Mgmt 451

Case Paper

Cractos

Cal State San Bernardino

Spring 2005

Cractos

Case Analysis Paper

TTH 8-10

MGMT 451

Tax Collector's Office

The problem that I will be solving is how to introduce a new system involving multiple supervisors in my division of the Tax Collector's office. The three frames described by Bolman and Deal that I will be using to help solve this problem are the structural frame, political frame, and the symbolic frame. The structural frame deals with goals, specialized roles, and formal relationships. The Political frame views companies as arenas, contests, or jungles. The symbolic frame deals with culture, symbols, and other value of an organization. These frames together will break down the problem in a simpler form that will allow me to assist the problem at hand, step by step. Most companies to this date will not succeed in solving company problems, if they don't follow the frames in Bolman and Deal "Reframing Organizations". Reframing requires an ability to understand and use multiple perspectives, to think about the same thing in more than one way. (B&D p.5) Every frame has it strengths and limitations, so the challenge is knowing when to pick the right frame to get the job done. It will take time and practice for managers to master the art of reframing an organization.

I am currently working in the payment processing division of the Treasurer -Tax Collector. In my division we process all payments collected for property taxes in San Bernardino County. The growing number of properties has increased the volume of payments we have to process. The Tax Collector's office is trying to automate the whole payment processing system to help with this increase of payments. The increase in technology has allowed us to move forward with these automated ideas.

San Bernardino County Treasurer-Tax Collector deals with all types of property taxes and the investing for all of County Schools, Departments, and Special Districts. "There are currently about 180 employees that work in the Tax Collections Division. The Tax Collector's Office collects about 1.5 billion in property taxes a year." (Meet Your Tax Collector) The goal of the Tax Collections division as a whole is to conduct County Business in a fair, courteous and professional manner that is open and accessible to citizens, the business community, and the public agencies. Evolving technology has help the Tax Collector's division enhance services and improve the reach of those services throughout the County. Located in downtown San Bernardino, the Tax Collections office is very accessible to the public. The Tax Collections Office is not a corporation, proprietorship, or partnership; it is a government regulated business.

Structural Design

Some of the basic assumptions that deal with the structural frame are that organizations exist to achieve established goals and objectives, an organization improve performance by a clear division of labor, organizations work best when rationality prevails over personal preferences and extraneous pressures, and structures must be designed to fit an organization's circumstances. (B&D p.45) It is very important that an organization gets it structural design correct, because it servers as a layout for the expectations and exchanges between managers and clients. A break down in the structural frame of a company will result in an unsuccessful business. There are a variety of theories and experts on the topic of structural designs.

In the book Classics of Organization Theory, there different origins of the structural perspective brought to light by Frederick Taylor's Theory of "Scientific management," Henri Fayol's "General Principles of Management," and Max Weber's Theory of "Bureaucracy." "The General Principles of Management," by Henri Fayol best applies to the structure design of the Tax Collector's office. There are currently four divisions of labor that handle the workload at the Tax Collector. The first division is the accounting department, following is the collections department, then the Information Systems department, and lastly is the payment processing department. These four divisions allow the Tax Collector's office to reduce the number of different jobs that an individual has to focus on. The payment-processing department is where all the mail is opened that is sent in by the property tax payers of San Bernardino County. After all the mail is opened it is then distributed to the other three departments in the office. The accounting, information systems, and collection departments only have to deal with one supervisor, displaying authority, responsibility, and unity of command and direction. This is not the case when it comes to the payment-processing department.

How to introduce and effectively run a new system in the payment-processing department that involves multiple supervisors is a structural challenge. According to Henri Faylor's theory of Unity of Command the payment processing division is under dual command. When the other supervisors of the three other departments want to tell you how to operate the new system in a way that meets the needs of just their department, is when you will experience dual command.

When introducing a new system you want to have discipline, authority, order, and stability in your company. In payment processing department you will find that these things are all in jeopardy, because dual command exists. Those other supervisors are wreaking havoc with the different and repeated orders. This has cause confusion among the employees in this division. Yvonne Thomas was interview about working with a new system that involved multiple supervisors. When asked the question, "How do you feel about getting directions from multiple supervisors, on how to operate this new system?" she responded by saying, "It is very confusing when you have a new system that you don't understand clearly, and you have more then one person telling how to do the task at hand." This statement given by Yvonne is a clear example of how unity of command and unity of direction are the main structural weaknesses of the Tax Collector's Office. Other structural weaknesses include authority, rules, policies, and planning and control systems of vertical coordination. Vertical coordination involves higher levels of management coordinating and controlling