Overview of the Case:

This case describes a strategic change effort for the City of Carlsbad. The city manager first implemented a highly participative program that produced a mission statement and set of values to guide the city in its change efforts. A number of initiatives followed to make changes to the information and performance management systems. Following this major effort, the city manager convened a small representative task force to design a new structure for the city. The result was a plan to reorganize the city into five major service areas (MSA’s), such as community development safety services, and public works (see Exhibit C in the text). The largest of the MSA’s was the Public Works department. It consisted of six previously independent departments. The case describes the initial diagnostic data collected by the public works director and an OD consultant, including data gathered from interviews and focus groups with a variety of stakeholders to design an action plan to build the new structure of the Public Works department. Teaching Strategy: (Note: If the professor wishes to cover all three parts of the case, it will be important to manage time on this first part. The (B) case provides a wider variety of issues to discuss and should be given more time than the (A) case. If the (A) case is given as pre-reading, then allot about 20 minutes for discussing the (A) case, about 5-10 minutes to read the (B) case, about 25 minutes to discuss the (B) case, and then about 5 minutes to read and comment on the (C) case.)

1. It is important that the students get clear about the sequence of events leading up to the public works reorganization. In essence, it is the third change effort and students often want to talk about the first two. First, the city manager went through an elaborate change effort resulting in the mission, vision, and several