Week 3: An Interview About Organizational Structure – Peggy O’Connor

This week’s reading prompted me to contact my former supervisor, the now-retired head of school at a private, pre-school-Grade 12 independent school in Michigan. I worked with and for Matthew Hanly twice – one from 1990-95 when we were first administration team colleagues (he was head of the middle school division) and later, from 2005-08 when I returned to my previous job as director of marketing and communications at the school and Matthew was head of school.

I talked with Matthew about the organizational structure at my current organization in the Seattle area, which is similar in nature to the structure that Matthew put in place at the Michigan school. Both are private, independent schools. Both serve demographic populations that are similar in nature, both have been in existence for more than 100 years, and both have a history of predecessor school mergers. Additionally, both exist in communities in which there are strong public schools and private school competitors, making the area of admissions/enrollment a constant challenge.

I mentioned to Matthew that I felt that our shared experience at the Michigan school had provided evidence that an organizational structure that featured a divisional system within a functional structure seemed like it worked well in a private school. He agreed with me and explained that it had been his experience that most private schools were similarly structured. I noted, however, that my current organization didn’t seem to work as effectively as the one over which Matthew had presided and more importantly, didn’t seem to be able to meet the major challenges, such as enrollment management, budgeting, fundraising, and market positioning.

I shared with Matthew what I had learned in this week’s reading; in particular, that I had found the “fit test” sections discussed by Gould and Campbell (2002) in their article, “Do You Have a Well Designed Organization?” to be particularly relevant to the challenges at my current organization and how my current school differs from the one Matthew managed, despite sharing similar organizational structures.

“It sounds like your current school didn’t pass the ‘People Test’,” Matthew told me. “I know that during our most successful years, we just had the right people in the right spots. Our senior administrative team was an excellent example of that. We were able to make the right connections and communicate so well with one another and then down the chain of command – and always with the school’s mission in mind – that we dealt with our challenges so well throughout the years.”

“As an educational consultant, I often use our team from those years as an example of a structure that worked because we had the right people in the right places,” Matthew concluded.

Our discussion led us to conclude that because my former organization could have passed the “People Test,” it also would have passed the “Difficult Links Test” (Gould and Campbell, 2002). Because the people at the top communicated well with one another, we were able to create an atmosphere of collaboration and horizontal flow of communication, information and decision-making throughout the rest of our organization. That’s why we could successfully manage, among other things, enrollment at the key “decision points” in a private school life (preschool-elementary, elementary-middle school, and middle school-high school).

What I learned from my interview with Matthew is that, indeed, my current organization likely cannot pass the “People Test.” When I look at the top levels of my organization, it seems that the functional structure may not best suit what Gould and Campbell (2002) called “the members of the top management team and other individuals deemed critical to the business” and that the design of the organization may not present what Gould and Campbell (2002) called “the appropriate responsibilities” to these key players.

For example, my current head of school has stated that he prefers to be the “face” of the organization and spend his time with visioning, fundraising, and representing our school nationally as a board member in professional and educational organizations. He would rather leave the decision-making to others at top levels in each of four divisions (two educational and two non-educational groups). However, the structure is set up with him at the top, making decisions that should funnel down through the executive leadership team (the four directors of divisions).

Unfortunately, two of those four directors are also ill-suited to their current positions and have not been able to apply their true skills to the demands of the positions into which they have been placed. For example, my immediate supervisor’s strengths are in specific project management areas rather than in the broader areas needed to oversee three very distinct units within our (Advancement) division. The director of operations and finance is a CPA and thus an expert in finance and investment. Yet he is also charged with overseeing the operations/facilities area and does not have the skills to coordinate between those departments or even to help facilitate coordination.

This has resulted in an organizational atmosphere that has had some large failures recently in some very important areas (enrollment management, fundraising, significant curricular changes), and, consequently, has made it a somewhat difficult place in which to work.

It was good to speak with my former boss, who confirmed my conclusions about the reasons why the organizational structure at my current job was not working as well as that structure had under his direction. He also noted that it had been his experience that such dilemmas are often solved by one or more changes in personnel – either at the top levels of the organization or from the population of “key players” within the units who are finding it difficult to cope with the challenges of the structure (and the people) in place above them.

“I will keep an eye out for any new positions I think you’re suited for, Peggy,” Matthew said at the end of our interview. “It’s probably time for you to move on.”

References:

Gould, M., & Campbell, A. (2002). Do you have a well designed organization? Harvard Business Review, R0203K, p. 05-11