Management Training Dilemma

I. Introduction of the Case:

This case was entitled “Management Training Dilemma” and is being presented by Gregoria Guerrero-Cárdenas. It is about whether using a special “packaged” training program for Hospital Supervisors is worth the investment versus the training by a paid professional consultant. The Hospital Administrators will allow a small amount of money to be spent on renting the “packaged” program to be implemented as a trial program. The personnel director, Shane Alexander, would then have to demonstrate that the eventual purchase of the whole package would be worthwhile.

II. External Forces Impacting the Case:

There are three factors outside the control of the organization that are impacting the firm. The first factor would be the external communications because the way the hospital interacts with the patients and their visitors affects the business of whether they return when they need a hospital. Secondly, is the locus of control of the employees. Those that have an external locus of control need a great deal of direction and expect managers to give clear and detailed feedback at all times. And, third would be the economy. This is certainly a force that the hospital cannot control. But they do have to acknowledge the changes in the economy and they have to make decisions as to what they will do because of the changes in the economy.

III. Internal Forces Impacting the Case:

There are three factors inside the control of the organization that are impacting the firm. The first factor is having a positive environment. This is a critical force that influences employee behavior with the actions of colleagues. Secondly, is the locus of control of the employees. Those that have an internal locus of control feel empowered to make decisions and act on their own.—they feel in control of their destiny rather than at the mercy of external factors. And, third would be lack of capital. Even hospitals need to make money to ensure the business continues. And this would be one way of cutting costs.

IV. Statement of the Problem:

The problem is that the personnel director, Shane Alexander, needs to convince the Administration that money can be saved by providing the company Supervisors with training from “packaged” material rather than spending more money on a professional consultant to come in and do the training. The Personnel director feels that the training success from the “packaged” material where they will have in-house “specialists” to train the remaining Supervisors will be just as good at training the Supervisors as if they had a Professional come in to train them.

V. Alternative Solutions

There are three viable solutions which would alleviate the problem that this company has experienced. First, the Administration can take the advice of the personnel director, Shane Alexander, and order the special “packaged” training program as advertised for sale. Or, their second option would be that they could rent the program with 30 workbooks and use it on a trial basis to see if the results confirm what Shane Alexander believes to be true. Or, third, the Hospital can hire an expensive “professional” consultant to come to the hospital to train the Supervisors.

VI. Solution Chosen:

I choose solution number two because this way not much money is put out at one single time and one can then determine whether it is the best option. The drawback would be that the training would take longer and in the meantime, there will probably be staff changes where some that were trained leave and then there will be new hires that will need to be trained as well as the existing Supervisors.

VII. Anticipated Outcome:

I believe that the Hospital Administrators will be pleased with the results from the training conducted through the “packaged” program. They will see that it has more benefits than just saving money. Additionally they will have immediate access to the four trained trainers on staff to contact should the need arise. When there is an outside trainer, often times, what happens is that there are questions that come up and it is difficult to get the answer from the trainer because of distance or time schedules.

Case 1B/pW-101/Management Training Dilemma

1. If I were Shane, I would use the Conclusive Research Design as the research design to test this program. I would choose this design because its objective is to test specific hypothesis and examine relationships. A couple characteristics of this type are that the information needed is clearly defined and the research process is formal and structured. The Findings are conclusive and they are used as input into decision making.

2. The design would be implemented by selecting four Supervisors to be the Session Coordinators who would deliver the training to a select group of Supervisors in this hospital setting. These four would then train 30 Supervisors in the first month. Two would train fifteen people on Monday and Wednesday for 2.5 hours each day. And the other two would train another group of fifteen people on Tuesday and Thursday also for 2.5 hours each day for a total of eight sessions completed in one month.

During the second month, the “selected” special “packaged” trained Supervisors would be given the time to implement what they learned in the prior month. At the third month there would be a comparison between the results of the “packaged” trained Supervisors and the prior “consultant” trained Supervisors.

All Supervisors would take a Pre-Test and Post-Test questionnaire. The questionnaire would have questions regarding their communication skills, leadership effectiveness and motivation. The Supervisors would do a self-assessment of their strengths and weaknesses at the beginning and at the end of the trial period. And the employees directly below their appraising Supervisors would also take the pre-test questionnaire and post-test questionnaire based on their perceptions of their evaluating Supervisors. All of these would be recorded and compared to show which type of training would be best for the Hospital’s Supervisory Training program.

3. My research hypothesis would be “It is hypothesized that the special “packaged” training program is as good as or better than the external consultant training.” The variables that I would use to provide data that would test it would be the actual training material. The data gathered would be from the questionnaires conducted both before and after the training comparing it to the ones that were trained versus the ones that had been previously trained via a “consultant trainer”.

4. I do think that the Administrator’s request to provide proof before purchase was reasonable because there are so many programs that will attest to how it improved supervisory training but they really do not have tested results. They claim to be effective when in essence it is not perhaps for this particular industry.