New Russian School 1

Running head: NEW RUSSIAN SCHOOL CASE 19

The Strategically Planning Russian School

Heather Mueller

Ithaca College

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The New Russian School Case Study on Effective Communication and Planning

The key issue presented in the New Russian School Case Study is the lack of

communication between board members and the employees at the school (Gayle, 2000). This

absence of effective communication leads to frustration and poor management within the

structure of the school, which could ultimately hurt its’ overall success and life expectancy.

Analysis

What the board at the Russian school in this case study lacks is an effective management

system with a clear vision. Since there is an ineffective way of managing the establishment,

communication between board members and employees has failed. The board, the director, and

the teachers operate on their own terms, without consulting other branches of the system before

making decisions. Nor do the board members consult each other often enough to make sure their

school is running efficiently. When meetings are held, board members are often shocked by news

from teachers and the director. Trina Nicholson, the top teacher at the school, surprised the board

by announcing her resignation; Shelia Hartwick, the director of the school, surprised the board

with the frequent registration of new students; and the board surprised Shelia by offering up her

position as director of the school without informing her. The Russian School is financially

successful and has a high interest in the community, but if there is an unclear plan and vision, the

Russian school will fall short. “Without planning, any improvements in an organization’s

innovation, speed, quality, and cost will be accidental, if they occur at all” (Bateman, 2008).

The board sees Shelia as an ineffective director since she plans and runs events that

require heavy workloads for the teachers, and also occasionally hires unpleasant teachers. This

causes the board to be hesitant of Shelia’s ability to be an effective director and they feel the

need to replace her. Since there is already a lack of communication between the board and

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Shelia, they offer up her position unbeknownst to Shelia. However, Shelia sees herself as a great

director, who plans many events successful events for the school. The members of the board

have shown behaviors of being mindless because they are not “cognizant of their communication

with others and put little or no effort into improving it” (Waddock, 2008). They do not even try

to confront Shelia about her over-planning of events; they replace her without informing her.

However this mindless communication only adds to the problem. Now Trina and Shelia both

expect the position as director of the board, which creates conflict because both Trina and Shelia

will only remain at the school if they are the director and the board cannot afford to lose either of

them since Trina is an impressive teacher and Shelia has essential knowledge in public relations.

If these barriers of mindless communication are not overcome, the Russian school will

lose an intelligent bright woman from their team. And until a plan is set for the school, it will be

unable to be successful in the future. Without planning “dealing with significant challenges is

almost impossible” (Bateman, 2008).

Solutions

To form an effective plan, the Russian school staff and board should create a strategic

plan for their school, which would include a mission, vision, and goals. With a solid standing

plan, which would become “permanent policies and rules for running the organization” later on,

there would be more structure and boundaries to the policies at the organization (Bateman,

2008). This new structure would cause less conflicts and more communication because there

would be more of a step-by-step process, which would involve collaboration of the whole

organization. In order to see this new plan through, there would have to be a strategic control

system set in place. This strategic control system would evaluate the organizations process, make

sure the plan was running efficiently, and take corrective action when needed (Bateman, 2008).

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A school that benefited from a plan with strategic and collaborative communication was

Savanna Oaks Elementary School located in Verona, Wisconsin. This school used to be

criticized for its’ “poor schooling and management,” so the school decided to make a change

(O'Neill, 2002). The school created a specific plan for their organization, and now the staff

“works collaboratively to evaluate and improve their instructional strategies” (O'Neill, 2002).

They learned the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions and to translate their ideas

into effective action. With this new plan in effect for the school, they have a solid structure, with

effective communication and an excellent elementary school.

Another solution for the company would be to hire an ombudsman, which is an

“independent or neutral party who seeks to resolve school-related problems as quickly and

efficiently as possible, especially for those for which a formal resolution process does not exist”

(Rose, 2008). This ombudsman would act as the liaison between the board and any employee at

the school. If anyone in the organization has a problem, they would go through the ombudsman,

who would help resolve their conflict. An ombudsman would guide the board and employees in

being more mindful, allowing them to “think about communication and continually work at

changing what they do in order to become more effective” (Waddock, 2008).

Conclusion

The course of action the Russian school should follow is to combine the two possible

solutions to solve their multidimensional problem. They should create a strategic plan for their

school, which would give the school structure, to fix their communication problems. They should

also hire an ombudsman to act as a liaison between the board and the employees of the school to

help solve any other future conflicts. With the new plan and employee set in place, the school

will have clearer management, more effective communication, and a longer life expectancy.

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Resources

Bateman, T., & Snell, S. (2008). Planning and strategic management. In S. Hamula, K.

Kalman, M. Kish, K. Komaromi, & W. Ressler (Eds.). Introduction to strategic communication

[custom text] (pp. 79-110). Hightstown, NJ: McGraw Hill Primis Online.

Gayle, B. M,, & Shapiro, E., (2000). New Russian school communicating in a changing

organizational environment. In G. Peterson (Ed). Communicating in organizations (pp. 162-167).

Needham Heights, MA: Peterson Education Company.

O'Neill, J. (2002). Collaboration. In Building shared responsibility for student learning.

Retrieved September 23, 2008, from Ithaca College Library database:

http://ezproxy.ithaca.edu:2053/lib/ithaca/Doc?id=10052948

Rose, G. (2008). Ombudsman. Retrieved September 22, 2008, from Montgomery County

Public Schools Web site: http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/boe/contact/ombudsman.shtm

Waddock, S. (2008). Stakeholders: The relationship key. In S. Hamula, K. Kalman, M.

Kish, K. Komaromi, & W.. Ressler (Eds.). Introduction to strategic communication [custom

text] (pp. 1-39). Hightstown, NJ: McGraw Hill Primis Online.