In October 2018, Mike Bogan, CEO of LandCare, a nationwide commercial landscaping firm, was concerned about the significant headwinds facing not only LandCare but the entire landscaping industry at the time. As LandCare struggled to hire and retain employees who could prove their legal working status in the United States, it faced fierce competition from small firms, which frequently did not play by the same rules. Hoping to attract and motivate the right workers, Bogan enacted significant organizational change at LandCare after he became CEO in 2014; these changes included new practices and systems to improve performance, increase employee satisfaction, and drive cultural shifts within the organization.
When Bogan saw positive results from his initial round of changes, he continued to expand. Readers are presented with Bogan's decision of whether to implement two additional organizational design elements: "jersey technology," which would allow him to accurately track individual movement and performance of his frontline landscape teams, and a daily pay system, which could potentially provide his lower-income workers with money on a more regular basis. Students must use their emerging understanding of the organizational design model (ODM) to consider each of these new systems and debate whether either system should be implemented.
