Case Study: Your Role – you are 'an external consultant completing a report on the situation' Dharma has been the owner of 'Helping Hands' a charity and not-for-profit organisation for five years. The organisation has grown to 10 permanent staff and 20 volunteers. The growth has been steady and Dharma was able to manage and introduce change processes easily in the past. However in the last 6 months there has been an increased need for the services the organisation provides due to an economic down turn and more families finding it harder to survive. Dharma finds she is kept busy liaising with other organisation and government departments and is unable to keep up with the daily management and operations of the business. She promoted Jenny, who has worked with 'Helping Hands' for five years, to a newly created management role and put 3 new staff members on to keep the organisation functioning efficiently. Jenny is a great worker and has demonstrated high levels of motivation and commitment to the organisation and families they service. The changes happened quickly and Dharma did not have the time to train Jenny into the new role and also gave Jenny the responsibility of training the new staff. It has been two months since the new structure has been put into place and Mark one of the volunteers has approached Dharma with a number of concerns. Mark likes volunteering with 'Helping Hands' but things have become very stressful and he is considering leaving. Since Jenny has taken on the new role there has become breakdown in the teams. The volunteers are not feeling valued and important anymore. He has noticed that the staff have broken into two groups and there is conflict between them. He has even witnessed Jenny publicly criticising staff when they have done something wrong. He said he is not the only volunteer considering leaving and thought it best that Dharma was made aware of the situation. Assessment Information COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Copyright Regulations 1969 This material has been reproduced and communicated to you by or on behalf of Kaplan Business School pursuant to Part VB of the Copyright Act 1968 ('Act'). The material in this communication may be subject to copyright under the Act. Any further reproduction or communication of this material by you may be the subject of copyright protection under the Act. Kaplan Business School is a part of Kaplan Inc., a leading global provider of educational services. Kaplan Business School Pty Ltd ABN 86 098 181 947 is a registered higher education provider CRICOS Provider Code 02426B. Analysis: Dharma wants to handle the situation to get the best outcome so decides to hire an external consultant (you) to do some research and analyse the best approach before dealing with the situation. You should consider the following in finalising your report for Dharma: • How management decisions can impact on organisational efficiency and effectiveness. • The importance of leadership and effective motivation. • The importance of building a cohesive team. • Approaches to managing staff in periods of change