Organizational Change in Carlsbad's Public Works Department
This paper examines the City of Carlsbad's decision to reorganize its Public Works Department following a severe economic recession, consolidating six previously autonomous departments into a functional organizational structure. Drawing on Cummings and Worley's organizational development framework, the paper evaluates employee responses to the restructuring, proposes targeted interventions—including process consultation, third-party mediation, large-group goal setting, and technostructural redesign—and recommends a hybrid matrix-divisional structure to reduce redundancy and improve service delivery. An action plan emphasizing employee involvement, inclusive goal setting, and job analysis is also presented.
- Background: Carlsbad's Post-Recession Reorganization: Recession-driven restructuring and its employee effects
- Empowering Employees and Improving Participation: Strategies for engagement, feedback, and empowerment
- Interventions to Build Teamwork and Trust: Five OD interventions to address cohesion and conflict
- Evaluating Organizational Structure: Toward a Matrix-Divisional Hybrid: Case for blending matrix and divisional structures
- Action Plan for Effective Restructuring: Prioritized steps for inclusive, effective implementation
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper applies a consistent theoretical lens—Cummings and Worley's organizational development framework—across all four questions, creating coherence throughout the analysis.
- It moves logically from diagnosis (identifying problems with the reorganization) to prescription (specific interventions) to structural recommendation (matrix-divisional hybrid), showing clear analytical progression.
- The numbered rationale for adopting a matrix structure grounds the recommendation in specific organizational conditions rather than generic best-practice claims.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied case analysis: it takes a real-world scenario and systematically matches organizational problems to recognized intervention types from the OD literature. Each recommendation is tied back to observable conditions in the case (e.g., scarce resources, unclear goals, inter-team conflict), rather than being asserted in the abstract.
Structure breakdown
The paper is organized around four case questions. The first section provides context about the reorganization and its effects. The second addresses employee engagement strategies. The third details five specific OD interventions. The fourth evaluates structural options and advocates for a hybrid matrix-divisional approach, closing with a concrete action plan that synthesizes all prior recommendations.
Background: Carlsbad's Post-Recession Reorganization
The City of Carlsbad, with a population of 75,000, was just emerging from the worst recession in the city's history. In response, the city decided to reorganize and adopt an organizational structure similar to those used by private businesses (Cummings & Worley, 2014). Specifically, the city chose to adopt a functional organization model. As part of this shift, the Department of Public Works was restructured by consolidating six previously autonomous departments into a single unified structure.
Interviews with employees revealed that job satisfaction had increased following the reorganization. However, a sense of fear also emerged, largely because employees had not been adequately involved in the process—many reported that their opinions were never sought. Additional problems identified include the risk of the City Engineer showing preferential treatment toward certain workers, a lack of cross-departmental teamwork despite strong cohesion within individual teams, and performance issues stemming from poorly defined roles and responsibilities.
Despite these potential challenges, the various stakeholders generally responded to the changes positively, viewing the reorganization as being carried out in the best interest of the city.
Empowering Employees and Improving Participation
Given employee suspicions about what motivated the changes, their active participation in future decisions should be sought. Employees should be empowered, feedback should be regularly collected from them, and the rationale behind any changes should be communicated clearly. They should also be encouraged to extend the cohesiveness demonstrated within their individual teams across the department as a whole.
Additionally, ways of helping employees feel appreciated should be identified and implemented. Employees should be given sufficient information to understand the roles that various departments play within the city, fostering a stronger and more unified workforce. Because the Public Works Department performs a critical function in the city, it is important to examine how service delivery within the department can be improved. To eliminate redundancies across departments, a Matrix Structure should be considered (Cummings & Worley, 2014).
Interventions to Build Teamwork and Trust
Given the lack of cohesiveness, trust, and teamwork among individual teams, interventions that emphasize the importance of teamwork are necessary. Commitment and trust must be built within teams and across the entire department. The following interventions are recommended.
Process Consultation and Team Building
This intervention focuses on the social dynamics and interpersonal relations occurring within various work groups. The practitioner assists group members in diagnosing how their groups function and identifying solutions to improve the work environment, thereby helping to prevent future conflict. Because the approach is internally generated, it has a stronger chance of being effective and accepted by employees.
Given that the teams were recently formed, the practitioner should work to strengthen team cohesiveness through structured team-building activities. These activities help team members get to know one another, which in turn promotes better cooperation as teams work toward shared goals. This process should also include clarifying the roles of individual team members and outlining the strategies to be used in completing assigned tasks (Cummings & Worley, 2014).
Third-Party Intervention
To address the interpersonal conflicts present in the organization, a third-party intervention would be highly useful. Bringing in an outside party provides fresh perspectives and allows those who feel aggrieved or misrepresented to express their concerns freely. A neutral third party can explain the rationale for the merger in an unbiased manner, as they have no personal stake in the outcome of the reorganization (Cummings & Worley, 2014).
Goal Setting in Large-Group Interventions
It has been established that the Public Works Department lacked clear strategies—specifically, it was deficient in defined objectives, goals, and policies. It is therefore necessary to set clear goals in order to improve organizational effectiveness. This also allows for a better balance between organizational and personal objectives. Large-group interventions should be used as a vehicle for communicating the city's goals to all employees (Cummings & Worley, 2014).
Integrated Strategic Change
All of the interventions described above should align with the organization's overall strategy and its intended contributions to both the community and its employees. A clear mission should be established so that all activities are guided by a shared sense of purpose. Increasing employee satisfaction is also important, as goal-oriented employees tend to experience greater happiness and engagement as they make progress toward meaningful objectives (Cummings & Worley, 2014).
Technostructural Intervention
It is essential that the organization divide its work into functional departments that support its strategic direction. Decisions must also be made regarding the most effective ways to deliver products and services, and how each department contributes to that delivery (Cummings & Worley, 2014).
References
Cummings, T., & Worley, C. (2014). Organization development and change. Cengage Learning.
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