The board of directors at Freeman-Brown Private School (FBPS) has hired you as p

Question

The board of directors at Freeman-Brown Private School (FBPS) has hired you as part of a consulting team to review the situation and present your findings and recommendations. Write a paper (750 words) that discusses the case. Complete this assignment from the perspective of the hired consultants. Respond to the following questions: Review how organizations interact with their external environment (as open systems and complex adaptive systems). How effective was Freeman-Brown as an open system at the time of the closure? How effective was Freeman-Brown as a complex adaptive system at the time of the closure? Review your reading this week on the internal environment of organizations. What is your evaluation of the organizational culture and organizational climate at the time the decision to close two campuses was made? What is your evaluation of the decision made by Dr. Murphy and Caudill? What is your evaluation of the process of going about the closure? Was FBPS demonstrating social responsibility? Discuss the closure impact on three specific stakeholders. Provide an explanation, using appropriate management theories, for how the administration could have handled the closure effectively with stakeholders? Include one theory from each of the following: the classical approach, the human relations approach, and the modern management approach. You have been asked to suggest two goals: one long-term and one short-term goal for the future direction of FBPS. Justify your decision. Present a concluding statement that integrates the 4 functions of management as a means to revamp management at FBPS and meets the recommended goals.

Explanation / Answer

The open system is one, which interacts with external environment in both ways as input, & output & a complex adaptive system is one, which consists of multiple micro systems that interact with one another to respond to external environment & ensure its survival. An organization could act as an open system or a complex adaptive system during different times depending upon its environment. given case of FBPS operating individually is more analogous to it acting as an open system. When FBPS was handed over to whole system started operating as a complex adaptive system where both FBPS & Caudhill management were acting as individual units part of the overall system but representing one system while interacting with environment. FBPS was probably not very effective as an open system at the time of its closure as it is clearly evident that is was not receptive stakeholders i.e. children & the parents need & it was operating more like a closed system. It was neither effective as a complex adaptive system because its survival was at stake & seemingly individuals units or components of the system were not working cohesively with each other in overall interest of the survival of entire entity. Hence it can be inferred from this case that the internal environment of an organization is a very important criteria for organization’s existence, survival & success in their pursuit of their goals. We can infer that state of the organization’s climate would be a state of confusion & helplessness on how to adapt to the recession & still provide a differentiating scholastic environment to children, which would drive growing enrolments. Usually recession is seen a good time to invest in capability building & in evaluating an organization’s shortcoming & preparing for the future. Whereas FBPS & Caudhill was not seen doing any of these things & their focus appeared to be short-term in reducing their cost of operations by closing down branches who were not growing in terms of enrolments & business & profitability. What was earlier perceived as a great institution eventually became a non-performing organization as is evident from facts that when an organization is performing, it grows & expands its territories while on other hand if it doesn’t perform to expectations, it scales down & cuts down its operations. The other aspect of organization culture may be a mismatch of cultures between FBPS & Caudhill management. This may have probably led to conflict in objectives, goals, mission & vision of the overall organization, which led to the decline in its performance over the years. We think that Dr. Murphy and Caudhill took a bad decision by not listening to their customers i.e. the children & the parents of those children. The founders don’t build the institution, it is built by people who are associated with that institution & therefore the leaders of the institution own the responsibility of taking care of people & being sensitive to their needs, concerns & expectations. In this case, Dr. Murphy and Caudhill do not even bother to provide an alternative arrangement to the parents of children enrolled in their school & left them in the lurch. The process of closure was an abrupt one, without giving any notice to parents or children, not communicating the reasons for the closure, not giving them enough time for alternative action & also not providing an alternative or time extension in case some parents didn’t have any option. No, FBPS didn’t demonstrate social responsibility. The three stakeholders who were affected were Children, Parents & Society as a whole. Children are future citizens of the society & any institution is a part of that society. That is the concept of social responsibility. Every organization or an institution needs to be socially responsible & sensitive to the norms of society. The closure could have been managed more responsibly & differently by being transparent with the parents of the children & by giving them adequate time, atleast for their kids to complete the academic session so as to ensure a smooth transition to their new institution. Internal cultural differences could have been managed & arrested for sometime in the overall interest of stakeholders. Although it is not very clear whether financial problems was a driving factor behind the closure, as Moody’s rating suggests, it may really be among one of the problems leading to closure. The parents were even willing to pay more as academic fees so that they may have more time & extension to find an alternative institution for their children. However FBPS was not very receptive to stakeholder need. FBPS could have sought specialist advice in the challenging scenario to address the issues it was facing at that time which may have helped them. The human relations approach may have worked wonders for the school in understanding the cultural issues & reframing the organization or restructuring itself for a better & effective management. It would have made sense to rethink a cultural makeover & the kind of organizational climate that was required to manage an institution like FBPS & Caudhill. Before sell out to Caudhill, FBPS could have sought management advice if both the organizations could gel together & work as a single complex adaptive system or were they better more as separate open systems. One long-term goal for FBPS could be to Build and Nurture an institution for developing future citizens of the society. The short-term goal may to improve on the current situation & control the adverse impact of its closure decisions with its stakeholders. Whatever damage was done, FBPS should have planned some initiatives for damage control & damage prevention for the future. Both goals are justified because the long-term goal works on the purpose of FBPS whereas the short-term goal acts an enabler of long-term goal. The planning, organizing, leading & controlling will be integrated around the stakeholder or customer as customer is the purpose behind creation of an organization, its life & its management. Each of these functions of management is important & together they must work in tandem for effective management.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse T
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.