Case study

Instructions

Welcome to Case Study 1. This case study is the first of three case assignments. In this assignment you will read the case "Preventing Child Abuse". The case is about legislatively mandated reorganization of the Secretariat of Human Resources, creating the Department of Social Services to assume the social service responsibilities of the Department of Welfare. The legislature evidently believed that "structure mattered", that is, that the reorganization would somehow reduce the risk to children who are actually or potentially under state supervision or in state custody.

There are few purposes of this assignment. The main purpose is to apply the theoretical knowledge that you learned in this course into a case study. That will take your learning from comprehension level to application, analysis, and synthesis levels. As a result, this case will help you improve your learning.

Other goals are

1- to analyze structural elements of a state organization,

2- to practice at diagnosing the underlying service delivery problems affecting motivation and employee effectiveness. 

To accomplish these goals, you will read the case provided as attachment. After reading the case, you will answer the question below regarding possible relationships between the structural dimension, employee behavior, and overall agency performance.  

Questions

Please answer the following questions after you read the case "Preventing Child Abuse".

1- What issues must Bradley Patton resolve at the end of the case?

2- Focus on the legislatively mandated structural reorganization that Patton is faced with:

a) Why would elected officials want to create a separate department responsible for services rather than having both social services and assistance payments to be equal divisions of the Department of Welfare? 

b) How are the politics of the administrative structure evident in this case?

c) Is the motivation technical rationality or political rationality? Does this case reflect Madisonian scheme of government? 

d) Is this reorganization a solution to the child safety problem? If it is a solution, why? If it is not a solution, why not? Make an argument to support your position.

3- With regard to the issues you identified in question 1, what should Patton do now, and why? For each decision Patton faces, make a complete argument to support your recommendation.

Instructions for the case report

In this assignment, I want you to write approximately a 4-page (single spaced) essay type report (hint: there is no page limit, but usually 4 pages is enough). In this report, you should have the following sections:

1- Start with an introduction section (recommended length is approximately 1 page) in which you will briefly summarize the case (what has happened), identify the key actors and their positions in the subject and goals (stakeholder analysis), and explain what problem must Bradley Patton solve (answer to question 1).

2- In the second part (recommended length is approximately 2 pages), you will analyze the political and administrative environment that led elected officials to create a separate department (question 2.a and 2.b). While addressing these questions, first explain the political and administrative environment and then discuss the interplay between politicians, administrators, and interest groups (i.e. politics of the administrative structure).

Next, evaluate the reorganization decision by addressing the points below (questions 2.c and 2.d):

· discuss whether the decision was based on political or technical rationality

· analyze the case from an accountability perspective. What were the accountability issues before the reorganization and what are the potential accountability issues after the reorganization?

· As street-level bureaucrats, what challenges were employees of the DOW facing before the reorganization? Would reorganization eliminate some of those challenges or create more challenges?

3- In the third part (recommended length is approximately 1 page), make recommendations to Patton about what to do regarding the problems that he needs to solve (the problems that you identified in section 1).

Please use the course materials in your report and cite them appropriately according to APA style.

Please remember, if you do not cite a source in your report, do not put it in your references. If you put a source in your references, make sure you cite it in your report.