The City Manager has hired you as the Chief of Staff for your local government and has contacted you regarding the following issues concerning various governmental departments and external stakeholders:

Issue 1:

In the past year, citizen, department, and outside stakeholder complaints have been filed against the Department of Health administrators. Such complaints cited unprofessional leadership, unethical practices, insufficient customer and patient care, poor fire and emergency response time, and inability to implement change and resolve conflict within and amongst subordinates and staff. The Department of Health is composed of the following agencies:

         Social Services,

         Fire and Emergency Management, and

         Human Services.

Issue 2:

The School Board has a collaborative relationship with various government departments. In the last two (2) months, the School Board has charged department directors with failure to work collaboratively with the School Board on its efforts to:

         Meet federal mandates regarding reformation of new policy issues that will impact the leadership of the Department of Redevelopment and Housing, the State Department of Education, and the State Department of Housing and Urban Development.

         Support the academic leadership of secondary school principals by providing specific student data from the Department of Juvenile Relations, in an attempt to improve student retention and performance toward increasing graduation rates.

Note: You may create and / or make all necessary assumptions needed for the completion of this assignment.

Write a seven to eight (7-8) page paper in which you address the following:

1.     What would you do to deal with scenarios 1 and 2 as Chief of Staff? Provide a rationale to support your response.

2.     What policies and practices would you change? Recommend one (1) specific leadership theory and two (2) public leader styles that would be most beneficial for the School Board in addressing the issues presented. Provide a rationale for your response.

3.     Determine the essential manner in which the leadership from the Department of Public Health, the School Board, and the various other government departments impact the leadership of the City Manager and his or her ability to carry out government operations.

4.     What would you do to lead the local government unit moving forward?

5.     Include at least four (4) peer-reviewed references (no more than 6 months old) from material outside the textbook. Scholarly articles and government websites.