Question

Read the case and Summarizes the situation as you see it. Describes what Organizational Development is and its core values

Good morning. Northern County Legal Services," Christina said. "How can I help you? Yes, I see. Okay, why don't I schedule a time for you to stop by and talk with one of us about your situation and we can see how we can help? I'm free on the 12th at 3:30 p.m. Does that work for you? Excellent. And you know where our office is located? Yes, right across the street. Good. I'll look forward to speaking with you then." It was already packed in the office of Northern County Legal Services (NCLS), a nonprofit organization located just outside the downtown district. In the small waiting room, nearly 20 clients waited for assistance while a team of staff members handled walk-in visitors and made appointments. With no air-conditioning, the room was starting to get hot on the sunny August afternoon as the chairs filled up. 'Tm sorry. Mr. Gaines? I think you're next." Christina looked at the growing crowd. "Oh, no, no, no, no." A tall woman rose from her chair and stepped forward, raising her voice. "I've been here since 10 a.m. and I was here first. I'm next. He needs to wait his turn." She looked around the room for support, and some heads nodded as those waiting began to look at one another in frustration. "Yes, I'm sorry that you've waited so long, but Mr. Gaines had made an appointment," Christina said. "Yeah, for 11 :30," Mr. Gaines scoffed. "It will only be a few more minutes until someone is with you," Christina offered. "You need to get more organized," the woman said as she rolled her eyes. She returned to her seat, fanning herself with a 2-year-old copy of an entertainment magazine. Christina looked her watch: 12:20. Her parking meter was already expired. "Have a seat, sir, and I'll be right with you." She grabbed her purse and quickly headed to the front door. "And just where do you think you're going, Miss?" a voice came from the waiting room. "She can't take it anymore," another voice offered, as laughter rose from the corner. Case Study 1: Northern County Legal Services 67 Christina ran the four blocks to where her car was parked. There was already a yellow envelope with a $25 parking ticket lodged under her windshield wiper. Northern County Legal Service's mission is to match clients who cannot afford legal counsel with a lawyer willing to offer pro bono services. NCLS specializes in housing and employment law but also matches clients with attorneys who assist with almost any legal need, including domestic violence and family law. The service is free to clients (though some pay for some services on a sliding scale based on their income). The remainder of the funding comes from grants, and the center is staffed almost entirely by a group of 15 volunteers and law school students. Students form the majority of the staff, and they receive internship credit, usually volunteering at the center during their third year of law school. Most students participate in the center only for one semester, and competition among students is tough to receive one of the volunteer slots. The one full-time employee is a director, Julie, who has been at the center for about 2 years. Aside from running the office, managing volunteers and students, finding attorneys, and conducting training workshops for both students and volunteer attorneys, Julie's main concern is funding, which is a constant issue. The small office where NCLS is housed consists of a waiting room and four offices. Julie keeps one of the four offices as her own, and the other three are taken by students or volunteers who work for 10 to 20 hours per week, usually in 4- to 6-hour shifts. Each of the four offices has a computer, and there is one printer shared by the center. At any given time, there might be as many as eight volunteers who share the three offices, meeting with clients to perform the "intake" functions. The intake process begins with a client who arrives on a walk-in or appointment basis, and the initial meeting usually lasts for about an hour. Depending on the client's need, the intake paperwork consists of three to six pages of single-sp 68 ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT date, we really need that to complete the filing motion for the client. If we don't have it, we have to call them to get it. I've noticed a few of these that have been blank in the past week or two. Does everyone understand that?" Heads nodded in agreement. "Where do we put the intake form for housing after it's done?" Eric asked. "In the intake inbox on the filing cabinet in Julie's office," Monica offered. "I thought that was only for urgent motions," Eric said. "I've been putting the nonurgent ones in the inbox in the hallway." 'That's right," Julie said. "Actually I'd prefer it if you handed the urgent ones directly to me and put the nonurgent ones in the hallway box. You can put the urgent ones in my box if I'm not here." "What's urgent?" Monica asked. "Urgent means if it's been 4 or 5 days since the client received an eviction notice," Julie said. 'The fifth day is the most critical." "What do we do if you aren't here but it's been 5 days?" Monica asked. 'Then you can either call my cell phone and let me know that it's waiting, or you can call an attorney from the list," Julie said. "Or you can do it yourself but wait to file it until I can verify it after you're done." "Do we do that for the domestic violence restraining order requests also?" Annette asked. "No, those should be filed in the top drawer of the cabinet until another staff member can take the intake form and call a volunteer attorney to take the case," Julie said. "Why can't I just call immediately to get the process started more quickly?" Annette said. "If I've done the intake, why can't I just continue to the next step?" Julie was beginning to get frustrated. "Look, everyone, we went over this in training. It's important that this all be handled as we discussed it before." Julie continued as, out of earshot, Annette leaned over and whispered to Monica, "Yeah, training was what, like an hour? I still don't understand why there are so many procedures." "I know," Monica said, "and I feel so incompetent about housing law. My specialty has been family law. I'd rather learn about that part of the center, but I keep getting these eviction intakes. And the paperwork is incredible. I spent an hour with a client yesterday and only got about two pages' worth of information. I ran over my next appointment trying to get the rest." "I had the same experience," Annette said. "The clients have such detailed histories, and they need to share their whole story. I talked to a woman whose boyfriend shoved her against a wall and broke her wrist. She started to cry, and I was thinking that I can't very well interrupt her and say, 'Sorry, ma'am, but that's Question 65. We're still on Question 14, so can you tell me your combined annual income?' And I had three of those same intakes yesterday. I went home completely drained last night." Monica nodded. "I've heard stories like that, too. The part I hate is when I have to pick up the paperwork out of the in box and file the motion when I didn't do the intake. The other day Julie started shouting at me because I missed a note on an intake that Christina did and I had to refile the motion. I almost missed the deadline but I stayed 2 hours later than usual and got it all done. It was gratifying but emotionally exhausting. It's hard even to come in sometimes. I wonder, are we even making progress here?" Case Study 1: Northern County Legal Services 69 "Now what's she talking about?" Annette looked up at Julie. "So that's why you need to make sure that Dave has your weekly schedule, so he can keep the appointment schedule accurate with hourly time blocks for intakes," Julie concluded. Julie returned to her office. There were two messages from the Dylan Foundation president wanting to know about last quarter's statistics. He had threatened to pull funding for next year unless the center began to show more progress in winning cases where disabled clients were about to be evicted. She knew that the staff had done great work recently, but they had only begun to compile the statistics and she could not yet prove it with charts and graphs. He'd be fine after she met with him, she thought. She made a mental note to bring two recent success story case studies to her meeting with him. Rafael appeared in the doorway. "Julie, what do we do when the service date on the subpoena doesn't match the date on the submission form? Can you show me how we address that in the reply?" "Yes. Well, actually, ask Kyle because I showed him the same thing last week," Julie answered. "Kyle's not here until 3, and I have to have the motion done for the client to pick up at noon," Rafael said. "Okay. Just give me a few minutes and I'll be right there," Julie replied. "Thanks," Rafael said. Jean was right behind him. "Julie, I have an urgent housing motion here that needs to be filed. Do you want this now?" Julie took the intake form and looked through it. A woman with a $900 monthly income and an infant son and 2-year-old daughter received an eviction notice for being one day late on her $800 rent. A court filing would be due tomorrow. "I have a meeting this afternoon and can't do it today. Why don't you put it in the hallway box and maybe someone can get to it today? Otherwise, I'll get to it tomorrow," Julie said. Jean paused for a moment. "Okay, I'll do that," she said.

Answer 1

Northern county legal services is a nonprofit organization which provides services to individuals who cannot afford legal counsel. The NCLS will patch up the client with a lawyer who is willing to provide services on a pro bono basis. They specialize in employment and housing services. They also support legal cases regarding domestic violence and family law.

The current team includes a full-time director Julie who has been there for two years. She is supported by interns who work for a semester. At one time she has 15 volunteers and law students. Julies job includes running the office, managing volunteers and students, finding attorneys, conducting training workshops for both students and volunteer attorneys, and funding. The volunteers and students work for 10-20 hours a week in shifts of 4-6 hours. The office consists of four rooms one is occupied by Julie and the other three is occupied by students and interns.

The process is when a client visits the office the volunteer or student will take down the details in the intake paperwork which is a 3-6 page long document. The scenario shows Julie trying to go through documents which are incomplete. The intake document if incomplete cannot be filed for motion. The volunteers then share documents with Julie who has boxes marked as urgent placed in her office and not urgent placed in the hallway. The volunteers and trainees are confused and she explains that when the house is on point of eviction i.e. on the fifth day it is urgent. She mentions that is the time the volunteer can call her on her cell phone. Julie is also facing a problem in sharing reports in time with the President of Dylan foundation who is funding their activities. Julie has too much on her platter and the trainees have not received sufficient training and inputs. They state they have received only 1-hour training. The volunteers are unable to complete the cases on time as some clients don’t share complete information or get emotional while discussing their issues which leads to delays. The trainees and volunteers are working with incomplete information and some are feeling frustrated as they are not in their areas of specialization.

Organization development is the system wise application of the behavioral science knowledge to plan development of the organization. It also defines the organization's structure, strategies and processes to improve the effectiveness of the organization.

The core values of the organization development are as follows:

• Provide opportunities for people to work as human beings rather than as resources.
• Provide opportunities for each team member to use his full potential
• Improve the effectiveness of the organization to meet the goals
• Create an environment to make the work exciting and challenging.
• Provide opportunities to people to influence the way they relate to work, the environment and the organization
• Treat each employee as a person with complex needs. Use their skills and respect their differences.

To conclude the NCLS is not following the values of organization development. The power is centralized in Julie. The interns and volunteers are feeling frustrated and inept to give their best. The organization is unable to utilize the skill set or motivate the employees to give their best. The organization also seems to be understaffed.