to a more focused and organized workplace, and will in turn do a better job in their individual departments. This will also make the job of the managers, department heads and administration much more easy to manage and allow for proper leadership to be implemented with ease. While a small component in an otherwise large system of elements working together, morale can most certainly make or break the tasks and make the jobs of everyone at the township more enjoyable and capable of being achieved.
As I stated before, communication is key to all of this. In each department, the lack of structure and centralized management has more than often led to poor communication and in turn, poor work results and poor morale throughout the office due to confusion and lack of any proper direction. I believe, as I said in my analysis of each topic, the re-structuring and promotion of positive communication coupled with the support of synergistic workplace will be exponentially beneficial in this workplace. Each topic, as covered had similar problems and in turn, somewhat similar solutions.
With these recommendations in place they will begin to more effectively and efficiently operating, saving resources and time and seeing an overall rise in the ability of each department employee. In addition to this, the managerial stress and demands on the leadership will be a clear, concise system of communication, delegation and checks and balances in place. Rather than the haphazard and unorganized management structure in place during my time as an intern. It is clear to me that the administration has strained to accomplish their goals and is not communication properly, so with the recommendations and solutions that I put forth, I am very confident that as a leader, I would be able to amend some of the major issues at this workplace and look forward to the day that I can utilize my leadership and analytical abilities to truly execute a plan to promote an exceptional workplace environment utilizing the keys and lessons that I learn in the Johnson and Wales core Studies.