Posted: September 13th, 2017

Case Study

Case Study

Order Description

Your second case study assignment explores the culture of public service organizations and specifically the underpinnings of public service motivation. Contextual factors related to individual employees, situations, events and the organization in which human behaviors occur, influence the strength of public service motivation – that is the desire to fulfill and influence public goods and services.

In the case at the end of chapter 11, “Who Brought Bernadine Healy Down,” Deborah Sontag illustrates the effect of how an organizational culture meshes (or not) with the public services motives of leaders and decision-makers within the Red Cross. For this assignment, please write your case study analysis by organizing your paper in a way that addresses the following questions:

1. What motivated Healy to accept the Red Cross presidency? Would you judge these motives to be in line with “public service motives” as described by Wise in chapter 11?

2. How would you characterize “the traditional” Red Cross organization culture? Its values? Outlook? Do you think this culture aligned well with the public service values outlined by Wise? What were the essential sources of differences between the public servie ideals professed by Healy versus the Red Cross volunteers?

3. In your view, was Healy well enough informed about the Red Cross culture prior to accepting the presidency? Likewise, was the Red Cross knowledgeable enough about Healy’s managerial style prior to hiring her? What would you recommend both the potential employee (Healy) and employer (the Red Cross) do to ensure a better fit during the recruitment and selection process?

4.Ultimately, what were the chief causes of Healy’s forced resignation? In retrospect, might you suggest some specific strategies that Healy could have used to better “read” and then “accommodate to” the traditional Red Cross culture? If she accepted your recommended strategies, what personal behavioral as well as value changes would Healy have had to adopt.?