Product Overview

In the superintendent's B case, Moran is aware that Greer did not meet AYP benchmarks?indeed, the test scores were worse than the year before. The school did not post improvement in Reading scores for its disadvantaged students. There had been a change in No Child Left Behind (NCLB) policy: Instead of mandating school choice after a second year of failure, the policy allowed for supplemental education services (tutoring) without cost to families, which increased the amount of money the school district committed to Greer. There was a lot of pressure from senior staff at central office to avoid choice, but others with experience in at-risk schools in other counties advised going to choice and then doing benchmark testing. Faced with offering supplemental services or offering parents a choice, Moran considered letting Landahl decide. 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.