Northern County Legal Case
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Northern County Legal Services is an organization whose mission is to assist those who cannot afford legal representation find a lawyer. They specialize in housing and employment law but are also available to help with other legal needs. Julie is the director of NCLS, who runs the office, manages volunteers and students, finding attorneys, and conducting training workshops for both students and volunteer attorneys. The center consist of 15 volunteers and law school students. All the services at the center are based on the clients income (Anderson, 2014).
After reading Northern County Legal Service case study, I am able to see that within this organizations office the staff and clients are in disarray. The office is overcrowded, with insufficient amount of equipment to effectively assist the clients. The staff isnt properly prepared nor organized to deal with the day to day cases and demands. Essentially the poor working conditions and chaotic environment makes the office a displeasing place to work or conduct any business.
Organization Development is the process of increasing organizational effectiveness and facilitating personal and organizational change through the use of interventions. OD is helpful in influencing an organization to achieve its strategic goals (Anderson, 2014). An OD Consultant could have assisted Julie in key areas such as creating a strategic plan, mission statement/goal alignment, creation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and creating effective teams.
By having a strategic plan in place, it would assist Julie in understanding the current state of the Northern County Legal Services and where the organization needs to be in the upcoming months in meeting the goals of the organization in order to continue receiving funding from the Dylan Foundation president. The Strategic plan would lay out key actions that needed to be complete with deadlines to ensure that the organization is moving in the right direction.
Reviewing the mission statement will assist the OD to evaluate if the mission of the organization is in alignment with the daily goals of the NCLS.
Creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) would provide Julie an opportunity to document the process from start to finish when a possible client contacts NCLS for service. The SOPs would include services provided, cost based on client income, intake process, lawyers list and approval process. The SOPs process would also provide NCLS a training tool for new and current employees to be trained consistently.
In creating effective teams, the OD consultant could coach Julie to consider the following items:
Divide your team up to their strengths (Example: Monica specialty is Family Law but she keeps getting eviction intakes (Anderson, 2014))
Trust in your employees (Example: Allow Annette to go on to the next step after she has already completed the intake for the domestic violence restraining order (Anderson, 2014))
Delegate task/duties to other team members to develop and build confidence in team members
Create an environment of engagement and empowerment to make decisions
I would say Julie displayed parts of the Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid. Anderson (2014) gives you a look at unpleasant work environment; the chairs