Utility managers have identified a variety of organizational approaches as part of overall effective utility management and critical to the success of management improvement efforts. These include:
- Establishing a “participatory organizational culture” that actively seeks to engage employees in improvement efforts (e.g., establishing management improvement, employee empowerment, and cross-functional teams);
- Deploying an explicit change management process that anticipates and plans for change and encourages staff and managers to embrace rather than resist change; and
- Utilizing implementation strategies that seek early, step-wise victories that help utilities get started and remain motivated.
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Managing the Water and Wastewater Utility
This book is founded on the understanding that the scaffold on which successful water and wastewater utilities thrive has three legs: (1) Leadership, especially interpersonal relationships and communication skills; (2) Management, especially planning and control skills; and (3) Continuous growth and renewal of core knowledge and skills, especially customer-centered business skills and infrastructure asset management. The authors, speaking from on-the-job experience, stress the importance of leadership and management skills, and the core understanding of the utility business. This book is designed to help transform the specialist into a leader, and is the ideal textbook for the student or young professional studying to become a utility manager. Gain a foundation of knowledge and an array of experience-based opinions in preparation of successful management career. Highlights include: leadership, budgeting and fiscal control, managing O&M, design and capital improvements and the role of information technology. (288 pages, 2004) $$ Order Now