The 1st Written Assignment

  1. “Preventing Pollution in Massachusetts:  The Blackstone Project” (Kennedy School Case: C16-93-1197.0)

You are a Special Assistant to Ms. Patricia Deese Stanton, Assistant Commissioner for Waste Prevention, who has been given responsibility for carrying out The Blackstone Project, a pilot project within the newly reorganized Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection that would totally change the way in which facility inspections are conducted, in an effort to reduce pollution of all kinds at the source.  Ms. Stanton has asked you to analyze the situation she is dealing with, from the perspective of internal organizational structure and the structural relationship of the organization with external actors and organizations.  Specifically, she has requested a 2-page, single-spaced, 12-point-font, 1-inch-margin memorandum that would address the following questions:

    1. What is a major organization/management problem facing Ms. Stanton? Why is it important to address this problem?
    2. What are the advantages to DEP of the pre-existing approach to inspections, in which inspectors specialized in a certain category of pollution sources (e.g. air, water and hazardous wastes)?  Who is most comfortable with this approach and why?
    3. What are the advantages of integrating inspections?  Who would be most open to this approach and why?
    4. What factors are most influential in leading to the proposed change to an integrated inspection system?  Factors in the organizational environment of DEP, including the policy environment of facilities that are inspected?
    5. Similarly, how might technological factors make it difficult to achieve integrated inspections? Technologicall factors include two components: types of task interdependence (pooled, sequential, reciprocal, and collective) and corresponding coordination structures (simple hierarchy, assembly lines, wheels, and networks).
    6. What specific recommendations do you have, for how to motivate key players to implement the Blackstone Project?
    7. Also describe an action plan to implement these recommendations.

 

 

To address these questions in 2 pages, your memorandum will need to be well organized, clear, concise, and easy to read.  In addition to a careful reading and an analysis of the case, make sure you take full advantage of the material that has presented in class, in the readings, and online discussion board. Please Do Not Write in A Question-Answer or Bullet Point format. Criteria for grading:

  • Clarity of Writing: Your analysis is addressed to a professional manager. This means that you must write clearly, address the key issues, present a logical argument.
  • Rigor of the Analysis: Your response paper is designed to be presented to a senior manager/executive. Your analyses must be factual, believable, and credible. Your recommendations and conclusions must come from your analysis and should consider organizational realities (culture, politics, resources, reward systems) that may affect the implementability of your recommendations.
  • Relevance: Your analysis must address the key issues confronting the organization and reflect a thorough understanding of the materials covered in this course. This means you should use information from the assigned readings and lectures in your discussion and analysis. Your response papers should be complete enough to ensure that no major factors are overlooked yet brief enough so that it will be read in its entirety. Often the body of report will begin with an introduction that includes a statement of defining a major problem you identified for this organization. The problem statement is best to be expressed in excessive, deficit or negation. It is followed by your justification for the problem definition and then describes how the report is organized. The next section provides an analysis of the situation, highlighting what you consider to be the other related problems, issues, concerns and constraints facing the organization and its decision-makers. Sometimes it is appropriate to include in this section your assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the organization as part of your analysis. The next section portrays the alternative courses of action that the organization could pursue in addressing the problems and the criteria that you used to select the appropriate courses of action. The final section of the report should summarize the main points of your report with an action plan to implement your recommendations.