Group project
You have just been appointed to assist the new court administrator for a medium-sized court system with approximately 75 employees and 5 full-time courts. This is a new position for the courts. In the past, each individual court has primarily managed itself, except for the employee hiring process, which was completed through the County Human Resource Division.
Upon taking your post, you quickly find out that none of the courts seem to be willing to cooperate with each other-or, for that matter, any of the other various county offices, such as the County Clerk's Office and the District Attorney's Office. Rumors and gossip about mismanagement abound, and the communications process between the five courts appears to be at a standstill.
The courts currently have a huge backlog of cases awaiting trial, and in addition, employee morale is low and the turnover rate is high. The new administrator has asked that you form a team to brainstorm ideas on how to address these issues.
In your groups, discuss how you would respond to these organizational problems and the following points:
• Which problem should be addressed first, and exactly how should it be addressed?
• How would you respond to the employee morale problem?
• How would you respond to the turnover problem?
• What techniques could be employed to improve communications throughout the organization and create a more harmonious work environment?
• What method or tactic would you use to reduce the backlog of cases awaiting trial?
Individual Portion
Each group member should select one of the problems to address and write a minimum of 1 page to propose the group's solutions to that particular problem.
Group Portion
As a group, submit 1 essay of 4-6 pages in which each of the aforementioned problems are addressed with proposed solutions. Be sure to support your viewpoints from your readings and other appropriate outside sources.
If your group decides, you may select a group leader who should summarize the contributions of each group member and combine them into 1 document. If your group does not have a group leader, then one member should do this. After the group has reviewed the draft of 1 group document, the leader or member should then submit it to the group drop box for grading.