Structure, Culture and Leadership of Water & Sewerage Department for Sustainable Performance

Running head: REPORT
To what extent do the structure, culture and leadership of the Water & Sewerage Department
encourage long-term sustainable performance such that the organization may survive and prosper
in a global knowledge economy?
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

2REPORT
Executive Summary
There are several factors that play a major role in enhancing the overall performance of the
employees and at the same time these factors also encourage the long term sustainable
performance of the organization. The structure and culture of the organization, the characteristics
of existing leaders and their leadership styles are some of such significant factors. In the given
case study, it can be found out that the Water & Sewerage Department is currently facing issues
with their overall performance due to a misbalanced culture and structure, in addition to that, the
organization is also facing issues with the existing leaders. This report has discussed the existing
issues in details with the help of relevant theories and models. Recommendations for
encouraging long tern sustainable performance have been made accordingly.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Discussion........................................................................................................................................5
Issues affecting the performance of the workforce..........................................................................5
Issues with Structure and Culture of the organization.....................................................................6
Relevant organizational culture theories.....................................................................................6
Discussion of present situation....................................................................................................9
Issues with culture and leadership.................................................................................................10
Relevant leadership theories......................................................................................................10
Autocratic Leadership............................................................................................................10
Bureaucratic Leadership........................................................................................................11
Discussion of present situation..................................................................................................14
Recommendations for Sustainable Performance...........................................................................15
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
References:....................................................................................................................................19

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Introduction
Like the private sector organizations, leadership is equally important for the public sector
organizations. A good leader in public sector organizations not only influences the job
satisfaction and enhanced performance of the employees, but also the public agencies and
government’s performance. It can be easily said that the leadership is quite critical in the public
sectors for bringing good governance involving good planning, improved efficiency and more
transparency in the system. As stated by Nanjundeswaraswamy and Swamy (2014) leadership in
public sector also faces various kinds of problems including communication, recruitment,
employee management etc, however at the same time, they have to abide by the fundamental
procedure and rules, monitor them and provide directions in accordance with that. It has been
seen in different scenarios that without the available lucrative incentives like the private sector
employees, it is difficult for the public sector leaders to motivate all of their employees and
maintain a positive environment within the organization (Amanchukwu, Stanley and Ololube
2015). In addition to that, some scholars have also indicated that most of the public service
organizations focus more on having a long term strategy and building the vision, therefore they
require human resources who are mostly oriented towards the strategic behavior, therefore it can
be crucial for the public service leaders to identify such employees as well (Alvesson and
Sveningsson 2015). The Water & Sewerage Department (WSD) is a public sector organization
that operates the water utility in the British Virgin Islands and it is operating since 1980 . In the
year 2013, the organization has become an independent body with a mission of ensuring the
provision of a continuous supply of safe potable water and an environmentally sound sewage
disposal service to all residents of the British Virgin Islands, efficiently and at affordable rates.
The standard government rate of water per gallon is $0.018. For the first 150,000 gallons the

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charge is $0.025 per gallon, the second 150,000 gallon is charged at $0.020 per gallon and over
300,000 gallon the charge is 0.015 per gallon (Bvi.gov.vg. 2018). At present, the organization is
facing numerous internal problems regarding leadership and employee management that may
become a hindrance in further development and providing sustainable growth. Therefore, this
report will discuss whether the current structure, culture and leadership of the organization are
encouraging a long term and sustainable performance with the help of relevant theories and
models.
Discussion
Issues affecting the performance of the workforce
It has been seen that being a government department W&S department of British Virgin
Islands is not free from workplace issues related to the workforce of the department. The given
case study indicates that the fundamental structure of the Water & Sewerage Department has five
divisions: customer care, accounts, human resource, administration and public relations. The
Customer care division has been further categorized in operations and maintenance, projects and
planning and sewerage division. There are 100 employees in the organization classified in two
specific groups: established who are the permanent workers and are entitled to pension and non-
established workers who are hired temporarily and not entitled to any pension plan. In the recent
times the employees of Water & Sewerage Department have shown a major lack in the morale,
less involvement in the decision making process. Along with that the organizational culture has
shown a major lack in the existing communication, conflict of interest between the management
and employees, lack of training and development and it can also be observed that most of the
decisions are made by the director or the other from the top management levels. It can be said

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that the leadership of the management has made it difficult for the employees of the business
organization to work with full potential as the important decisions are being taken by the
management of the organization only and not given adequate chance to express their point of
views regarding taking the important decisions. It is a matter fact that the management of the
organization should take some necessary steps in order to overcome the oddities that the
workforce is facing and it can also be said that if the management do not take any step soon, the
lesser productivity of the department will surely affect the further development.
Issues with Structure and Culture of the organization
Relevant organizational culture theories
The idea of organizational culture indicates to the core values of an organization along
with its norms, practices and policies that are shared by everyone associated with it. Alvesson
(2016) identifies that the concept of organizational culture is a common phenomenon and it does
not change overnight, rather it takes a long time to evolve. Schein’s model indicates towards the
internal relationship between the sustainability strategies and the organizational culture.