Robert S. Fleming

That’s Not My Job!

Steve was recently hired as a firefighter in a large suburban community. This is a position that he has aspired to for many years. While he shares a common interest with most members of the fire service in his desire to serve and protect his community, he was drawn to this career decision by the action nature of the job in terms of responding to various fire, rescue, and other emergency incidents.

Gender effects on customer satisfaction with employment services

This study examined gender differences of the customer expectations and satisfaction of job seekers with employment and training services by a state government in the USA. A customer satisfaction survey was administered yielding 1,393 responses from individuals who applied for employment and training services from the New Jersey Employment Service. It was found that women generally have higher expectations regarding the importance of service delivery issues than their male counterparts. However, no differences were found between men and women reporting their actual satisfaction of the service received. This research created a baseline and further research is necessary to delve into reasons for the differences.

Setting Realistic Goals

Several years ago, a major oil company initiated an aggressive strategic planning process that was announced at a corporate meeting. Corporate, division, and territory managers all attended the meeting. The concept of strategic planning was new to most of the management personnel, particularly those with responsibilities at the territory level. The sales organization was structured as a geographic organization with the retail units organized into territories that reported to a divisional management structure. The manager of each territory was typically responsible for fourteen-sixteen retail locations.

Corporate Expectations of the IT Department in an Age of Terrorism: Ensuring “Battle Readiness”

ABSTRACT Contemporary businesses face many new and unprecedented challenges including the threat of terrorism. The impact of a terrorist attack can undermine an organizations success and survival. A significant area of organizational vulnerability to acts of terrorism involves the information systems infrastructure of the organization. This article discusses the mission-critical expectations that corporate executives have for their information technology departments with respect to securing and protecting these essential resources.

Engaged Leadership in Volunteer Organizations

One of the greatest challenges facing contemporary organizations that rely on volunteer staffing is the successful recruitment and retention of capable, committed volunteers. While volunteer recruitment and retention have traditionally been a challenge for many of these organizations, numerous societal dynamics have impacted the availability of individuals who possess both the time and desire to volunteer their time and talents.

Being the Boss isn’t Easy

Sally had worked in a clerical capacity in a busy medical practice for the past six years. The office staff was composed of an office manager, Lisa, who had been with the practice since it was established fifteen years ago. Upon Lisa’s retirement, Sally was promoted to fill this position eight months ago.

An Assignment Doomed to Fail

Jeff is a newly appointed safety officer at a small manufacturing company. The company has experienced a significant increase in workplace injuries over the past several years that are driving up its loss experience and its corresponding workers’ compensation insurance premiums. Jeff has worked for the organization for twelve years and has served as a lead manufacturing team member for the past five years. His new responsibilities for workplace safety represent an additional assignment to his manufacturing duties in the plant.

A Failure to Involve Staff

Heidi is the advising coordinator at a regional university with 6,800 students. The advising model utilized in her university is set up as follows: Her staff of professional advisors advise students for the first two years of their curriculum and then transfer the students to appropriate faculty members for continued academic and career advisement during the second two years of their program. This arrangement has worked well since it was instituted a number of years ago.

The Last-Minute Performance Evaluation

Gwen is a manager in the corporate office of a large, well-known nonprofit organization. She has held the management position for less than a year and has been working hard to excel in her position. She, along with all other management personnel in the organization, is scheduled to receive her annual performance evaluations in June of each year, with the ratings of the evaluation being a significant factor in the awarding of annual salary increases effective July 1 of each year.

Why Didn’t This Program Work?

Debbie, a staff member at a community social service organization, attended a professional conference where through attending the classroom sessions and networking with other professionals she realized that her organization could enhance its effectiveness and responsiveness to the community that it serves by becoming more proactive in terms of certain new prevention programs, rather than simply operating in a reactive manner, offering traditional services once a situation has occurred. She was so excited about this concept that she called her supervisor to discuss the idea while still at the conference.