The Scarborough Ymca - Getting Back on Track

1.0 Executive Summary:

The case of the Scarborough YMCA is presented here with the problems currently encountered by the facility. Then, the write up talks about the actual reasons for the problems at hand, the proposed alternatives to handle the situation. However, the analysis is not complete without recommendation & implementation plan, followed by a suitable contingency plan.

Lack of leadership, motivation and bad perception are short term problems currently faced by Scarborough YMCA. Whereas the organizational culture of being complacent towards the task at hand is something that needs to be addressed on a long run.

It is recommended that Tammy take a transformational role and motivate workers by rewarding short-term wins that would move the organization in the right direction. She should further engage different demographic groups, workers and customers in various activities & decisions to address the problem of perception. She should also reassess the situation on regular basis and make necessary tweaks to achieve long term goal of self-sustainability.

The recommendation is best suited as it engages all the stake holders. It is also more of a process oriented recommendation which would help the organization for long term sustainability. Further it’s the most cost effective approach available for the current scenario.

2.0 Problem Statement:

The Scarborough YMCA has been running into problems since its inception. The facility is struggling with its leadership and the employees are demotivated. There is a severe perception problem. Work culture of Scarborough YMCA is further adding to its struggle. The lack of leadership can be attributed to constant change in management and lack of direction. Media projection of Scarborough as a bad community, deteriorating infrastructure, demographic mismatch and lack of employee training has created major member dissatisfaction. Employees in the facility have lost the drive to work hard to get the facility back on track.

In short run the new manager of the facility should provide its employees and volunteers the right direction and keep them motivated. On a long run, the main focus should be to change its culture so that Scarborough facility would become self-sustainable and run without any problems.

3.0 Causes of the Problem:

The leadership problem identified above is linked to the management style at Scarborough YMCA which has been sluggish and lacks dynamism. Most of the previous managers never behaved as directive leaders. Scarborough YMCA clearly lacked motivation to do well. Ideally, managers should have communicated to employees and volunteers on their expectations and schedules of tasks and should have given specific guidance on how to accomplish them. Year after year Scarborough YMCA never met its financial and membership targets. Most of the previous managers also had this responsibility as their second job which made them to focus less on this facility.

The lack of motivation trickled from the top. Managers didn’t focus on employee’s or volunteer’s needs and expectations as they had different priorities. There was also no effort made to manage intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. People like Tammy who had intrinsic drive to do good for Scarborough and Scarborough YMCA were not recognized. Other employees who were driven by extrinsic motivation were never tapped on. There were no goals set to challenge and motivate them. Furthermore, employees were not held accountable for not delivering or rewarded for doing a good job.

Facility was also struggling with perception problem set by local media. It was perceived to be a teenage hangout place which made families with younger children stay away. It also intimated the employees even though there was no trouble caused. All these factors along with lack of proper infrastructure and employee training led to poor job performance. This was clearly reflected in membership survey.

Non-Profitability of YMCA Scarborough coupled with its geographical location made everybody working for this facility very complacent. It was clear with attitude of management that the facility