Read each of the five scenarios below. · Then, decide what the best data gatheri

Question

Read each of the five scenarios below. · Then, decide what the best data gathering approach would be for each scenario based on the principles identified in Chapter 7: interviews, focus groups, surveys, observations, or unobtrusive measures.

o If you select interviews, focus groups, or surveys, identify who would participate and how, and write the questions you would ask.

o If you select observations, describe who you would observe, for what length of time, and in what setting.

o If you select unobtrusive measures, describe what data you wish to collect and how you would do so

. Scenario 1: The client, a sales manager, reports that her team “does not work well with the team from customer service.” She tells us that she is always mediating disputes between what the sales team has promised to a customer and what the services team has agreed to deliver. She complains that the services team refuses to bend the rules to serve a customer. For his part, the manager of customer service reports that his team is always complaining that the sales department is promising services that the customer has not paid for.

Scenario 2: The client is the manager of a local retail chain that sells running shoes and apparel. There are seven stores in the region, and each store has about 25 employees. The client is concerned that sales are consistently declining due in part to new competitors offering better prices. He feels that if employees were more engaged, they might be nicer to customers, better at promoting sales, and distinguish his store from the competitors by offering a superior customer experience.

Scenario 3: Recently a number of employees have begun to file complaints against the managers in the production department. Production has dropped 10 percent in the last several weeks and costly errors have increased by 15 percent. All of these employees are hourly employees who do not receive benefits. No salaried employees have filed complaints. The complaints occur consistently in the third month of each quarter.

Scenario 4: A government agency that conducts inspections for health and safety is currently experiencing a significant increase in work due to the number of facilities that need regularly inspections. There are 1,500 employees in six geographic divisions. Despite a number of process improvement teams, the work still takes too long to complete, according to the client. The client would like to know how to increase productivity without hiring additional staff.

Scenario 5: Each month, the four regional sales managers in the United States must deliver a report showing their forecasted sales for the coming month to their local finance team. The finance team leaders state that they are consistently receiving these reports late. The reports are also often in the wrong format or contain errors. Last quarter the chief financial officer had to admit to external financial analysts that he had given inaccurate information about the company’s financial situation due to mistakes in this process. In an essay, using 6th Edition APA format, respond to the requirements

BOOK: Anderson, D. (2014). Organization Development: The process of leading organizational change. 3rd Ed. Sage

ISBN 978-1-4522-9157-4

Explanation / Answer

Scenario 1 :

Focus groups & interviews are the best solution to this situation. There is no point in trying to collect information silently. The most effective approach to reach the root cause of the situation is cofrontation. So the Focus groups of Service department employees, Sales personnel, & interviews of managers of both the functions is the best combination to find out about the solution. Following questions can be asked to focus groups & managers being interviewed:

Scenario 2 :

Observations can be used in this case. Firstly we need to compare the sales of all 7 stores to find out which stores are contributing how much of decrease in sales. If all the store are doing badly then the drop in sales can be attributed to multiple factors like products, price, place & promotions. It need not be only price as mentioned in the scenario. So observations will be required on all 4 fronts & the resultant data analysed to reach root cause of dropping sales.

Scenario 3 :

Either observations or Unobtrusive Measures can be the way forward in this situation. Considering the sensitivity if we go by Unobtrusive route, a team of investigators can be formed from the existing workers on payroll (not contract workers) during the last month of a quarter. Or also the responsibility can be handed to production team leaders who are white collar staff with better maturity to handle the investigation. The team can then look for factors that are causing the dissatisfaction amongst the contract labor. This team can look for possible factors like, work load to the contract workers duting quarter ending period, their working hours, treatment they get from permanent workers, timeliness & fairness of payments made to contract workers, share in any increasing sales / profit brought in due to extra working put in by these contrat workers, how the labour contractor / agency is treating these workers.

Scenario 4 :

Focus groups & sureveys are the way to go in this case. Without a dialogue with the team out there in the field, there is no way the process improvement team alone can make the difference. Multiple surveys will be required to find out the root cause for long time taken by employees to complete the assignments. Also the same time a focus group of some of the employees & representatives from 1-2 big regular customers can be formed to find out about what went wrong & right when they were provided the service by the govt agency. Survey sent to the employees can contain questions related to working hours needed & actually put in, working conditions, adhrence to improved processes, remunerations & work culture related questions. Great deal of feedback from the surveys should be gathered about the vision implementation & environment created by the management of the comapany.

Scenario 5 :

Unobtrusive measures are needed as the matter has reached a seruious state where it can harm the company financially & in regulatory matters. Clearly need to identify which regional sales managers are failing more regularly & prepare a plan to bring them up to speed in submitting reports in correct format. Impart trainings to them if required, appoint mentors to them from seniors team or from the sales managers that are doing it correct. Then again observe for a time frame & based on the results decide the action (more severe if there is no improvement, & spreading the practice if there are benefits from this action)

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