This project was sponsored by the Council of the North of England Zoological Society who invited WSL to carry out a review of the organisation of Chester Zoo. A previous review had been undertaken by Price Waterhouse ten years earlier when the current structure was set up. Reporting directly to the Zoo's Director were the Heads of five Divisions (Marketing, Education, Animals, Estates and Finance), a Personnel Manager, Security Manager, Health and Safety Officer, a Fund Raising Manager and a Personal Assistant.

To establish the optimum overall organisation the Work Structuring principles and methodology were used as follows.

1. The organisational structure of the zoo would reflect the work processes required to achieve its main long-term purpose.
2. If the purpose of the enterprise is to be achieved through more than one work process, and if the processes were relatively independent of one another, each process would be supported by a separate organisational structure.
3. Each of these separate structures would contain within itself the three primary functions, i.e. the invent/make/sell functions.

After extensive consultation with the zoo’s stakeholders it was agreed that the zoo should be organised into three core Divisions.

1. breeding rare and endangered animals through excellent animal welfare and science (Animals Division);
2. through education (Education Division);
3. through recreation, i.e. by giving the visitor a high quality and enjoyable "good day out" (Visitor Services Division).

1. Having established the overall shape of the organisation the Work Structuring principles and methods were used to determine the internal organisation of each core and support function. The application of these principles ensures that the structural conditions for high motivation and efficiency exist.

Animals Division

When applied to the core work processes in the zoo, many beneficial changes in organisational and job design emerged. In the Animals Division, for example, the main feature of the changes was to move from an organisational model in which each taxonomic group (mammals, birds, fish, etc) was headed by a curator responsible for both the science and husbandry of the group, to a model in which for most groups operations and science were separated. Also, to determine optimum team size and the number of teams needed to perform their tasks a span of control exercise was carried out. This demonstrated that teams of 5 - 8 persons were optimal, resulting in a structure comprising seven teams based on Primates, elephants, Africa - Savanna, a children's section, a grouping based on hoof stock, a "tropical birds" group and a group looking after "paddock birds". The separation of animal husbandry from "science" (i.e. research and outreach) and the greater control made possible by the formation of small compact teams, resulted in an immediate improvements in animal care, productivity and staff motivation. It also created a greater awareness of where there were still gaps in the resources available to the Animals Division to fulfil its mission.

Education

Education was the second area identified as deserving a separate organisation. However, the total staff establishment for the Division was only four people - hardly a critical mass given the centrality of education to the zoo's objectives. Given the wide breadth and depth of the ambitious targets to be achieved by the Education Division as stated in the zoo’s long term strategy, at least a doubling of members of staff will be needed in the future. However, education is not revenue-generating and so a major issue facing the Division is how to double in size to meet the challenges of the next years bearing in mind the very limited resource base and the paucity of finances available for expansion.

The recommended way of doing this is to re-position the Division so that it can attract additional finance and resources to itself independently of the remainder of the zoo. Such a move is compatible with the Society's aim of becoming an International Centre for Education and Interpretation. For this to happen, however, the Education Division must be seen by the outside world to be a significant entity in its own right, and one worthy of receiving substantial financial support. Essential steps towards achieving this are (1) that the Education Division be renamed to include the word "College" to reflect its enhanced status, and (2) that the Division be given a new legal status (such as becoming an educational charity) so that, apart from some initial seed corn money, it can raise finance independently of the zoo.

Visitor Services Division

The creation of a Visitor Services Division was perhaps the most radical of the organisational changes recommended by WSL. Customer surveys had confirmed that of the 1 million visitors who came to the zoo each year, over 85% were families with children. 55% of visitors said that their reason for coming was "entertaining children", followed by "general interest and leisure". Average dwell times were over 5 hours. When asked how they would describe their visit to the zoo, the overwhelming reason visitors gave was that it gave them, and particularly their children, "a good day out".

A "good day out" is a composite experience in which contact with the animals is obviously a central feature. But looking at, smelling or even touching the animals (where it is safe!) is by no means the total experience. What matters from the visitor's and especially the children's point of view is the quality of their composite experience, which may include anything that caters for their physical needs as well as stimulating their imagination, their curiosity and their sense of adventure

Giving the visitor a "good day out" is clearly a vital objective of a modern zoo since the zoo's very existence depends almost totally on the willingness of the general public to pay money to visit it. Visitor Services is thus an important pillar around which resources and organisation should be grouped. Currently, however, those zoo staff engaged in visitor-related activities are deployed in different organisational units as follows.

Time Office personnel - Finance Division
Some Ground staff - Estates Division
Some gardening Work - Estates Division
Monorail and Boats - Estates Division
Interpretive signs - Education Division
Mobile interactive Displays - Education Division
Catering - Marketing
Party Sales - Marketing
Shops - Marketing
Tea room - Marketing

From the standpoint of giving the visitor a memorable experience - "a good day out" - these are only the components of the experience. What is lacking is an over-arching strategy into which they fit. There is no shared overview within the zoo on how to give the visitor or family that experience which will induce them to stay longer or come again. To rectify this, all the above elements of visitor service should be integrated to form the new Division.

Gardening was another area in which the changes in organisation had a major positive effect. Before the changes it was the responsibility of Estates Division. A TIED Analysis, however, showed that in reality there were two distinct types of gardening: what might be termed "conservation" gardening, i.e. gardening with emphasis on zoo horticulture, plant conservation, animal habitats and science; while there was a second type of gardening with much less scientific value but which formed part of the amenities and visitor experience - "amenities" gardening. The TIED Analysis furthermore showed that "conservation" gardening was closely tied to the Animals Division, while "Amenities "gardening fitted nicely into the Visitor Services Division. A detailed survey of the tasks to be included in each type of gardening was carried out to ensure that the split into the two core Divisions was carried out effectively.

Support Functions

Space does not permit a description of the changes made to the Support Functions such as Finance, Marketing, Estates, IT, Stores, Time Office, Amenities and Personnel. Full details may be found in the report submitted to the Council. All the recommendations in the Report were accepted.

Efficiency and Motivational Benefits

Animals and Plants Division. Main benefits of the proposed organisational changes included:

• More focus on science, research and outreach by removing day-to-day operational duties from General Curator.
• Better animal welfare through appointment of Veterinary Resident.
• Closer control of capital projects through the appointment of a Project Liaison Manager.
• Greater flexibility and less demarcation between keepers through their formation into teams. Also retention of specialist keepers where appropriate.
• More learning by keepers due to introduction of training modules and plan/do/evaluate learning loops.
• Closer integration of animal and plant conservation by moving Curator (botany and horticulture) to Animal Division.
• Overall, a more focused, accountable and controllable organisation under clear leadership.

Education Division. Main benefits of the College concept include:

• A unique opportunity to pioneer an exciting new era for zoo education and through it a major contribution to animal and plant conservation.
• A way of increasing educational revenues and resources without the risk of siphoning away normal zoo income at the expense of other Zoo objectives.
• A widening of options as to the location of the college. (i.e. near, not necessarily within Zoo perimeter).
• The College's close association with the Zoo is a unique selling point compared with other local educational establishments concerned with conservation and zoology.
• A successful College will set an international precedent which will greatly enhance the reputation of Chester Zoo in the world zoological community.

Note: The College concept has not yet been implemented.

Visitor Services. Advantages included:

• Better business control over the zoo's commercial activities, in particular:
• Financial control of shops

• Efficiency gains from integrating catering;
• Proper business planning to exploit the opportunities for the profitable expansion of Functions.
• Closer alignment to optimal visitor usage patterns for the monorail
• A solid managerial framework to give greater strategic direction to the Zoo's objective of giving the visitor "a good day out".
• The recognition that "Amenities" are a key aspect of visitor satisfaction and that it needs management.
• The efficiency gains resulting from the formation of flexible and multi-skilled amenity teams with less demarcation between gardeners and ground staff.
• The "visitor care" gains resulting from "ownership" by the amenity teams of specified areas within the Zoo.
• Greater motivational and learning opportunities for ground staff.
• Clearer accountabilities and enriched jobs for supervisors and managers in the Division.
• Overall, greater "visitor focus" leading to a more enjoyable stay, more repeat visits and an increase in dwell times.

Marketing. Benefits of the organisational changes to Marketing included:

• The transfer of the commercial activities out of Marketing into Visitor Services to free up time for a more effective marketing effort.
• A further upgrading of the marketing resource by the appointment of an additional Marketing Executive and an Office Manager/Marketing Assistant.
• More focused branding and integration of the marketing function through the consolidation of marketing efforts into a single organisation within the Zoo.
• A way of solving the HOD's succession problem.

Finance. Benefits included:

• Resolution of the dichotomy between the roles of the Assistant Financial Controller and the HOD Finance.
• Better financial advice to the Divisions through the appointment of a Management Accountant.
• Reduction of management levels from 5 to 3.
• Fuller advantage of IT opportunities through the development of an IT business plan.

Estates. Benefits of the change proposals included:

• A greater focus on the Division's prime task of managing major projects by transferring responsibility for gardening and ground staff to Animals and Visitor Services Divisions.
• Efficiency advantages through consolidating all maintenance into the two new Maintenance Sections (henceforth also undertaking site services work).
• More time for the HOD to attend to the complex planning and other issues connected with the development of the wider estate.
• Tighter control of major project delivery on time and at cost through the revision of the project planning process.

Top Management Team. Benefits of the new organisation included:

• Easing of Director's workload through reducing the number of his direct reports.
• Clearer understanding of the role of the Director and HOD team leading to better direction from the top.
• An organisational structure that more closely reflects the main mission of the Zoo leading to better all-round performance and service to the community.
• The gradual deepening of a sense of team working among members of the HOD team induced by the structural changes and the practice of the teambuilding dispositions.