State Department Of Health Organizational Debacle

Case Study Analysis:

State Department of Health Organizational Debacle

V-504: Organizational Behavior in the Public Sector

July 18, 2014

Introduction

This case study titled, “ State Department of Health Organizational Debacle” shows the major problems associated in organizational management behavior between Dr. Oputa and Dr. Ajiri. The case study clearly states both leadership styles, and the inconsistency of director has created a downfall with employees within the State Department of Health. Dr. Oputa, the current executive director for the Indianapolis office, arrived two years ago and made several changes within the department. His organizational management style shows a workplace deviance behavior by using
Oputa Management Behavior: The issue with Dr. Oputa when he arrived two years ago he reorganized the State Health Department into six divisions and by centralizing these departments. Most functions of the department and a few other functions as in staff recruitment, which can be overwhelming, the fact he obviously cannot handle all of the functions he has under his management decisions are made at the top. Therefore, due to this “centralization” the directors were not prepared and/or willing to accept the sudden change. Dr. Oputa brought along his own regional directors and has allowed them to perform centralized duties as hiring and firing employees, unlike other regional directors, which seems to be based on favoritism. This type of attitude has a “psychological tendency expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor” with the employees. An additional fault in Dr. Oputa has forced retirement for employees fifty-five years old, which can be an age diversity issue and is also biased against women this forms a problem with gender and cultural diversity, bottom line he is unfriendly. The employee’s morale is low, and they are mistreated and demoralized and Dr. Oputa has disregarded the provisions of distributive justice, procedural justice and social
The Department of Health can be improved by allowing Dr. Oputa to take responsibility for his unethical and illegal terminations, forceful retirements, gender discrimination, favoritism, irregular appointments of his followers, and the mishandling of granting his followers more power that the other regional directors with similar responsibilities and titles. I also feel that the employees should receive a questionnaire yearly to give a report on various areas within their employment duties and managements behavior. The organizational management would value from training classes to understand: employee behavior; organizational culture; the need for diversity; strong communication; a formal ethics code; and how to promote and manage change. I feel the first step is to understand employee behavior and how to manage that behavior would be from training. The organization needs to focus on hiring, maintaining, developing and utilizing the skills of their employees. In addition to maintaining quality employees, it is important for an organization to monitor and manage employee interactions with their coworkers and their customers. By understanding these interactions and the skills of each employee, manager can place employees in positions