...CRANEFIELD COLLEGE OF PROJECT AND PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT MODULE 2 CASE: “The NoGo Railroad” DECLARATION “I hereby declare that this assignment is entirely my own work, and that it has not previously been submitted to any other Higher Education Institution. I also declare that all published and unpublished sources have been fully acknowledged and properly referenced. This includes figures, tables and exhibits. Where modified by me, this has also been indicated.” CONTENTS 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2. FINDINGS 3.1. About Dave Keller 3.2. The Temporary Position Issue 3.3. The Company Mission/Vision or Core Value 3.4. Outcomes, KPI’s and Goals 3.5. The Project Budget and Time Constraint 3.6. The Authority, Accountability and Responsibility Issue 3.7. Bound by Contract 3.8. Old Practises 3.9. Upskilling 3.10. The Human Resource Dilemma 3.11. The Morale Issue 3.12. Featherbedding and Nepotism 3.13. Top Management Support 3.14. The Transformation 3. RECOMMENDATIONS 4.15. About Dave Keller 4.16. The Temporary Position Issue 4.17. The Company Mission/Vision or Core Value 4.18. Outcomes, KPI’s and Goals 4.19. The Project Budget and Time Constraint 4.20. The Authority, Accountability and Responsibility Issue 4.21. Bound by Contract 4.22. Old Practises 4.23. Upskilling 4.24...
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...CASE NO. 1 NOGO RAILROAD NOGO RAILROAD CASE ANALYSIS FORM I. PROBLEM Dave Keller, the new Communications Manager, has seek for external perspective on how to address the challenges in Nogo Railroad. After hearing the facts from Dave, we have identified the problem is “How will Nogo Railroad effectively address its employees’ concerns that will bring about a reduction in labor expense?” There are Macro and Micro Level problems to be considered. When these are effectively addressed, Nogo Railroad may be able to resolve problem mentioned earlier. A. MACRO 1. Innovation and Modernization. The company lacks the desire to innovate and modernize operations which tolerated inefficient and ineffective processes or practices. It is not a surprise to see Nepotism and Featherbedding. 2. Union Contracts. Poor negotiation of union contracts has left the company with liabilities. Changing the job description to make it relevant to times, is a restricted/limited by these outdated contracts. 3. Culture towards change. Resistance to change is not only prevalent in its employees. This also transcends in management (see problem#1). The leaders should embrace change and support its employees affected by the change. B. MICRO 1. Personal Doubts. The apprehension felt by Dave Keller needs to be address. His concerns towards his promotion and purpose should be resolved by Allan Yates. The new Communications Manager will only be effective if his...
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...Overview This case explains the problems NOGO RAILROAD faced when they tried to implement organizational change to increase their efficiency and stay afloat in their economy. Problems Macro: 1. One of the major issues NOGO faced was that workers did not accept the changes the organization was trying to implement on them. For example, assigning additional duties to workers so that they may not sit idle most of the time. 2. Another issue they faced was the financial cost of paying so many workers, even though most of them didn’t work at all. In other word there was an overabundance of clerks without enough work to keep them all busy. Micro: 1. The clerks were mostly women and their contract stated that they could not be sent for more than 30 miles away from home for assignments. In rural districts, this led to having a large of clerks who could not cover for vacations and emergencies. 2. The telegraph operators could be sent anywhere, but could only replace telegraph operators. Clerks could only replace other clerks. It was not uncommon during major derailments for telegraph operators to be hundreds of miles from their home, on overtime, living on expenses paid by the railroad, yet working next to clerks having nothing to do. Causes 1. The morale problem had been created by a recruitment process which traditionally favored the hiring of relatives, nepotism. Resistance to change this was high, especially when the cooperation could result in loss of employment for one or...
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...THE EFFECT OF SELF-LEADERSHIP AND LOCUS OF CONTROL ON WORK STRESS AMONGST MANAGERS IN THE FINANCIAL SERVICES SECTOR By Agnes Akwa Nde Student number: 2009103587 A Dissertation submitted in Accordance with the Requirements for the Award of a MAGISTER COMMERCII Degree In Industrial Psychology Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences The University of the Free State Supervisor: Prof. Ebben Van Zyl Co-Supervisors: Dr Petrus Nel & Dr Estelle Boshoff Bloemfontein, 2015 DECLARATION I declare that this dissertation hereby submitted by me for a Masters of Commerce degree at the University of the Free State is my own independent work and has not been previously been submitted by me at another university/faculty. I furthermore cede copyright of the dissertation in favour of The University of the Free State. .............................................................................. Signature .............................................................................. Date [ii] ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A project of this nature could not have been complete without the support of some people. At this juncture, I will like to recognize the assistance of such people who made indispensable contributions towards the realisation of this work. I received much technical support from my supervisor Prof Ebben Van Zyl and cosupervisors Dr Petrus Nel and Dr Estelle Boshoff. I appreciate all the efforts they made in seeing that this study...
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...Case Analysis: The NoGo Railroad Teresa Arana Table of Contents Problems………………………………………………………………………………………..4 Macro……………………………………………………………………………………4 Micro ……………………………………………………………………………………4 Causes….. ………………………………………………………………………………………5 Systems Affected .………………………………………………………………………………5 Goals and Values Subsystem……………………………………………………………5 Technical Subsystem……………………………………………………………………6 Structural Subsystem…………………………………………………………………….6 Psychosocial Subsystem…………………………………………………………………6 Managerial Subsystem…………………………………………………………………...6 Alternatives………………………………………………………………………………………7 Recommendation…………………………………………………………………………………7 References …………………………………………………………………………………….....9 Dave Keller has requested outside consultation to aid him with his new position as communication manager of the division. Mr. Keller has limited managerial experience, but has researched his main challenges in his new position at NoGo Railroad. NoGo Railroad “serves remote and mountainous areas and hauls primarily timber, coal, potash, and phospohorous” (Brown, 2011, p. 56). Its issues are not new, and Mr. Keller has been placed in the new position so that he can address all the challenges. Problems Macro The case of the NoGo Railroad has issues that are affecting different levels of employment in the organization, from employees to management. NoGo railroad has two main issues that must be addressed in order to reduce expenses and improve the attitude of employees: create a better...
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...CASE STUDY: NOGO RAILROAD Dave Keller has requested outside consultation to aid him with his new position as communication manager of the division. Mr. Keller has limited managerial experience, but has researched his main challenges in his new position at NoGo Railroad. NoGo Railroad “serves remote and mountainous areas and hauls primarily timber, coal, potash, and phosphorous” (Brown, 2011, p. 56). Its issues are not new, and Mr. Keller has been placed in the new position so that he can address all the challenges. Problems-Macro; the case of the NoGo Railroad has issues that are affecting different levels of employment in the organization, from employees to management. NoGo railroad has two main issues that must be addressed in order to reduce expenses and improve the attitude of employees: create a better organizational structure, and gain the ability to adapt to change. Managers need a human resource (HR) department to support them with employee relations, policies and procedures, skill training, and other HR areas. Micro; job descriptions and job expectations are not clear, beginning with the management positions. The communication manager position duties include “managing the personnel who performed radio, teletype, telephone, and computer operations” (Brown, 2011, p. 56). Causes- The company has been complacent in advancing their technology in the railroad system. The fact that they are monopolizing the operation in their area gives them enough advantage that limits...
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...1.) Dave Keller is faced with two problem areas at NOGO Railroad Company that has affected the company as a whole. The reduction of current employee expenses necessary to run the day to day operation, and the improving attitude of the employees to except the necessary changes to increase productivity and the continued growth of NOGO Railroad Company. With the current operation system at NOGO Railroad Company, the threat of layoffs could be in the near future. 2.) Dave Keller doesn’t seem to be receiving any backing from management to help him solve the current problems in his department at NOGO Railroad Company. David doesn’t have the authority to make such changes. He is missing the motivational force of his manager and the company owner to implement these changes. The current issue he is faced with has been ongoing and has not been handled by the previous manager. Currently at NOGO Railroad Company low morale has also been an issue. Most employees don’t feel that have to do extra work, so other employees are overworked. 3.) What needs to change is reduce crushing employee expenses, and improve the attitude of employees to accept necessary changes. 4.) I would start with training and development programs: adequate training must be provided to all the employees to ensure that there is smooth functioning of operations. Human resource planning and forecasting: HR planning will ensure that right number of people are available in the organization at the right time Proper...
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