Question

Before any digging takes place on someone’s property, it is important that all underground electrical wires, cable wires, water/sewer pipes, and gas mains have been marked. Marking prevents the digger from accidentally encountering these underground hazards. A state has set up a hotline for people to call before they dig. The manager overseeing the hotline knows that if callers are kept on hold for very long, they may hang up and begin excavation without getting their property marked. Therefore, keeping wait times down is important. To achieve this objective by the beginning of the busy summer construction and gardening season, the manager has decided to use management by objectives (MBO).

Answer Management by Objectives Step Activity Setting a goal
A. A pool of twelve contingent call center workers who work at home will be hired and trained before April 15 These employees can be activated anytime hold times threaten to exceed 90 seconds.
B. Based on data on how long people wait before hanging up, the manager decides the maximum time on hold should be 90 seconds
C. On April 1, the manager sees that nine contingent call center workers have been hired and completed training. On June 30, call center data show 5 percent of calls are on hold for more than 90 seconds
D. On September 30, the manager reports that call center hold times for the summer construction season averaged 42 seconds, with 30 percent of all calls not being put on hold at all but 2 percent of calls exceeding 90 seconds of hold time. The plan is rated mostly successful.
A. Developing an action plan
B. Reviewing progress
C. Appraising performance
D. Grade It Now Save & Continue Continue without saving

Answer 1

The manager uses Management by Objectives (MBO) to minimize customer hold times on a state hotline. Through setting a goal, creating an action plan, reviewing progress, and appraising performance, the manager seeks to keep hold times under 90 seconds and successfully reduce average wait times during the busy season.

Step-by-step explanation:

The concept of Management by Objectives (MBO) involves setting specific goals, developing action plans to achieve those goals, reviewing progress, and appraising performance after implementation. In the scenario provided, the manager implements MBO to address the problem of long wait times for a state hotline. The goals are set to minimize customer hold times, action plans are created by hiring and training contingent workers, progress is monitored by reviewing call center data, and performance is appraised by analyzing seasonal average hold times and the percentage of calls exceeding the set limit.

Management by Objectives Step Activity Setting a Goal

To minimize hold times to under 90 seconds, the manager sets a clear goal based on data regarding customer hang-ups (Step B). Developing an action plan includes hiring contingent workers to achieve this goal before the peak season (Step A). Reviewing progress means checking on April 1 and June 30 to ensure the training of workers and the effectiveness of the plan (Step C). Finally, appraising performance is done by assessing the overall success of the plan after the summer construction season, based on the average hold times and percentages of calls put on hold (Step D).