Financial concerns, early retirements, and a need for specialization have forced Ohio and other states to look at new staffing patterns.Traditionally, each county has had three agents, one each in agriculture, home economics, and 4-H, with one of the agents taking the community resource development function.This pattern changed on November 1, 1987, when the first agent was appointed to a multicounty position.Since then, until February 1989, when this study was conducted, 22 other agents have taken on this tradition-breaking responsibility.New ways of doing things can cause frustrations and other concerns.A multicounty agent, along with the staff development office, conducted a study of these 23 agents asking how they were adjusting to their new positions.Their responses, along with a look at what others have found out about staffing patterns for local Extension program units, is the focus of this article.
Bartholomew et al. (Sat,) studied this question.