Complex Organizational Structures

The Family & Children's Services division of the San Francisco Human Services Agency is a complex organization, but it can be easily understood through the Bolman and Deal's four frames.

Bolman and Deal's Structural Frame involves these core assumptions:

1. Organizations exist to achieve specified goals and objectives.
2. Organizations use specialization and a clear division of labor to increase efficiency and improve performance.
3. Coordination and control make sure that the diverse efforts of individuals and units align.
4. Organizations work most effectively when rationality wins over personal preferences and external pressures.
5. Structures must be designed to fit an organization's circumstances (including its goals, technology, workforce, and environment).
6. Problems and performance gaps arise as a result of structural deficiencies and are best remedied through root cause analysis of these deficiencies and restructuring appropriately.
   

FCS exists to achieve established goals and objectives. Some of these goals, for example, are to protect San Francisco's children at risk of neglect and abuse, preserving their families through assistance via a wide range of services. This is achieved through investigations of child abuse and, in some situations, by putting children in foster care.

FCS has internal specialization and a clear division of labor. For example, the emergency response units are trained to interview children, parents, and others to determine if child abuse allegations are true, whereas the specialized teen units are trained to work with adolescents in foster care to stabilize placement and prepare the teenagers for successful adulthood.

Coordination and control of the agency's various activities is provided by the presence of managers at various levels, who supervise all the employees and all the projects.

Rationality prevails - For example, workers must be objective and put aside personal perspectives when reporting to the courts, which operate under rational laws, policies, and procedures. Furthermore, decisions about how to deal with families, including whether or not to remove children from their homes, are made collectively by the agency, not by individuals, who may have personal motives at stake.

The organizational structure at FCS is designed to fit the organization's circumstances, in the sense that the agency recognizes that its budget and workforce are limited, and so it cannot propose goals that are beyond its means. For example, the agency cannot investigate every home about which a complaint is made. The truthfulness of the complainant must be taken into account, as well as the seriousness of the charges.

There are problems and performance gaps in the agency that arise from structural deficiencies and can be remedied through analysis and restructuring. For example, recent studies have shown that the agency places a disproportionate number of African-American children in foster homes. Some people would argue that this is connected to the fact that most social workers in FC are, as are most social workers in the US, Caucasian women. The federal government has taken an interest in this situation, and has recommended, among other things, that there be fewer removals of children from homes and more assistance to homes in the way of services.

Human Resources - According to Abraham Maslow (1954), humans must first satisfy their needs for well-being, including food and shelter, and only then can they address their higher needs, such as belongingness, self-esteem, and self-actualization. To Maslow's hierarchy of needs, McGregor (1960) added two notions, which he called Theory X and Theory Y, that apply to organizational contexts. According to Theory X, most organizational managers assume that their subordinates are, in the words of Bolman and Deal, "passive and lazy, have little ambition, prefer to be led, and resist change".

According to McGregor's Theory Y, a managers essential task "is to arrange organizational conditions so that people can achieve their own goals best by directing their efforts toward organizational rewards".

Maslow's ideas and McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y play out heavily. The administrators make sure that each employee is provided with his or her basic needs-a workspace, office supplies, and office equipment-so that they can meet their potential in delivering services to clients. However, many of the managers operate out of the assumption that workers are lazy, lack ambition, and do not favor change (Theory X). This is manifested in micro-management actions as section managers require workers and supervisors to submit compliance logs and weekly reports to make sure the work is being done. At times, the actual acts and times of completing these reports prevent quality contact with families. On the other hand, Theory Y is played out at FCS in various ways, such as when an employee is cited as "employee of the month" for outstanding service.

The political frame is also apparent at FCS. Within this framework, organizations are seen as political arenas that host a complex web of players and interests. In this context, coalitions are established, people fight for scarce resources, and decisions are made by bargaining and jockeying for position.

At FCS, it is easy to see the complex web of players and interests. Beside its organizational structure, with administrators and employees fighting for resources and jockeying for position, there is the court system that the agency has to deal with, sometimes antagonistically, and the families that the agency serves, also sometimes with resistance. The agency has a union, which fights for the employees' rights, and many staff members belong to various professional associations. In addition, many of the foster parents belong to a foster parents association. The conflicts among all of these players serve as a check and balance system to protect the needs of society at large and all the various individuals involved.

The symbolic framework clearly applies to FCS, for this agency, like every other social agency in the country, is dedicated to noble causes: in this case, protecting children from harm and helping families to survive and prosper. The agency does these things literally, but there is a sense in which everyone in the agency is united under the symbol of doing good in the world.