Product Overview

The superintendent's A case has Pamela Moran concerned about losing one of her up-and-coming administrative stars, who had accepted the position of principalship at Greer two years earlier. Moran had also heard whispers that she may lose a former TFA educator and a seasoned principal in a middle-class school because of his desire to lead in a more challenging environment. What should she do about the principal who was struggling and the principal who was bored? Would it make sense to offer the at-risk school leadership position to the ex-TFA principal? And if he accepted, what expectations would she set for him? And what about the school? What level of support should Moran provide Greer relative to the other 27 schools in the district? This case has been taught in an executive education school turnaround program for district administrators and principals. It could also be used in a first-year MBA leadership and organizational behavior course as an introduction on creating value through people-management and design.

Learning Objectives

•To introduce students to the complexity of organizational design and human resource systems. •To encourage students to appreciate the importance of understanding human systems and developing people-management skills. •To help students recognize the implicit or explicit framing of a situation as a problem and re-frame it in purposeful ways. •To think about alignment between an organization’s policies and procedures and the people side (trust, relationships). •To help students see ways in which people and people-management add value to organizations and their stakeholders.