Setting the Scene - Part 2 - New Management

With the merger of the organizations comes the integration of staff into a new structure. Our merger was constrained by employment guarantees so that no-one lost their jobs as part of the process.

The entire management structure of the four previous organizations was thrown into the air and where it all landed is where it stayed. In areas where there was competition for roles (e.g. Senior Management), new roles were created for those who needed positions.

Another constraint on the merger was that no staff member would be made to relocate to another site or office. Given the wide geographic dispersal of the original organizations, the new management structure faced challenges of distance and fragmentation. In some business units of the organization, the manager has been appointed from one of the original organizations where the team that they now run did not exist or have an equivalent. That manager now has to run the team from an office 30 miles away which does help the process.

Project Impact:

Staff Morale
Staff morale in some areas is low due to issue surrounding the new management structure - more effort will be required to encourage active participation in the changes the project will bring.

Communication Barriers
In some business units the psychical distance between staff has been turned into a communication barrier - a heavy focus needs to be placed on a formal Project Communication Plan to bridge the gaps

Management Ideologies
With an expansion of the management group (approx 50 managers) as a result of the merger, there are now great variations in management styles, personalities and agendas - the Project Manager needs to invest a large amount of time in a diplomatic capacity to negotiate agreements between units regarding business activities

Decision Making
The size and fragmentation of the management group adds time onto the decision making process - project time lines need to allow for this during planning

Setting the Scene - Part 1 - The Organization/s

Our project takes place in the local government arena where grassroots meets politial agenda. The organization as recently undergone a massive overhaul ordered and legislated by the state government. We used to be four separate but neighbouring entities, now we are one giant and widely dispersed organization.

Our previous organizations:

City of Atlantis (Administration centre - Atlantis City) - Main economic and population centre of the region but little available land for development. Surrounded on all sides by other counties.

New Coast County (Administration centre - Oceanview) - Smaller coastal population centres around 24 miles from Atlantis with enourmous amounts of available development land

Green Fields County (Administration centre - Westville) - Outlying rural area with townships and widely dispersed population

Red Mount County (Administration centre - Red Mount) - Smallest of all counties with little infrastructure

Our new organization has been named Atlantis Regional County by the state government and is centred in Atlantis City. It includes all area, infrastructure, population, assets and staff from the four previous areas.

The merger itself occured in the recent past and now it is time to make it all work properly for our residents (... because being a local government organization, getting it to all to work before the merger was far too much to ask...)