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Case Study Elena Torres

Decent Essays

Working With Elected Officials; Managing Political Appointees Background: Being a manager is hard in any setting. No matter what level you are in the hierarchy, when dealing with people will always create complex situations. Elena Torres, the director of research for the Carlton’s City Council knows this all too well. She has been the director for the last three years for Carlton City. Initially her job was great. Her staff was performing well and her interactions with the city council and the rest of the city government was gaining her much respect. Progressively over time, new council members were elected and their appointees were below the standard that Torres had expected. The council had also stopped including her in on the hiring …show more content…

Instead of trying to fight each issue, finding the root cause and solving that will alleviate the remaining issues. When reviewing the case, Torres’s interactions with the council members are conducted individually away from the group. During these discussions, her concerns and issues are discussed and assured that the council member will comply with helping to fix theses. However, after her discussions are over, the issues remain. The root problem is the council members as whole think and feel that their position is more important than the Torres director position. These attitudes are then passed along to their appointees, unfortunately her staff members. The new staff member’s attitudes and mindset have shifted to only supporting their council …show more content…

Confront each council member has been deemed ineffective due to she has conducted this multiple times and still has the same issues. In front of the entire council, she is able to discuss all her issues with them. With all issues on the table, the entire council and she can come to terms on all discussion points presented. The council can even present their issues with her and possibly revealing their problems with her. By being in front of the entire council, Torres has equal witnesses on the discussion and verbal confirmation on each resolution. Peer to peer accountability can be held easier among the council than Torres can. However that was the best case scenario. The city council members are all busy people. To gather the entire council will be a hard feat if it can up at all short of involving the mayor. The worst case scenario is in fact getting the whole council together and the event backfires, making matters worse by, in their eyes “wasting their time.” The root cause will not be fixed and only deepened by separating themselves even further from

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