To analyze a semi-structured management problem using analytical and creative approaches. You will then summarize the experience in terms of process and results.

 

You will take the perspective of managers within the organization (in this case, Amazon) to analyze the following current challenge:

 

Current Challenge

 

Students are Customer Service Team Managers within the Amazon Virtual Contact Center.

 

Note: A job description for the Customer Service Team Manager position is provided on moodle.

 

Each team consists of up to four Team Leads as well as up to 40 virtual workers located across the United States. Customer Service Team Managers report to a Customer Service Director located in Amazon’s corporate headquarters.

 

Within the last six months, your teams have experienced high rates of employee turnover. Nearly 25% of your team members have resigned, citing high stress and poor working conditions, including pressure to achieve perfect ratings for service excellence and constant monitoring by management. At any point in time, you have an average of four to five vacant positions on your team as team members depart as quickly as new team members can be hired.

 

The Customer Service Director recently sent out a critical memo, noting a list of teams (including yours) with below average service scores. The memo notes that each team’s performance over the next 90 days will determine whether it is “restructured”. Last quarter, the Director took action to replace several of the lowest rated service teams with teams at offshore locations. The company currently uses offshore teams in a variety of locations as part of its Virtual Contact Center.

 

To provide assistance in addressing your teams’ issues, the Director assigns small groups of team managers to work together to understand and resolve the current challenges within the next 90 days. Your teams are given a one-time budget of $10,000 for discretionary spending. In order to provide adequate staffing levels, the Director offers each team manager the option of adding one team lead and five temporary team members from one of the offshore locations in India, South Africa or the Philippines.

 

Process

 

Step 1) Review the information provided

 

Read the information and articles provided (five articles on the file), then discussing challenges related to work-life balance and stress at Amazon.

 

Step 2) Apply problem solving approaches

 

You will apply the first three steps of the analytical problem-solving approach below:

 

1. Define the problem.

 

This involves diagnosing a situation so that the focus is on the real problem, not just its symptoms. For example, suppose you must deal with an employee who consistently fails to get work done on time. Slow work might be the problem, or it might be only a symptom of another underlying problem such as bad health, low morale, lack of training, or inadequate rewards. Defining the problem, therefore, requires a wide search for information.

 

2. Generate alternative solutions.

 

This requires postponing the selection of any one solution until several alternatives have been proposed. Much research on problem solving (e.g., March, 1999) supports the prescription that the quality of solutions can be significantly enhanced by considering multiple alternatives.

 

3. Evaluate and select an alternative.

 

This step involves careful weighing of the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed alternatives before making a final selection.

 

You may also incorporate creative problem solving techniques.

 

• Examples of creative techniques that can be helpful are Improving Problem Definition: Make the strange familiar and the familiar strange (for example, analogies and metaphors); Elaborate on the definition (for example, question checklists and SCAMPER); Reverse the definition (for example, Janusian thinking and opposition).
• Examples of creative techniques that can be helpful are Generating More Alternatives: Defer judgment (for example, brainstorming); Expand current alternatives (for example, subdivision); Combine unrelated attributes (for example, morphological synthesis and relational algorithm).

 

You should keep detailed notes that can be used to later summarize the process and results.

 

Step 3) Write a brief (2-page) report summarizing the process and results of your analysis

 

You will summarize the experience of analytical and creative problem solving in a shared report that includes the following sections:

 

Introduction – 1 paragraph

 

Briefly state the purpose of the project and describe your approach to the project.

 

Problem Definition – 1 paragraph

 

Describe the problem that you have defined as the focus for your analysis. Briefly explain why you believe this is the most important problem to address.

 

Solution Generation – 1 paragraph

 

Identify at least three alterative solutions that you identified to address the problem. Briefly explain how you identified these alternatives.

 

Recommendation – 1 paragraph

 

Indicate which of the three alternatives previously identified is the best approach to address the problem. Briefly explain how your evaluation determined this to be the best approach.

 

Conclusion – 1 paragraph

 

Briefly summarize your learning from this activity.

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