BUSINESS DILEMMA You\'re the Manager... What Would You Do? THE COMPANY: Preston
ID: 393529 • Letter: B
Question
BUSINESS DILEMMA You're the Manager... What Would You Do? THE COMPANY: Preston County Transportation YOUR POSITION: Transportation Director THE PLACE: Portland, Oregon Preston County Transportation was a highly central ized organization with authority concentrated at upper levels. Low-level employees had to go through their superiors and fill out reams of paperwork to accom plish anything. Even simple repairs took days or even weeks, and, as a result, morale was very low. Mainte- nance on the county's buses was substandard, in part due to employee apathy because mechanics were n held accountable for the condition of the buses. Poor aintenance led to low-quality service with high levels of pollution, poor internal seating and conditions, and Preston County Transportatio works to improve ith significant reorganization. employee morale wi The county brought in a retired military general, Jim s the new transportation director to assess because upper-level authorities had to approve all ma ion of how to change the situation. After weeks of study and interviews, Barnes suggested decentralizing the department and delegating responsibility to the lowest of the organization. He recommended creating maintenance teams and giving team members respon- jor work. This system was changed by g ees greater opportunity to make greater access to parts (inventories expanded). New computer sof used to list available parts at each vans were utilized to shuttle parts to the problems and provide a detailed recommendat repair decisio were drama needed locat under their After the reorganization, parts could be shipped sibility for the maintenance of all buses ntrol. Barnes also suggested moving maintenance most locations within one ho ams to several locations throughout the county to provide greater accessibility to major routes and bus Finally, Barnes ordered that all county transporta tion facilities be painted and completely cleaned pride in working for the county bus system QUESTIONS traffic. The key to Barnes's plan is creating a feeling refurnished, and that new uniforms be interest and pride in each team's success. employees. This was intended to enhance employees decided to accept and implement plan. The results were outstanding. Teams The county developed very strong identities and began to compete with each other for safety and duration awards, indi of time between major service problems 1. As new transportation director, evaluate your plans to change this organization The plan made maintenance and lower-level employ ees feel important and necessary for the success of 2. What are the inherent benefits and risks with and performance im 3. What do you see as your long-term priorities in managing this new system? How do you maintain involvement, and performance im proving, Barnes next set out to address the problem of the mounds of paperwork required to accomplish any epartment. Bus repairs had been slowed thing in theExplanation / Answer
1.
As transportation director, the plan has different aspects that can be carefully evaluated. The first aspect is decentralization. It made decision making process to be fast, employee engagement level increased and maintenance work made a speedy delivery. It worked very well and results were very good. The second aspect is developing a team culture with employee engagement in decision making process. It helped to develop healthy competition and buses got quick attention by the team. Employee morale also improved and they started feeling to be the part of organization and its management. It transformed the employees from apathy based employees to dedicated and loyal employees. The third aspect is to develop the feeling of pride. For this, the uniform dress was introduced. It helped everyone in the same dress so that they belong to the same organization and work for the one set of organizational objects. It developed pride. So, the initiatives worked well and the result is already shown by superior and speedy decisions, and quality maintenance service with strong and healthy team culture.
2.
The benefits of decentralization are as follows:
A. It makes faster decision to be taken, helping deliver quick services.
B. It brings delegation of authorities that motivates the employees
C. It brings a higher engagement level among the employees
D. It promotes original idea sharing and employees can offer their own expertize
Though, there are risks also that are as follows:
A. It will increase the cost as decisions are taken at the department or location level.
B. It will create variation in the quality of services as each location can demand different parts.
C. Scope of agency conflict can come into the picture.
D. Monitoring and supervision will be difficult.
3.
Long term priorities are to deliver quality services to the consumers who use the transportation services, while making the employees, happy, motivated and full of pride so that their engagement level is high. It will build loyal consumers and turnover ratio of employees will also come down. So, top line and bottom line will both improve while stakeholders’ interests are well taken care of.
Moral and productivity will be maintained by carefully designing and implementing reward programs that will consider the contributions made by the employees as well as their performance level. It will give monetary rewards, as well as offer recognitions and acknowledgement of the services of the top performing employees at the public functions. It will maintain the high level of moral and productivity as well.
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