Cuyahoga County Probation Department

Cuyahoga County Probation Department

Introduction

The primary aim of this work effort is to analyze the management components of the Cuyahoga County Probation Department in light of their program impacts on the lives and functioning of clients. Recommendations would be formalized in this paper, for the concerned department, with respect to organizational configurations as accentuated by Henry Mintzberg. Using these theoretical framework relationships among colleagues of the same department and with colleagues of other departments would be highlighted. Further, the relationship between the probation department and other relevant and concerned organizations would also be contextualized. Finally, Mintzberg's and Bass & Avolio's frameworks on leadership and management styles, respectively, would be the used as contributory forces to dissect the leadership styles that are needed to reform the functioning of the Cuyahoga County Probation Department.

Discussion

Probation Services

A staff of 122 members forms the fulcrum of the Cuyahoga County Probation Department. These employees perform their organizational objectives which include: case investigation execution and provide courts with pre-dispositional reports. Further, the department is also given the task to remain informed with the circumstances and behaviors of each of the personal under probation supervision. As such provision of referral services and corrective counseling is also a part of the department's essential job description. The later services are performed by the probation department to track the youths' and their ability, risk or need to conduct offenses in the future (Annual Report, 2011; 2012).

Henry Mintzberg's Configuration

Henry Mintzberg is a Canadian scholar who composed his PhD proposition dissecting the work practices and time administration of CEOs. In 1973, Mintzberg's PhD proposition was embraced as a critical research and circulated for a more extensive group including academics, scholars and professionals. Mintzberg's experimental assessment examined and broke down the practices of the CEOs of five semi-public and private organizations. Past studies on managerial work practices fixated on group dynamics and subordinate conduct in any organizational structure (Mintzberg, 1973). As such these researches did not concentrate on the regular actualities of managerial conduct. To depict the work practices of a CEO, Mintzberg initially distinguished six attributes of the high profile job of an organizational leader, these are:

(1) Managers process open-ended and hefty workloads under tight time restrictions. As such the leaders work is never complete;

(2) Managerial exercises are comparatively short in term, readily changed and divided and frequently self-launched by the leader of the organization;

(3) Leaders incline toward activity driven or goal oriented tasks. Furthermore, they despise paperwork and mails;

(4) Leaders incline toward communication methods that are primarily verbal or oral. As such phone conversations and meetings are their primary communication modes;

(5) Organizational leaders establish and administer business connections essentially with their subordinates and external liaison connections and other stakeholders. Further, leaders often do not establish frequent based relations with their superiors;

(6) Organizational leaders initiate many decisions, though their level of participation in decision execution is fairly limited (Mintzberg, 1973).

Mintzberg also distinguished ten differing roles in managerial practices. Each one of these roles can be demarcated as an ...