CPRE Strategic Leadership and Governance 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A parks director discovers a board member has a financial interest in a vendor being considered for a major contract. The director should first:
- Proceed with the contract if the board member recuses themselves from the vote
- Report the matter to legal counsel and ensure full disclosure protocols are followed (Correct answer)
- Cancel the procurement process entirely
- Ask the board member to resign
Correct answer: Report the matter to legal counsel and ensure full disclosure protocols are followed
Conflict of interest situations require immediate consultation with legal counsel and adherence to established disclosure and recusal protocols.
Question 2: Which leadership style is most appropriate when a parks department must implement rapid changes in response to a budget crisis?
- Laissez-faire leadership
- Transformational leadership with directive elements (Correct answer)
- Democratic leadership requiring full consensus
- Servant leadership focused solely on employee needs
Correct answer: Transformational leadership with directive elements
Crisis situations requiring rapid change benefit from transformational leadership that inspires commitment while providing clear direction.
Question 3: In strategic planning, a 'logic model' is primarily used to:
- Document board meeting minutes systematically
- Link program inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes to demonstrate impact (Correct answer)
- Calculate cost-per-participant metrics
- Assign staff responsibilities for each project task
Correct answer: Link program inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes to demonstrate impact
A logic model visually maps how program resources and activities connect to intended short- and long-term outcomes.
Question 4: When evaluating a parks agency's organizational effectiveness, which metric best measures strategic goal achievement?
- Number of full-time equivalent staff
- Percentage of strategic plan objectives completed on schedule (Correct answer)
- Total acreage of parkland maintained
- Annual program registration numbers
Correct answer: Percentage of strategic plan objectives completed on schedule
Tracking strategic plan objective completion rates directly measures whether the organization is achieving its declared priorities.
Question 5: A parks director wants to build a culture of innovation within the department. Which approach is most effective for sustaining this cultural change?
- Mandating innovation goals in annual performance reviews only
- Modeling risk tolerance, rewarding experimentation, and embedding innovation into strategic priorities (Correct answer)
- Hiring exclusively from outside the organization
- Creating a separate innovation team with no cross-department authority
Correct answer: Modeling risk tolerance, rewarding experimentation, and embedding innovation into strategic priorities
Sustainable cultural change requires visible leadership modeling, structural incentives, and integration of innovation into organizational strategy.
Question 6: Which type of intergovernmental agreement allows two or more park agencies to jointly plan, develop, and operate facilities across jurisdictional boundaries?
- Memorandum of understanding (MOU)
- Joint powers agreement (JPA) (Correct answer)
- Cooperative purchasing agreement
- Master service agreement
Correct answer: Joint powers agreement (JPA)
A joint powers agreement (JPA) enables multiple governmental entities to exercise shared powers for collaborative planning and operation of facilities.
Question 7: An executive director wants to evaluate whether the department's strategic plan is still relevant mid-cycle. Which process is most appropriate?
- Discard the current plan and draft a new one
- Conduct an environmental scan and facilitate a mid-cycle strategy review with key stakeholders (Correct answer)
- Continue unchanged to maintain consistency
- Survey only internal staff about plan effectiveness
Correct answer: Conduct an environmental scan and facilitate a mid-cycle strategy review with key stakeholders
A mid-cycle environmental scan and stakeholder review allows the agency to adapt its strategy to changing conditions while maintaining directional continuity.
CPRE Strategic Leadership and Governance 5
A parks director discovers a board member has a financial interest in a vendor being considered for a major contract.
The director should first: