****PLEASE NOTE: that this course is supported by Desire2Learn and all power-point presentations and .pdf readings will be uploaded on Desire2Learn. In order to access Desire2Learn and view these documents, you will need your OU 4X4 and password to enter the Desire2Learn site. If you do not have this, please access IT Help.

A newly-hired director of a private, non-profit drug and alcohol treatment center with inpatient and day treatment programs is faced with a dilemma. State funding, which the agency traditionally has received, is decreasing. The expectation of the board of directors is that the center will need either to develop new revenue streams or decrease its operations (and lay off personnel).

The director wants (1) to align services with a local hospital that has an emergency room and a psychiatric unit, and (2) to develop provider contracts with the county mental health agency, the state rehabilitation service and a local provider with group homes. The director believes that by creating a network of providers, the drug and alcohol center will increase its number of paying clients and insurance payments.

The workforce does not like or trust "the hospital". They believe the doctors and nurses there are only in the business to make money, and they blame hospital staff for creating the antagonistic relations which have existed for many years between the two healthcare centers. The workforce also feels no motivation to change their old habits or ways of doing business; they are especially resentful of the idea that they need to generate new income streams. In addition, the alcohol and drug abuse counselors feel devalued as professionals by the mental health counselors at the county agency. They feel okay about developing further business relations with the state rehabilitation service and think that any new revenue from this agency will solve the money problems of the treatment center. They have neutral feelings about new business relations with the group homes.

The clinical supervisor of the alcohol and drug abuse center has been in charge of programs for the past ten years. This supervisor is reluctant to implement new work objectives from the new director. To the director, it appears as if the supervisor is bogging the staff down with time-consuming "case reviews" rather than using staff time to generate new ideas or put plans for change into action. Moreover, the clinical supervisor has recently been diagnosed with cancer and shows signs of depression.

The director needs to influence change. How? What human relations strategies might help?