"Ethical Case Study

Outdated Job Descriptions, Change, Strategy, and the Ethics of Change

You are the manager in charge of making a major change. A large, growing county decides to move the major new service center to another city that has a larger population and better parking. Except for a handful of the most senior employees, most of the personnel will be required to move. Less than half of the current employees are interested in relocating, but you suspect more will elect to move if they have no choice. Many who have been with the agency for a long time are dreading the decision. Even those employees who are likely to be able to stay in the downsized office are fearful because there is some concern by management that many of the county offices are using outdated technology and old-fashioned methods of customer service delivery. For example, services related to building permits, licenses, land records, and tax assessment are scattered throughout a variety of buildings in the small county seat and some will likely consolidated. The new model of customer service recommends a single service counter for related services with cross-trained employees. Almost all the job descriptions are at least a decade old (some are 25 years old!), and nearly all the training is on-the-job.

Directions: This case has a management urgency on the surface, but many ethical employee issues below the surface.

1.What concerns do the employees have, both real and potentially imagined?

2.Brainstorm ways to appropriately bring personnel into the change process.

3.What other support services are not only critical for success in the change process, but to the organizations commitment to its staff?

4.How can new realities be enforced, but in a way that supports employees?

5.To what degree do you think that a good change process is as much about ethics (e.g., maintaining trust), as it is about a technical process?

Book- Human resource management in public service