after reading. complete Question #3 please

What do you recommend to help the Donor Services department bevome more efficient?

at least a paragraph please.

Joanna Reed was walking home through fallen tree blos- attracting new ones. Good departments also never lose soms in Guatemala City. Today, however, her mind was sight of the fact that sponsorship agencies serve a dual more on her work than the natural beauty surrounding constituency the local people they are trying to help her. She unlocked the gate to her colonial home and sat develop and the sponsors who make that help possible down on the porch, surrounded by riotous toddlers, pets, through their donations. and plants, to ponder the recommendations she would make to Sam Wilson. The key decisions she needed to make about his Donor Services Department concerned Sponsorship Agency Anyway? What Is a Donor Services Department in a who should run the department and how the work should be structured The work of a Donor Services Department consists of Joanna had worked for a sponsorship agency reports on the families, and answering donor questions more than translating letters, preparing annual progress engaged in international development work with poor directed to the agency. It also handles the extensive, seem- people for six years. She and her husband moved from ingly endless paperwork associated with enrolling new country to country setting up new agencies. In each country, they had to design how the work should be when either the donor or the family stops participatine, families and assigning them to donors, reassignments done, given the local labor market and work conditions. After a year in Guatemala, Joanna, happily pregnant for them). Having accurate enrollment figures is crucial and the special gifts of money sent (and thank you notes with her third child, had finished setting up the Donor Services Department for the agency and was working ters is based upon these figures and affects planning because the money the agency receives from headquar only part-time on a research project. A friend who ran a "competing" development agency approached her to do The Department Head a consulting project for him. Sam Wilson, an American, Joanna tackled the challenge of analyzing the department was the national representative of a U.S.-based agency by speaking first with the department head see the orga- that had offices all over the world. Sam wanted Joanna nizational chart in Exhibit 1). Jos Barriga, a charismatic, to analyze his Donor Services Department, because dynamic man in his 40s, was head of both Donor Ser- he'd received complaints from headquarters about its vices and Community Services. In reality, he spent virtu efficiency. Since he'd been told that his office needed ally no time in the Donor Services Department and was to double in size in the coming year, he wanted to get not bilingual. "My biggest pleasure is working with the all the bugs worked out beforehand. Joanna agreed to community leaders and coming up with programs that spend a month gathering information and compiling a will be successful. I much prefer being in the field, driving report on this department. from village to village talking with people, to supervising Sponsorship agencies, with multimillion-dollar bud- paperwork. I'm not sure exactly what goes on in Donor gets, are funded by individuals and groups in developed Services, but Elena, the supervisor , is very responsible. 1 countries who contribute to development programs in make it a point to walk through the department once a week and say hello to everyone, and I check their daily less-developed countries (LDCs). Donors contribute approximately $20.00 per month plus optional special production figures." gifts. The agencies use this money to fund education, health, community development, and income-producing the cast of Characters in the Department Like Jos, Sam was also more interested in working with various communities. In the eyes of most donors, the the communities on projects than in immersing himself in the details of the more administrative departments. In part, Sam had contracted Joanna because he was right- his or her family in the LDC. The donors and children fully worried that Donor Services did not receive the attention it deserved from Jos, who was very articulate the child and family to the donors. Some donors never and personable but seldom had time to look at anything projects for poor people affiliated with their agency in specific benefit provided by sponsorship agencies is the personal relationship between a donor and a child and write back and forth, and the agency sends photos of write the family they sponsor; others write weekly and beyond case histories. Jos never involved himself in the visit the family on their vacations. The efficiency of a Donor Services Department and the quality of their translations are key ingredients to keeping donors and Joyce S. Odand, San Jose State University internal affairs of the department. Even though he was not subgroup, Elena had the strikes against her. One, unlike considered much of a resource to them, he was well liked her subordinates, she was not bilingual. "How can she be the and respected by the staff of Donor Services, and they never supervisor when she doesn't even know English well: One complained about him. of us would make a better superviso" Bilingual secretaries in status.conscious Guatemala see themselves as a cut above The Supervisor ordinary secretaries. This group looked down on Elena This was not the case with the supervisor Jos had promoted being less skilled and educated than they were, even though from within. Elena had the title of departmental supervisor, she was an excellent employee. Second, Elena belonged to but she exercised very little authority. A slight, single different religion than the organization itself and almost all woman in her 305, Elena had worked for the organization the other employees. This made no difference to Sam and Jose since its establishment ten years earlier. She was organized but seemed important to the clique, who could be heard mak meticulous, dependable, and hard working. But she was a ing occasional derogatory comments about Elena's religion. quict, non-assertive, nervous woman who was anything The third strike against Elena was her lack of author but proactive. When asked what changes she would make ity. No one had ever clarified how much authority she if she were the head of the department, she sidestepped the really possessed, and she herself made no effort to assume question by responding. "It is difficult to have an opinion control of the department. "My instructions are to inform on this subject. I think that the boss can see the necessary Don Jos Barriga of infractions in my daily production changes with greater clarity." memo. I'm not supposed to confront people directly when Elena did not enjoy her role as supervisor, which infractions occur, although it might be easier to correct was partly due to the opposition she encountered from a things if I did." ("Don" is a Latin American honorificed small clique of long-time translators. In the opinion of this before the first name to denote respect.) EXHIBIT 1 Organizational Chart-Donor Services Department Executive Director Sam Wilson Assistant Director Executive Secretary Donor Services and Community Services Jose Barriga Department Head Accounting Community Services Staff Supervisor of Donor Services Elena Accounting Stall Donor Services Staff Six translators) 581 This subgroup showed their disdain and lack of respect the newer members of the department Magdalena simply for Elena by treating her with varying degrees of rudeness smiled at them but kept her distance, and the two younger and ignoring her requests. They saw her as a watchdog, an attitude furthered by Jose who sometimes announced. "We As one of them remarked, "It doesn't pay to get on Juana's translators kept a low profile to avoid incurring disfavor. senior management are not going to be here tomorrow. bad side." so be good because Elena will be watching you" When Sam and Jos left the office, the clique often stopped work was located in a spacious former private home. The Donor Like many small offices in Latin America, the agency ing to socialize. They'd watch Elena smolder out of the Services Department was housed in the 40 x 30-foot living corners of their eyes, knowing she would not reprimand room area. The women's desks were set up in two row, them. "I liked my job better before I became supervisor with Elena's desk in the back corner. Since the offices of said Elena. "Ever since, some of the girls have resented me, both Wilson and Barriga were in former back bedrooms, and I'm not comfortable trying to keep them in line. Why cveryone who visited them walked through the depart- don't they just do their work without needing me to be the policeman? The only thing that keeps me from quitting is ment, greeting and stopping to chat with the long-time the loyalty I feel for the agency and Don Jos." employees (Elena, Juans, and her two friends). Elena's numerous visitors also spent a good deal of time working The Workers their way through the department to reach her desk, fur In addition to the clique already mentioned, there were ther contributing to the amount of socializing going on in the department three other female translators in the department. All the Elena was the only department member who had of translators but one had the same profile in their 20s, of cial" visitors since she was the liaison person who dealt working-class backgrounds, and graduates of bilingual with program representatives and kept track of enroll- secretary schools, possessing average English skills. As ments. The translators each were assigned one work pro stated earlier , in Latin America, being a bilingual secretary is cess. For example, Marisol prepared case histories on W a fairly prestigious occupation for a woman.) The exception children and their families for prospective donors, while in this group was the best translator, Magdalena, a college Juana processed gifts. One of the newer translators pre- educated recent hire in her late 30s who came from an pared files for newly enrolled children and did all the fil upper-class family. She worked not because she needed the ing for the entire department (a daunting task). Most of money but because she believed in the mission of the agency. the jobs were primarily derical and required little or no "This job lees me live out my religious beliefs and help English. The letter translations were outsourced to extet people who have less advantages than I do." Magdalena was nal translators on a piece work basis and supervised by more professional and mature than the other translators. Magdalena. Hers was the only job that involved extensive Although all the employees were proud of the agency and its translation, for the most part, however, she translated sim- religious mission, the clique members spent too much time ple messages (such as greeting cards) that were far below socializing and skirmishing with other employees within her level of language proficiency. The trickier translations, and without the department. such as queries from donors in other countries, were still The three translators who were not working at full handled by Wilson's executive secretary, capacity were very close friends. The leader of this group. Several translators complained that, "We don't have Juana, was a spunky, bright woman with good oral English enough opportunity to use our English skills on the job. skills and a hearty sense of humor. A long-time friend of Not only are we not getting any better in English, we are Barriga's, Juana translated for English-speaking visitors probably losing fluency because most of our jobs are just clerical work. We do the same simple, boring tasks over who came to visit the program sites throughout the coun- and over, day in and day out. Why did they hire bilingual try. The other translators, tied to their desks, saw this as secretaries for these jobs anyway?" a huge perk. Juana was the ringleader in the occasional Another obvious problem was the uneven distribution mutinies against Elena and in feuds with people from other of work in the office. The desks of Magdalena and the new departments. Elena was reluctant to complain about Juana to Barriga, given their friendship. Perhaps she feared Juana translators were literally overflowing with several months backlog of work, while Juana and her two friends had time would make her life even more miserable. Juana's two buddies (compaeras) in the department to kill. Nobody, including Elena, made any efforts to even out the work assignments or help out those who were bur also had many years with the agency. They'd gotten into ied. The subject had never been broached. the habit of helping each other on the infrequent occa- The agency was growing at a rapid pace, and there sions when they had excessive amounts of work. When were piles of paperwork sitting around waiting to be pro- their jobs, they socialized and gossiped, Juana in particular cessed. Joanna spent three weeks having each department member explain her job in mind numbing detail), draw was noted for lethal sarcasm and pointed jokes about peo- ing up flow charts of how each type of paperwork was ple she didn't like. This clique was not very welcoming to they were idle or simply wanted to relieve the boredom of 682 Integrative Case 9.0 handled, and poking around in their files. She found many however, the employees were seldom able to explain unnecessary steps that resulted in slow turnaround times why things were done in a certain way, because they had for various processes. There were daily output reports received little training for their jobs and only understood submitted to Barriga, but no statistics were kept on the their small part of the department . Morale was obviously length of time it took to respond to requests for informa- low, and all the employees seemed frustrated with the situ- tion or process paperwork. No data were shared with the ation in the department. With the exception of Magdalena, translators, so they had no idea how the department was who had experience in other offices, they had few ideas for faring and little sense of urgency about their work. The Joanna about how the department could be improved. only goal was to meet the monthly quota of case histories, which only affected Marisol. Trying to keep up with what Questions came across their desks summed up the entire focus of the 1. What do you consider the major problem in this Spon. employees. sorship Agency? Explain. Joanna found many instances of errors and poor qual- 2. What is the level of intergroup conflict? What is its ity, so much from carelessness as lack of training and cause? supervision. Both Barriga and Wilson revised the case his- 3. What do you recommend to help the Donor Services tories, but Joanna was amazed to discover that no one ever Department become more effective? looked at any other work done by the department. Joanna 4. How might greater empowerment help the situation found that the employees were very accommodating when in the Donor Services Department? What specifically asked to explain their jobs and very conscientious about would you change to achieve greater empowerment? their work (if not the hours devoted to it). She also found, Joanna Reed was walking home through fallen tree blos- attracting new ones. Good departments also never lose soms in Guatemala City. Today, however, her mind was sight of the fact that sponsorship agencies serve a dual more on her work than the natural beauty surrounding constituency the local people they are trying to help her. She unlocked the gate to her colonial home and sat develop and the sponsors who make that help possible down on the porch, surrounded by riotous toddlers, pets, through their donations. and plants, to ponder the recommendations she would make to Sam Wilson. The key decisions she needed to make about his Donor Services Department concerned Sponsorship Agency Anyway? What Is a Donor Services Department in a who should run the department and how the work should be structured The work of a Donor Services Department consists of Joanna had worked for a sponsorship agency reports on the families, and answering donor questions more than translating letters, preparing annual progress engaged in international development work with poor directed to the agency. It also handles the extensive, seem- people for six years. She and her husband moved from ingly endless paperwork associated with enrolling new country to country setting up new agencies. In each country, they had to design how the work should be when either the donor or the family stops participatine, families and assigning them to donors, reassignments done, given the local labor market and work conditions. After a year in Guatemala, Joanna, happily pregnant for them). Having accurate enrollment figures is crucial and the special gifts of money sent (and thank you notes with her third child, had finished setting up the Donor Services Department for the agency and was working ters is based upon these figures and affects planning because the money the agency receives from headquar only part-time on a research project. A friend who ran a "competing" development agency approached her to do The Department Head a consulting project for him. Sam Wilson, an American, Joanna tackled the challenge of analyzing the department was the national representative of a U.S.-based agency by speaking first with the department head see the orga- that had offices all over the world. Sam wanted Joanna nizational chart in Exhibit 1). Jos Barriga, a charismatic, to analyze his Donor Services Department, because dynamic man in his 40s, was head of both Donor Ser- he'd received complaints from headquarters about its vices and Community Services. In reality, he spent virtu efficiency. Since he'd been told that his office needed ally no time in the Donor Services Department and was to double in size in the coming year, he wanted to get not bilingual. "My biggest pleasure is working with the all the bugs worked out beforehand. Joanna agreed to community leaders and coming up with programs that spend a month gathering information and compiling a will be successful. I much prefer being in the field, driving report on this department. from village to village talking with people, to supervising Sponsorship agencies, with multimillion-dollar bud- paperwork. I'm not sure exactly what goes on in Donor gets, are funded by individuals and groups in developed Services, but Elena, the supervisor , is very responsible. 1 countries who contribute to development programs in make it a point to walk through the department once a week and say hello to everyone, and I check their daily less-developed countries (LDCs). Donors contribute approximately $20.00 per month plus optional special production figures." gifts. The agencies use this money to fund education, health, community development, and income-producing the cast of Characters in the Department Like Jos, Sam was also more interested in working with various communities. In the eyes of most donors, the the communities on projects than in immersing himself in the details of the more administrative departments. In part, Sam had contracted Joanna because he was right- his or her family in the LDC. The donors and children fully worried that Donor Services did not receive the attention it deserved from Jos, who was very articulate the child and family to the donors. Some donors never and personable but seldom had time to look at anything projects for poor people affiliated with their agency in specific benefit provided by sponsorship agencies is the personal relationship between a donor and a child and write back and forth, and the agency sends photos of write the family they sponsor; others write weekly and beyond case histories. Jos never involved himself in the visit the family on their vacations. The efficiency of a Donor Services Department and the quality of their translations are key ingredients to keeping donors and Joyce S. Odand, San Jose State University internal affairs of the department. Even though he was not subgroup, Elena had the strikes against her. One, unlike considered much of a resource to them, he was well liked her subordinates, she was not bilingual. "How can she be the and respected by the staff of Donor Services, and they never supervisor when she doesn't even know English well: One complained about him. of us would make a better superviso" Bilingual secretaries in status.conscious Guatemala see themselves as a cut above The Supervisor ordinary secretaries. This group looked down on Elena This was not the case with the supervisor Jos had promoted being less skilled and educated than they were, even though from within. Elena had the title of departmental supervisor, she was an excellent employee. Second, Elena belonged to but she exercised very little authority. A slight, single different religion than the organization itself and almost all woman in her 305, Elena had worked for the organization the other employees. This made no difference to Sam and Jose since its establishment ten years earlier. She was organized but seemed important to the clique, who could be heard mak meticulous, dependable, and hard working. But she was a ing occasional derogatory comments about Elena's religion. quict, non-assertive, nervous woman who was anything The third strike against Elena was her lack of author but proactive. When asked what changes she would make ity. No one had ever clarified how much authority she if she were the head of the department, she sidestepped the really possessed, and she herself made no effort to assume question by responding. "It is difficult to have an opinion control of the department. "My instructions are to inform on this subject. I think that the boss can see the necessary Don Jos Barriga of infractions in my daily production changes with greater clarity." memo. I'm not supposed to confront people directly when Elena did not enjoy her role as supervisor, which infractions occur, although it might be easier to correct was partly due to the opposition she encountered from a things if I did." ("Don" is a Latin American honorificed small clique of long-time translators. In the opinion of this before the first name to denote respect.) EXHIBIT 1 Organizational Chart-Donor Services Department Executive Director Sam Wilson Assistant Director Executive Secretary Donor Services and Community Services Jose Barriga Department Head Accounting Community Services Staff Supervisor of Donor Services Elena Accounting Stall Donor Services Staff Six translators) 581 This subgroup showed their disdain and lack of respect the newer members of the department Magdalena simply for Elena by treating her with varying degrees of rudeness smiled at them but kept her distance, and the two younger and ignoring her requests. They saw her as a watchdog, an attitude furthered by Jose who sometimes announced. "We As one of them remarked, "It doesn't pay to get on Juana's translators kept a low profile to avoid incurring disfavor. senior management are not going to be here tomorrow. bad side." so be good because Elena will be watching you" When Sam and Jos left the office, the clique often stopped work was located in a spacious former private home. The Donor Like many small offices in Latin America, the agency ing to socialize. They'd watch Elena smolder out of the Services Department was housed in the 40 x 30-foot living corners of their eyes, knowing she would not reprimand room area. The women's desks were set up in two row, them. "I liked my job better before I became supervisor with Elena's desk in the back corner. Since the offices of said Elena. "Ever since, some of the girls have resented me, both Wilson and Barriga were in former back bedrooms, and I'm not comfortable trying to keep them in line. Why cveryone who visited them walked through the depart- don't they just do their work without needing me to be the policeman? The only thing that keeps me from quitting is ment, greeting and stopping to chat with the long-time the loyalty I feel for the agency and Don Jos." employees (Elena, Juans, and her two friends). Elena's numerous visitors also spent a good deal of time working The Workers their way through the department to reach her desk, fur In addition to the clique already mentioned, there were ther contributing to the amount of socializing going on in the department three other female translators in the department. All the Elena was the only department member who had of translators but one had the same profile in their 20s, of cial" visitors since she was the liaison person who dealt working-class backgrounds, and graduates of bilingual with program representatives and kept track of enroll- secretary schools, possessing average English skills. As ments. The translators each were assigned one work pro stated earlier , in Latin America, being a bilingual secretary is cess. For example, Marisol prepared case histories on W a fairly prestigious occupation for a woman.) The exception children and their families for prospective donors, while in this group was the best translator, Magdalena, a college Juana processed gifts. One of the newer translators pre- educated recent hire in her late 30s who came from an pared files for newly enrolled children and did all the fil upper-class family. She worked not because she needed the ing for the entire department (a daunting task). Most of money but because she believed in the mission of the agency. the jobs were primarily derical and required little or no "This job lees me live out my religious beliefs and help English. The letter translations were outsourced to extet people who have less advantages than I do." Magdalena was nal translators on a piece work basis and supervised by more professional and mature than the other translators. Magdalena. Hers was the only job that involved extensive Although all the employees were proud of the agency and its translation, for the most part, however, she translated sim- religious mission, the clique members spent too much time ple messages (such as greeting cards) that were far below socializing and skirmishing with other employees within her level of language proficiency. The trickier translations, and without the department. such as queries from donors in other countries, were still The three translators who were not working at full handled by Wilson's executive secretary, capacity were very close friends. The leader of this group. Several translators complained that, "We don't have Juana, was a spunky, bright woman with good oral English enough opportunity to use our English skills on the job. skills and a hearty sense of humor. A long-time friend of Not only are we not getting any better in English, we are Barriga's, Juana translated for English-speaking visitors probably losing fluency because most of our jobs are just clerical work. We do the same simple, boring tasks over who came to visit the program sites throughout the coun- and over, day in and day out. Why did they hire bilingual try. The other translators, tied to their desks, saw this as secretaries for these jobs anyway?" a huge perk. Juana was the ringleader in the occasional Another obvious problem was the uneven distribution mutinies against Elena and in feuds with people from other of work in the office. The desks of Magdalena and the new departments. Elena was reluctant to complain about Juana to Barriga, given their friendship. Perhaps she feared Juana translators were literally overflowing with several months backlog of work, while Juana and her two friends had time would make her life even more miserable. Juana's two buddies (compaeras) in the department to kill. Nobody, including Elena, made any efforts to even out the work assignments or help out those who were bur also had many years with the agency. They'd gotten into ied. The subject had never been broached. the habit of helping each other on the infrequent occa- The agency was growing at a rapid pace, and there sions when they had excessive amounts of work. When were piles of paperwork sitting around waiting to be pro- their jobs, they socialized and gossiped, Juana in particular cessed. Joanna spent three weeks having each department member explain her job in mind numbing detail), draw was noted for lethal sarcasm and pointed jokes about peo- ing up flow charts of how each type of paperwork was ple she didn't like. This clique was not very welcoming to they were idle or simply wanted to relieve the boredom of 682 Integrative Case 9.0 handled, and poking around in their files. She found many however, the employees were seldom able to explain unnecessary steps that resulted in slow turnaround times why things were done in a certain way, because they had for various processes. There were daily output reports received little training for their jobs and only understood submitted to Barriga, but no statistics were kept on the their small part of the department . Morale was obviously length of time it took to respond to requests for informa- low, and all the employees seemed frustrated with the situ- tion or process paperwork. No data were shared with the ation in the department. With the exception of Magdalena, translators, so they had no idea how the department was who had experience in other offices, they had few ideas for faring and little sense of urgency about their work. The Joanna about how the department could be improved. only goal was to meet the monthly quota of case histories, which only affected Marisol. Trying to keep up with what Questions came across their desks summed up the entire focus of the 1. What do you consider the major problem in this Spon. employees. sorship Agency? Explain. Joanna found many instances of errors and poor qual- 2. What is the level of intergroup conflict? What is its ity, so much from carelessness as lack of training and cause? supervision. Both Barriga and Wilson revised the case his- 3. What do you recommend to help the Donor Services tories, but Joanna was amazed to discover that no one ever Department become more effective? looked at any other work done by the department. Joanna 4. How might greater empowerment help the situation found that the employees were very accommodating when in the Donor Services Department? What specifically asked to explain their jobs and very conscientious about would you change to achieve greater empowerment? their work (if not the hours devoted to it). She also found