Briskhill Resource Centre (Briskhill) is an Independent Limited Company that Provides Service: Organisational Development Assignment, DCU

Case Study Restructuring of Briskhill Resource Centre

Briskhill Resource Centre (Briskhill) is an independent limited company that provides service to local communities and small businesses. They are funded primarily by central and local government and European grants. The services they provide include employment support, training and upskilling, enterprise support for business start-ups, and support for community groups.

They currently have responsibility for two large urban areas that are designated as under-privileged. Both areas have high unemployment rates. Education is also a problem. The number of students who do not complete their secondary education is high. As a result, the number of students who go on to 3^rd level or further education is low. Crime in the areas is also seen as a problem. While organised crime is not a major problem. Petty crime and anti-social behaviour are a problem.

The company has had great success in addressing the problem areas over the last five years. They have put a lot of focus and resources into trying to change the mindset within the community. Programs designed to encourage and enable families to keep children in education for longer and to progress to 3^rd level have been highly successful.

As have the programs designed to create a better living environment by involving the community in creating parks and community gardens. The creative initiatives, good management, and dedicated employees have all contributed to this success. BRISKHILL is recognized as a success story and has the admiration of all the other operators within the sector and of the central and local government and European agencies who manage and allocate the funding grants.

Driver for change

As a result of Briskhill’s success, they have been mandated to incorporate two additional under-privileged areas into their programs. While from the outside this is seen as something positive and great public recognition of the good job Briskhill are doing, it presents some challenges for the company.

Challenges

The new areas that are being transferred over to Briskhill are currently being managed by Greenfield Resource Centre (Greenfield). The management of Greenfield is happy to hand over the management of the areas to Briskhill as they feel this will allow them to concentrate on other initiatives that better suit their specialist skillset. As part of the deal, Greenfield will hand over all resources and funding associated with the areas in question.

This will almost double the number of employees for Briskhill. Increasing the number of employees from 50 to 85. The current management structure consists of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO), 3 senior managers, and 6 supervisors. Each senior manager has 2 supervisors reporting into him/her. Of the employees transferring over to Briskhill, 1 is at the senior management level and 2 are at the supervisor level.

As the restructure will result in some duplication of roles, some job losses will be inevitable. Office space will also need to be looked at as Briskhill is currently running at 75% capacity within their current office space. Even with some redundancies, they do not think they will be able to accommodate all the employees after the transfer takes place.

A concern for Briskhill is that the Greenfield employees being transferred are not being given a choice in whether they want to go to Briskhill. They either transfer or they have no job. Some rumblings of discontent have already been heard and communicated to Briskhill.

It will, for some employees, result in a longer commute to work. Some have been working in Greenfield for several years and do not want to move the company. They are worried that they will not get on with new colleagues and management. They are concerned about how their role will change and who will they be reporting into.

However, the biggest challenge for Briskhill will be the salary scales. The transferring employees are on a higher salary scale than the Briskhill employees. This will mean that the transferring employee will be on a higher level of pay than the equivalent existing Briskhill employee.

Briskhill does not have the budget to increase the existing employees’ pay scales. They cannot reduce the rates for the transferring employees either. They know this is going to cause a problem.

Briskhill is immensely proud of its effective work practices. They have spent a lot of time and effort in getting the right policies, procedures, and processes put in place. This was done by open consultation with all the staff. Which has contributed greatly to forming the inclusive and open culture that currently exists?

They do not want all this good work destroyed by either a reluctance by the transferring employees to adapt the Briskhills work practices or by discontent by Briskhill’s current employees based on the unlevel pay scales.

The CEO and senior management of Briskhill need to come up with a plan on how to manage all of the challenges that this change presents. The first decision they have to make is whether or not to engage with a consultancy company to manage the restructure or manage it internally.

If they decide to use an external consultant, the budget will have to come out of the operational budget as all project funding has already been accounted for.

Task

Analyse the case study and answer the following questions:

1. BRS can either manage the restructure themselves or engage an external consultancy company to manage it for them.

Describe and compare the advantages and disadvantages of using an external consultant over managing it internally. Describe and discuss the types of consultancy models. Analysis and discuss which might be best suited to the case study situation. Relate your answers to the case study situation.

Link your answers back to the relevant theory

2. BRS can either manage the restructure themselves or engage an external consultancy company to manage it for them.

Describe and compare the advantages and disadvantages of using an external consultant over managing it internally. Describe and discuss the types of consultancy models. Analysis and discuss which might be best suited to the case study situation. Relate your answers to the case study situation.

Link your answers back to the relevant theory