Dan and the Coordinators

Anonymous

Background 

Ryan, Ohio, a mid-sized municipality in Ohio saw an economic downturn in the 1980s due to the closure of their largest employer that resulted in a population drop by 20,000. In turn, this resulted in the abandonment of homes and businesses within the community.

The Dilemma

The loss of jobs, population and companies resulted in financial hardship for the community. The City decided in 1990 that it was time to create an economic development team due to the significant economic downturn and financial hardships they had experienced from the closure of businesses in the 1980s. They hired Dan Smith as the director and two Economic Development Coordinators to assist with Economic Growth initiatives.

Dan was born and raised in Ryan, Ohio and worked at the Chamber of Commerce for 15 Years. He is well known in the community and has very positive working relationships with many of the existing business owners in town. His two Economic Development Coordinators are not from Ryan but have a strong history of completing tasks and keeping projects organized and moving forward. This teamwork has resulted in record growth in taxable value, population growth and job creation for the community in the past decade.

Dan is very good at creating relationships and finessing deals with new companies moving to town. He is also seen as an innovator throughout the state when it comes to creating incentive packages and development contracts with incoming companies. Although the projects are near completion his Coordinators often spend additional time retracing steps and filling in holes on paperwork that may be missing to make development contracts legal and complete. Although the City has seen record growth in recent years and the Coordinators are excited to be a part of the team to make that happen, they are beginning to feel the job in mundane and growing tired of constantly playing catchup with development contracts.  They would also like to oversee more development deals of their own. They expressed their concerns to Dan, who has come up with a new organizational format for deals.  

Decision Making Process/The Decision

After hearing the Coordinators' concerns with the organization of development contracts Dan has decided to include the Coordinators on initial discussions with companies and create an organizational system to keep everyone up to date on projects in the works. This process will include the implementation of project spreadsheets, calendar sharing and weekly informational meetings.

Outcomes

Short- Term: The new organizational system has created a smoother workflow and happier work environment for all. Contracts are being completed in a timely manner and this is freeing up time for the coordinators to work on business recruitment efforts of their own.

Long -Term: Creating more time for the coordinators to work on business recruitment of their own is setting up a succession plan for the community. The Coordinators are learning the ins and outs of business recruitment. The coordinators working on their own business will also create additional opportunities for economic growth in the community, further creating economic growth for the community and easing financial hardship for the municipality.  

Discussion Questions

1. How did Dan’s behavioral methods influence change within the organization with the coordinators?
2. What alternative actions could have been taken to create a more balanced work environment?
3. Based on the behavior approach how does Dan’s relationship approach to Economic Development affect the future of the organization? How does allowing the coordinators to conduct their own outreach affect the future of the organization?
4. How do the Coordinators' positions shift with the organizational changes in accordance with the managerial grid/leadership grid?

License

This case study is licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.