MPA Capstone Learning and Professional Development Portfolio

MPA Capstone Learning and Professional Development Portfolio
Piece of Evidence Cover Sheet
Name: Samuel T. Weekley
Title/Label of Evidence: Mayor’s Strategic Plan: Kelsey Simulation Analysis and
Recommendations
Type of Evidence:
o Course assignment for (identify class): LDR 532, Leadership in the Public
Sector, University of Phoenix, Scharlene Ahmed
o Internship artifact for (identify internship):
_____________________________________
o Written reflection produced for the portfolio
o Other (explain):
__________________________________________________________________
__
Competency/capacity addressed: 1e: Model the skills and power of leadership, including
transformational, transactional, and servant.
Self Assessment
Score: 2
Criteria you have met: Can distinguish between types of administrative authority
and surmise which type(s) of authority is working in particular cases and contexts.
Instructor Assessment
Score: ___________
Check list:
o Written assessment follows completed rubric
o Evidence is located after written assessment or may be found under another
tab/page of the portfolio (add location):
_________________________________________
o Additional supporting evidence included
Written as a course required collaborative assignment, the objective of this piece was
to demonstrate the importance of strong leadership and communication in strategic
planning through a simulation designed to test our knowledge and capacity to apply core
course competencies. The City of Kelsey simulation was designed by the University of
Phoenix, and used specifically in the university’s MPA program to provide practical
application to “every town USA.” LDR 532, Leadership in the Public Sector was a
course designed to instill theories and concepts that underscore the imperativeness of
leadership to the success of public organizations. For this piece we (as a team) were
asked to effectively become the advisory staff to the Mayor of Kelsey, and produce a
report that underscored the importance of strategic planning, as well as any barriers that
may become prevalent during the strategic planning process. As an added element, we
were expected to outline multiple leadership theories, and strategies that may, or may not
help the Mayor succeed in a strategic planning process that had been demanded by
Kelsey residents as a result of outrage that a water supply sustainability strategy was not
communicated effectively, which ultimately caused for an increase in the millage tax.
Mayor’s Strategic Plan
Sam Weekley
University of Phoenix – LDR/532
Professor: Scharlene Ahmed
The Mayor’s Strategic Plan
As we approach the project implementation phase of the water sustainability
project to improve Kelsey’s water supply, it becomes much more pertinent to provide
city management, particularly members of the stakeholder power base with a strategic
plan that underlines key responsibilities, and values necessary for a successful
completion of the water sustainability project. It will be crucial for the Mayor to take
a transformational approach to the accomplishment of key goals and objectives while
utilizing a team-oriented strategy for inter-departmental communication. The
collective goal of the Mayor’s office is maximized efficiency, as we are seeking to
accommodate not only the future of Kelsey, but also the present.
Stakeholders and Stakeholder Power Base
Stakeholders
The stakeholders who are inevitably going to field the greatest impact of the water
sustainability project are the Mayor’s office, the development services department, and
the public works department as well as the current-future residents and business owners
in The City of Kelsey. Current residents, and small private business owners will feel the
short term, effects of the project, as there will be an increased probability of periodical
interrupted service throughout the course of the project. In attempt to maximize
efficiency the development services, and public works departments must adhere to a
strategic plan, which has been written and proposed by the Mayor’s office and city
council. The plan conveys the projected expectancies for each of the heavily impacted
city departments in a manner that can be easily discerned, and practiced by the affected
department managers.
Potential Barriers for Stakeholder Power Base
The largest obstacle in the successful implementation of the water sustainability
project is the political, and cultural condition that directly impacts policy communication.
Inter-organizational communication becomes a crucial key for overcoming the negative
aspects of these conditions. It must be considered imperative for the Mayor, and his or
her advising committee to consider evaluation methods for assessing the “pre-project”
organizational needs and values, and weighing them against the long and short-term
projected expectancies of the water sustainability project.
The initial evaluation will allow the Mayor the ability to communicate effectively
and efficiently with each of the leaders for the stakeholder groups who have a stake in the
project. This creates an atmosphere of transparency, accountability, and a general
consensus from the employees of departments whom are most impacted by the project
that the Mayor’s intention is to provide continual support, and immediate attention to
their needs, which indirectly secures high-level, and competent output on behalf of the
organizations with the greatest stake in the project, and overcomes potentially negative
political, and cultural conditions that would hinder the course of the project.
Effective communication between the affected departments will be essential to the
imminent success of the water sustainability project. It will be important for the Mayor
and his or her staff to communicate regularly with both departments to ensure that there
is an open line of communication. The Mayor must set the communicative precedent for
the leaders of the respective departments by conveying policy information clearly and
concisely, electing not to use jargon, and using language that is both descriptive and
informative to ensure that the expectations do not get taken out of context or
misinterpreted. It will also be pertinent for the Mayor to make him or herself available
for the managers of the two departments to discuss ways in which the implementation of
each phase of the project should be introduced.
Conveying transparency, and accountability will also be important when dealing
with the media, and interest groups, which is also a formidable barrier in either of their
individual rights. It will be important for the Mayor and his or her staff to be consciously
aware of media and special interest presence, so as not to portray an undesirable image
that may negatively affect the relationship between The Mayor, and stakeholder power
base.
If the Mayor is seeking to convey a positive and proactive role with concerned
constituents as well as the local news media it will be important to open an organized line
of communication with the local press, which depicts the status of the project, and its
impact on Kelsey’s current economical, and political conditions. Approaching
communication with the press and interest groups can be exhaustive as misconceptions,
and rhetoric are oftentimes followed much more closely than fact. To receive positive
feedback from the local media concerning project policy, it will be important for the
Mayor to remember the general rule of communication with the media, which is overcommunication (regarding policy) with the press is better than under-communication, and
that oftentimes no press is the best form of press and elected official can receive. When
directly conveying policy information through the open line of communication with the
local news media, it will be critical for the Mayor to practice active, and attentive
listening to policy inquiries or related statements to ensure that policy misconceptions are
addressed in a respectfully informative manner. Providing fact over speculation
indirectly conveys personal accountability, and a desire to provide interest groups, the
media, and concerned residents with sufficient information regarding project policy.
Leadership Theories
Leadership methods, group behavior, and participation will be critical to the
success of City of Kelsey Water Sustainability Plan is implemented. According to Wart,
an effective leadership strategy will improve quality and efficiency; “provide a sense of
cohesiveness, personal development, and higher levels of satisfaction among those
conducting the work; an overarching sense of direction and vision; an alignment with the
environment, and a healthy mechanism for innovation” (Wart, p. 214).
When one thinks of a leader in the public sector, he or she mostly likely thinks of
qualities such as intelligence, charisma, decisiveness, enthusiasm, strength, bravery,
integrity and self-confidence. However, leadership is much more complex than traits or
behaviors. The effectiveness of leadership in The City of Kelsey is contingent upon the
possible futures that may arise throughout the course of the project, and the manner in
which these futures are interpreted, and communicated. This communication will be
paramount to the success of the Water Sustainability project.
The mayor of the City of Kelsey should use the path-goal theory method of
leadership when dealing with the water sustainability plan. It will be crucial for the
Mayor to assist city employees in making water sustainability their goal and provide
them with the necessary direction and support to ensure that goal is met. To do so the
mayor will have to “increase motivation and satisfaction among subordinates by helping
them see the goals, the paths to them, and how to follow those paths effectively” (Rainey,
2009, p. 319). By observing and listening, the Mayor must identify incentives that will
motivate staff members to implement the plan. Motivating elements may include
employee recognition and other bonuses that would increase job satisfaction.
Additionally, the Mayor “must try to enhance the attractiveness of group
membership to increase group harmony, cohesiveness, and motivation” (Rainey, 2009, p.
360). To maximize motivation the Mayor must be flexible. Employees have different
personal needs and goals that they are hoping to satisfy through their job.
Group Behavior
Organizational climate plays a critical role in fostering or stifling communication,
and in “determining whether and how people manage conflicts” (Rainey, 2009 pg. 375).
It will be imperative for the Mayor to create and maintain a positive work environment,
which starts with the creation of a stakeholder power base that is focused on the common
goals of the team, and which creates a mutual understanding and cooperation among the
team to obtain the desired goals. A team-oriented environment will not only increase
output and production, it will minimize the potential for error, and adequately distribute
the team workload. All of these components uplift morale and help with retention and
therefore will be essential to the success of the water sustainability plan. Building an
effective team of stakeholders will not an easy task for the Mayor’s office to undertake.
The first task that must be accomplished is recruiting, hiring, and retaining
qualified employees who all have something unique to bring to the table, then placing
them in key positions. Everyone must have an established role and work cohesively
toward the accomplishment of increasing water sustainability for the city of Kelsey. The
City of Kelsey’s Mayor must first make the team a priority and ensure everyone
understands that the team is important. If necessary, training should be given to develop
teamwork skills and individuals should be rewarded for cooperative efforts. Additionally,
employees should be coached and given feedback very often to improve. When conflict
arises, the problems should be dressed immediately to prevent hindering/jeopardizing the
water sustainability plan.
The City of Kelsey’s shared values, norms, traditions, rituals, and beliefs will
significantly determine how its employees behave and help it effectively and efficiently
implement the plan by creating a common ground for employees to work effectively as a
team. Therefore, employees should be constantly aware of expectations and
Communication Behaviors
According to McKenzie (nd), “Poor leadership communications can cripple even
the most skilled teams, because poor communication has a negative impact on trust,
productivity, and morale” (para. 1). An essential team-building characteristic for the
success of the city water improvement project is trust. The ability for project teams to
trust the knowledge, skills, and abilities that will be necessary for the continued
improvement process of sharing and recommending new or existing procedures for
consistent improvement, efficiency, and effectiveness. Productivity also has the
capability to decrease performance because of poor communication concerning the
unnecessary purchases of services and products, which can become a liability of fraud,
waste, and abuse as a result of the over allocation of resources such as capital funding.
“Esprit de corps,” or morale, is the characteristic that maintains the level of
stakeholders’ belief or faith in the project’s predicted goals and objectives. Poor
communication would lower stakeholder morale that will more likely result in a low
value judgment, willpower, and obedience to perform the respective supporting tasks for
the city water improvement project.
When communicating with groups, an action checklist can be a helpful tool for
defining the communication goal, determining who is authorized to receive the
communication, when is the best time to communicate, what is the optimum method for
communication, and what feedback mechanisms should be utilized. The ability to define
communication goals ensures the project is clearly understood among all stakeholders to
avoid as much confusion throughout project timeline. A capital improvement project
requires that managers have the ability to determine what applicable information should
be feasible to the assigned project group to avoid information duplication, unnecessary
information flow, and other communication barriers. Communication scheduling can aid
in determining when the best time to communicate will be, such as project milestones or
benchmarking reviews that is determined by the project managers. The optimum method
to communicate is to predetermine from the communication plan on what written or
verbal method are the most effective and efficient for all stakeholders such as electronic
filing sharing, conference calls, electronic mail, and other means that are tailor for
particular teams. Project managers should allow project teams to give feedback on what
ways can be improved on project team communications.
Project managers and government leaders’ must practice accountability and create
a combined cohesiveness to ensure the project benchmarks are achieved in accordance to
the strategic plan. Project managers must allocate their resources through efficiency and
effectiveness on how the project should be executed. The government leaders must
convince city residents that the authority given to project managers are infact the powers
that will be necessary for these managers to make project related decisions. Therefore,
the mayor must leverage the municipal structure to permit a combination of vendors,
contractors, temporary employees, government divisions, and departments to coordinate
activities related to the project in one maximize joint combination project workforce.
Since this a government funded project, the power to make decisions on who, what,
where, when, and how the project is planned, organized, and executed is given to
assigned city government department managers as determined either by the mayor or city
council.
Power, Politics, and Stakeholder Buy-In
For the proposed water treatment plan to be effectively implemented, it will be
important for the Mayor of Kelsey to understand how his or her power can affect the
progress of the proposed plan. As a chief executive, the Mayor of Kelsey can use his or
her power to appoint agency heads and other executive staffing positions, initiate policy
legislation and direction, decide executive orders and directives, and use vetoing
authority (Rainey, 2009, p. 113). The way that Kelsey’s Mayor decides to use each of
these given powers will strongly affect the water treatment plans processes. The Mayor of
Kelsey understanding how to best leverage these authorities will further aid him or her to
maximize the ability of the city to accomplish their goals.
Appointments of Agency Heads
As the Mayor of Kelsey, one of the most important responsibilities is to appoint
staff heads for all the city agencies and departments. The strategy that the mayor uses to
appoint staff members will strongly affect the communication and implementation of
future policy initiatives. For instance, the water treatment plan will consist of the need for
different agencies to integrate services and personnel to conduct the plan efficiently.
Appointed agency heads who do not work or communicate well with individuals, and
who are not under their span of control, will prove to be anti-productive and inefficient.
This point demonstrates how important it is for the Mayor of Kelsey to understand how
future objectives have to be taken into consideration when choosing agency leaders.
Legislative and Policy Direction
The Mayor must also consider his or her power concerning the dictation of
legislation and policy direction for the representative agencies. One area of concern
would be the increase of taxes to the stakeholders affected by the legislation. It would be
advisable for the mayor to speak with the city’s council members to receive feedback on
a tax proposal that would be most conducive with meeting the expectations of each of
their constituents. This will aid the Mayor in limiting the amount of opposition from any
tax increase. In doing so the Mayor will have an opportunity to effectively demonstrate
his or her desire to meet planned city goals to council members. The Mayor will also
have the authority to veto any law or amendment that the council members pass. This is
important because new laws and policies will dictate an agency’s processes, and the
mayor possessing the authority to veto will aid the mayor in controlling the path that the
city’s agencies take. The mayor also has to understand that using his or her veto power
will alienate the council members, who have powers of their own. To initiate a power
struggle with the council members will make implementing the water treatment plan
difficult.
A second area of concern that the mayor should consider is that a demonstration
of absolute authority can affect the officials and employees of the agencies used to carry
out the water treatment plan. For instance, micromanagement of an agency’s officials
may make them believe themselves incompetent by the lack of trust by the mayor. At the
same time it is important for the Mayor to convey personal accountability to ensure the
full support of the project’s stakeholders. His or her presence around the agencies will
allow him to use his authoritative respect to motivate the employees of the different
agencies involved by just making his presence felt.
Conclusion
Above all, we within the Mayor’s office would like to express an unconditional
understanding for the unusually high expectations that we as a collective team (the
Mayor’s office, development services, public works, and Kelsey residents) are setting for
ourselves to accomplish. It is highly likely that each of the highest impacted
stakeholders will reach a moment of doubt about the overall success of this project, as the
sheer magnitude of the project will inevitably feel over-whelming. However, it will be
important to remember who, and why we are undertaking such a large-scale capital
project, which are the children, and future residents who may choose to call this fair city
their home. To secure their future, is to secure the future education of the values that
have made The City of Kelsey the successful municipality that it is today.
References
McKenzie, Ian. (n.d.). Leadership Communication for Effective Teams. Ian's Messy
Desk. Retrieved from http://www.ismckenzie.com/leadership-
communication-for-effective-teams/
Rainey, H. G. (2009). Understanding and managing public organizations (4th ed.). San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
Wart, M. V. (n.d.). Public Sector Leadership Theory: An Assessment. Public
Administration Review. Retrieved June 27, 2011, from
faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/oleary/ppa753/PDF%20Files/Van%20Wart%202003.pdf