MGMT 331
Chapter Enrichment Teams at American Red Cross
October 7, 2015

Executive Summary

Primary Analysis
Ann Munroe, the Program Enrichment Officer was in charge of each of the team sections. After reading the individual reports, she felt uneasy about the redundant and generic reports that were generated. After speaking with the team section leaders, they all commented on the staff sizing issue. They all agreed this was an issue, but no one took the initiative to report on the issue. Most felt like it was not their place because it did not pertain to their area of analysis. So the issue was never brought up at the meeting. After reviewing the case, the fundamental management problem is too much structure within the organization.
The team made decisions based on something similar to Herbert Simon’s Normative Model. The made their decisions based on bounded rationality. This is the notions that decision makers are restricted by different constraints when making a decision. The teams believes that they should not bring up the issue of overstaffing because they are bounded in their study. They think that they are only allowed to report on health and safety services. Therefore it is not in their expertise to talk about an issue in another department. While this is a credible decision making model, it causes severe limitations. It made it difficult for the manager to research further for a possible solution for the Chapter. This caused the team to report on a generic problem that does not solve the fundamental problem. This caused the team to satisfice and turn in a generic report. Ann followed the team’s attitude instead of making a decision to report on the staffing solution.
Solution 1:
Making decisions are not easy tasks. Sometimes mangers need to include the entire group in to help come to a conclusion. Following and reusing a model can