YOU ARE: Dewey Cheatem Community Education Department Manager Mira Costa College, 1 Barnard Drive, Oceanside, CA  92056 THEY ARE: Fin Gerpickin Training Manager Taylor Guitars 123 Mission Avenue, Oceanside, CA 92056 THE SITUATION: MiraCosta College offers a two-week ‘Customer Service Academy’ course for local businesses in Oceanside, as part of their Community Education Department. These courses are offered as community service outreach program to the local business community. Prices are set to break even, not to make a profit. In fact, the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce helps subsidize the expense of offering these courses by paying for the training materials that go with the course. In order for the course to break even (cover the cost of the instructor), the course must have full registration before it is offered. These Customer Service Courses are capped at 30 students, and demand has been high for some time since they are only offered once a quarter. In fact, you had to turn away five students for this most recent session. Taylor Guitars – located in Oceanside– had signed up four of their customer service employees to attend your last session. But they never showed up. Today, two days into the two-week program, you received an email from Fin Gerpickin – Training Manager for Taylor Guitars, explaining the situation. A new guitar line was experiencing quality problems, and the customer service department was slammed answering calls. As a result, the four Taylor Guitar employees were unable to attend. Fin Gerpickin of Taylor Guitars is asking for a full refund for the tuition cost for the four employees because of the customer service crisis they are experiencing. Tuition is $500 each attendee; $2,000 total. Because these courses are offered at cost to the local community and also subsidized by the Chamber of Commerce, you cannot honor a refund. There are still eight days of training remaining in the course. Now you must write a bad news letter to Fin, delivering the bad news. You’ll want to maintain goodwill and seek to convince Fin that your response is fair.

Module 2 - Case Decision Making, PowerPoint, and SWOT Analysis Assignment Overview Lisa McDonald is the new VP of HR at Company XYZ. She has been with this company for 4 years and is nervous of this demanding position. While working for Company XYZ as an HR Generalist, she went to school in the evenings and earned a Master’s degree in Human Resource Management at a local university. As a result of her education, she was the right person for the job when the VP of HR left the company without notice. Unfortunately, Company XYZ did not have a succession plan in place and the CEO decided to “throw” Lisa into this prestigious position of VP of HR. Her first big project was to figure out why productivity levels have been decreasing over the last three quarters. She decided to create a survey. She had all of the employees at Company XYZ take the survey. After analyzing the results of the “Employee Climate and Work-life” survey, she learned that many of the employees feel as if they are overworked and burnt-out. After conducting some personal research and reviewing the data from the last survey, she learned that many of the employees have over 200 hours of unused sick-time (i.e., 5 weeks) and over 400 hours (i.e., 10 weeks) of unused vacation time. Her employees did not want to take any time off from work. She wondered if it was because they simply loved their job or if they were so overwhelmed with work, they could not afford to take time off from work. After calling her favorite professor from college, she understands that she has some options. Perhaps it’s time to implement a condensed work week? Perhaps it’s time to give employees the option of working 10 hour shifts, 4 days per week? Perhaps it’s time to offer the senior employees the option of working 13 hour shifts, 3 days per week? Perhaps it is time to let employees telecommute? All of the options have potential and could increase productivity levels and the other issues that emerged from the survey. The only problem is that she needs to discuss the situation with the CEO before she can implement a new policy. Some specific articles on this topic to get you started: Dizaho, E. K., Salleh, R., & Abdullah, A. (2017). Achieving work life balance through flexible work schedules and arrangements. Global Business and Management Research, 9(1), 455-465. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.trident.edu/do... Wadsworth, L. L., & Facer, R. L. (2016). Work-family balance and alternative work schedules. Public Personnel Management, 45(4), 382-404. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.trident.edu:2048/10.1177... Beutell, N. J. (2010). Work schedule, work schedule control and satisfaction in relation to work-family conflict, work-family synergy, and domain satisfaction. Career Development International, 15(5), 501-518. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.trident.edu:2048/10.1108... Golden, L. (2001). Flexible work schedules: Which workers get them? The American Behavioral Scientist, 44(7), 1157-1178. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.trident.edu/do... Case Assignment Once you have finished reading about this topic and reviewing the background materials, please write a 2-page paper (either in essay format or Q & A format) addressing the following questions: How should Lisa McDonald approach the situation? As the new VP of HR, is it worth implementing a new “controversial” policy (i.e., condensed work week) or is time for a routine work flow analysis and job analysis? Justify your response.Do you believe Company XYZ has an effective succession plan? Justify your response. What are the consequences of not having a succession plan?Conduct some research and familiarize yourself with the following terms: (a) job enlargement, (b) job rotation, and (c) job enrichment. Do you think a plausible solution for this situation is job enlargement, job sharing, job rotation, and/or job enrichment? Justify your response.As an HR Manager, what is the best way to gauge how your employees feel about a telecommuting policy (e.g., large meeting, anonymous survey, or one-on-one meetings)? Justify your response.If the CEO opposes telecommuting but is willing to hear some “options for a condensed work week” (i.e., 3 days a week with 13 hours shifts), what are the pros and cons of such a unique schedule?What if the CEO agrees to telecommuting? What would be some feasible rules and regulations so there is no confusion among the employees?Save as >>> BUS101 Mod 2 Case N