Operations Management: Northeast State University

Assignment #4: “Northeast State University”

Wanki David Cho

Dr. Dennis Carlson

Course title: Business 515 – Operations Management

Strayer University, Takoma Park Campus

Date: 05/15/2011

1. Discuss the ways in which Dr. Bay can use the data he collected

Dr. Bay can use the data to redesign jobs for his department in order to improve efficiency and win back the confidence of his staff and that of the administrative assistants who seem to bear the burden of the accusations. This is the Decisions Science Department of Northeast State University which has revealed itself as a good harbinger of poor job design. Those raising the dust belong to the academic staff which thinks that the administrative assistants are not doing enough to satisfy their needs. The administration on the other hand is convinced that the administrative assistants are not doing the job they are assigned to do for the department following their job description. The assistants are therefore the center around which the controversy evolves because while the staff waits for long hours to have a service done, the administration is also exasperated.

The data illustrates that work execution gets mixed up, is confusing and the administration is losing its hold on the direction of events with the collapse of the system in view as some staff members contemplate on updating their resumes. Dr. Bay must update his job design to match present needs otherwise he will have a bitter peal to swallow not long from now. A methods analysis will be helpful in redesigning the jobs. He will need to talk with the staff on their needs, chart the operations, evaluate each step in the existing operations, revise the existing and new operations and then put the revised operations into action while supervising the changes to be sure his workers are satisfied with the changes. School enrollment and staff growth have not been matched by equal growth in administrative staff whereas there have been budget cuts. Managing...