Texas State University Operations And Supply Chain Management Assignment Help - characteristics

Question - 1. Explain which core characteristics of employees’ jobs will be changed if the consultant’s
recommendations are accepted.
2. W hich alternative redesign strategies should be considered? For example, job rotation and job
enlargement are possible alternatives. What are the relevant considerations for these and other
designs in the context of this company?
The executive staff of a relatively small life insurance company is considering a proposal to install an
electronic data processing system. The proposal is being presented by the assistant to the president,
John Skully. He has been studying the feasibility of the equipment after a management consultant
recommended a complete overhaul of jobs within the company. The man ...Read More agement consultant had
been engaged by the company to diagnose the causes of high turnover and absenteeism. After
reviewing the situation and speaking with groups of employees, the consultant recommended that the
organization structure be changed from a functional to a client basis. The change in departmental
basis would enable management to redesign jobs to reduce the human costs associated with highly
specialized tasks.
The current organization includes separate departments to issue policies, collect premiums, change
beneficiaries, and process loan applications. Employees in these departments complained that their
jobs were boring, insignificant, and monotonous. They had stated that the only reason they stayed
with the company was because they liked the small-company atmosphere. They felt that management
had a genuine interest in their welfare but that the trivial nature of their jobs contradicted that feeling.
As one employee said, ?oThis company is small enough to know almost everybody.
But the job I do is so boring that I wonder why they even need me to do it.?? This and similar
comments had led the consultant to believe that the jobs must be altered to provide greater
motivation. Recognizing that work redesign opportunities were limited by the organization structure,
he recommended that the company change to a client basis. In such a structure, each employee
would handle every transaction related to a particular policyholder.
When the consultant presented his views to the members of the executive staff, they were very much
interested in his recommendation. In fact, they agreed that his recommendation was well founded.
They noted, however, that a small company must pay particular attention to efficiency in handling
transactions. The functional basis enabled the organization to achieve the degree of specialization
necessary for efficient operations.
The manager of internal operations stated, ?oIf we move away from specialization, the rate of
efficiency must go down because we’ll lose the benefit of specialized effort. The only way we can
justify redesigning the jobs as suggested by the consultant is to maintain our efficiency; otherwise,
there won’t be any jobs to redesign because we’ll be out of business.?? The internal operations
manager explained to the executive staff that despite excessive absenteeism and turnover, he was
able to maintain acceptable productivity.
The narrow range and depth of the jobs reduced training time to a minimum. It was also possible to
hire temporary help to meet peak loads and to fill in for absent employees. ?oMoreover,?? he said,
?ochanging the jobs our people do means that we must change the jobs our managers do. They’re
experts in their own functional areas, but we’ve never attempted to train them to oversee more than
two operations.??
A majority of the executive staff believed that the consultant’s recommendations should be seriously
considered. At that point, the group directed John Skully to evaluate the potential of electronic data
processing (EDP) as a means of obtaining efficient operations in combination with the redesigned
jobs. He has completed the study and is presenting his report to the executive staff.
?oThe bottom line,?? Skully says, ?ois that EDP will enable us to maintain our present efficiency, but
with the redesigned jobs we won’t obtain any greater gains. If my analysis is correct, we’ll have to
absorb the cost of the equipment out of earnings, because there will be no cost savings. So it comes
down to what price we’re willing and able to pay for improving the satisfaction of our employees.?? ...Read Less

Solution Preview - No Solution Preview Available

Original Question Documents

N/A