alex mcintosh managerial accountint mod4proj4

8/20/2019 Alex Mcintosh Managerial Accountint Mod4proj4

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Part 1: Clearly identify and describe your setting of interest.

Hypothetical University, a fully accredited State institution in Free Country, USA, has recently gone

through a turnover in Senior Management within its Department of Student Services. The major

change is that the Department now reports directly to the Provost who represents Student Services

at the President’s Council.

As the newly hired Director of Student Success within the Student Services Department; you have

been charged to formulate a new Multi-Year Strategic Plan, designed to improve the use of the

Student Center as a major hub of the university’s community activities.

Coming from a strong Higher Education Recreational Services background, you recognize this

provision is consistent with the Provost’s major goal of improved student retention through enhanced

departmental collaboration to attract and keep returning students at Hypothetical University

You begin the process with a series of meetings with many department heads (counseling, advising,

registration, marketing, health services, athletics, recreational sports, etc.) who have a stake in the

student retention process. The major purpose is to review your predecessor’s organizational modelthrough multi-lateral partnerships towards the Provost’s retention goal. Scrutiny has revealed three

major functions within the existing paradigm:

A. The Student Health, Recreation and Athletic Center, was the annual host to two major annual

event – the National Athletics Association Summer Camp Sports Camps and the Fall

Orientation Rush Week . Further review demonstrates that these offerings are neither cost-

effective nor strong promotional venues aiding in student retention nor promoting other services

offered by the University.

B. These key happenings have been detiorated in quality and quantity. There is a conspicuous

lack of data for the reasons behind the demise.

C.

The campus bookstore, a foremost provider of key amenities, located on the ground floor of the

Student Center, has been experiencing consistent management turnover and a lowering of

revenue each subsequent semester.


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Part 2: Briefly describe the overarching strategy of the organization, as well as the

various perspectives (e.g., customer perspective, etc.) that the organization couldadopt.

The Student Services’ Mission Statement is “To maintain a strong perspective on the student

experience and to foster their growth through academic and recreationa/athetic engagement.”

The multi-level task force you rally operate withing the following concept:

Introduction

1. Goals & Initiatives

2. Metrics

3. Strategy/Committees

4. Performance Tracking

5. Strategic Planning Model/Process

Comprehensive Program Review


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The detailed process to be elaborated in qualitative form in the Strategic Plan report is:

Guiding Principles/

Collaborative

Evaluation

Goals,

Initiatives

& Metrics

Quantitative

Analysis

Focus Group/

Qualitative

Steering

Members

Members Members Members Members

Introduction

External

Factors

Internal

Factors

Environmental

Factors

Strategic Focus

Areas

1. Goals & Initiatives

1.1 Division

Initiative 1...

1.n Division

Initiative n

2. Metrics

2.1 Goal 1

(strategic

focus area)

... 2.n Goal n

2.1 Performance

Measures...

2.n Performance

Measures

Incentives

Mng

Incentives

Staff

Incentives

Mng

Incentives

Staff

Incentives

Mng

Incentives

Staff

3. Strategy/Committees

Steering

4. Performance Tracking

5. Strategic Planning Model/Process

Criteria for Success Methods to Assess Timeline

Comprehensive Program Review

Year 1 – Year 2

Year 2 – Year 3

Year 3 – Year 4

Year 4 – Year n


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Part 3: Identify and describe no less than four organizational goals/objectives relevant

to your setting. Be specific.

Your goals are outlined as:

1. Establish the Student Center as a Campus & Community Hub.

2.

Define, Attract and Retain a Talented Workforce.

3. Increase Transparency and Communication Regarding Budgetary Decision-Making

Processes.

4. Create and Implement a Communications Plan for Major Capital Projects.

The Director’s role will (for the purposes of the project) focus on the specifics of Section 2 - Metrics:

Goal 1.

Establish the Student

Center as a Campus &

Community Hub.

Goal 2.

Attract and Retain a

Talented Workforce.

Goal 3.

Increase transparency

and communication

regarding budgetary

decision-makingprocesses.

Goal 4.

Create and implement a

communications plan for

major capital projects

Performance

Measures

Performance

Measures

Performance

Measures

Performance

Measures

1. 1. 1. 1.

2. 2. 2. 2.

Incentives

ManagersEmployees

Incentives

Managers Employees

Subjective Performance Evaluation

Goals & Performance Measurements

Guiding Principles/

CollaborativeEvaluation

Goals,

Initiatives&

Metrics

Quantitative

Analysis

FocusGroup/

Qualitative

Steering

Members

Members Members Members Members

Introduction

External Factors I nternal Factors Environme ntal Factors

StrategicFocusAreas

1.Goals&Initiatives

1.1 Division Initiative

1...

1.n Division Initiative

n

2.Metrics

2.1 Goal1

(strategicfocusarea)... 2.n Goal n

2.1 Performance

Measures...

2.n Performance

Measures

Incentives

Mng

Incentives

Staff

Incentives

Mng

Incentives

Staff

Incentives

Mng

Incentives

Staff

3.Strategy/Committees

Steering

4.PerformanceTracking

5.StrategicPlanning Model/Process

Criteria for Success Methods to Assess Timeline

ComprehensiveProgramReview

Year 1 – Year 2

Year 2 – Year 3

Year 3 – Year 4

Year 4 – Year n

Goals 2 & 3 are related specifically to the Bookstore situation due to the major financial contributions

it brings the Student Services division, while Goal 4 is the people counting system, which will be a

benchmark for management of future capital projects under your tenure.


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Part 4: Identify and describe at least two measures that correspond to each goal you

identified in Part 3. Describe the measures in enough detail that would allow someone

to implement and use the measure (i.e., how is the measure captured, what scale is

used for the measure, etc.)

Goal 1 - Establish the Student Center as a Campus & Community Hub (Events at the SC)

Your focus is on the two events lost:

A. Rush Week

B. National Athletics Association

The director is advised this will require an ad hoc approach, since the Student Center is required to

be far less competitive with other HU departments, as opposed to other institutions.

Beginning internally with Rush Week, you invite the SGA president to sit in on the Event Plan

committee to start a dialogue about the state of Greek Life and its attitudes toward Student Services

and the Student Center. The committee is told the Greek Life, primarily made up of Millennials and

Gen Y’ers, values experience and connectivity over tradition and reputation. The Student Center is

seen as outdated in two areas: technology and layout - weak WiFi connectivity, which causes issues

with mobile devices, and layout, such as disconnected meeting spaces between several floors,

make connecting the various activities into a single event difficult (the Health & Rec center has large,

open courts and gymnasiums).

We choose to address these issues the following way:

Measure 1.1Technology An intuitive to update the wiring and connectivity of the building will be taken in the

next year, which will involve installation of routers, communal charging stations and

working with the technology departments to offer tech seminars for students and staff.Cost analysis will be carried out in the coming months.

Layout Greek leaders and the SGA president are invited back to meet with the buildingfacilitators in an overview of the floor plans and schedule to determine the bestpossible way they would like to run their events. Compromises in other weekly groupmeetings may have to be made, but since these are recurring, there will not be anyactivity lost outside this week. You also see this as an opportunity to maintain goodrelations with the Health & Rec center by offering to swap these weekly meetings withtheir space for the rescheduled occurrences.

The Athletics Association Kid’s Camp will require more of an outward approach. Detailed research

is conducted on their previous conference and the current host University. The two questionsproposed to the committee are:

D. What caused the disconnect in the first place?

E. Can we reproduce and improve upon the servies they are currently receiving?

These will establish the baseline to facilitate innovation among the team. The following metrics are

generalized to find areas worth focusing on:


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Measure 1.2

Feature Reproduced? Improved?

Facility

Staff

Availability

Technology

Also part of the research, you investigate the intital reason behind its selection of HU in the past -

location, group discounts for on-campus lodging, high dining services. Most of these seemed

monetarily driven, and your committee looks to resurrect some of these offerings as part of the

proposal. As well, you look to tout the modernization of the Student Center’s technology, as

discussed with the Greek Life committee.

Upon a closed-door conference call between you and the Director of External Activities at the

Athletic Association, two main issues that caused the schism are reported as a general drop in

professionalism from Student Center staff and the loss of several “bells and whistles” that hadinitially attracted them to HU in the first place.

From this, the committee determines several non-institutional metrics:

Measure 1.3

Feature Measure of Satisfaction

Professionalism

“Bells and Whistles”

Personal Performance Evaluations

Vendors

Safety

Upon reviewing the first camp held several years earlier,a new proposal is made to the Athletic

Association which include the following:

A. Free passes to Intramural courts and new aquatics center.

B. Personal performance evaluation in each camper’s respective sport.

C. “Commuter” program for advanced students, which moves them on from fundamentals.

D. Goodie bags, complete with shirts, sunglasses, sunscreen and information about the

Association and HU.

E. End of Camp banquet with special Take-a-Knee Speech from “champion” alumni (parents

invited).

As well, the committee includes a recently conducted safety report about facilities, staff background

and qualification checks, and surrounding community crime rates. You feel strongly about this since

it will require communication between the Student Center and Health & Rec, the Aquatics center,

hospitality & dining services, and public safety, among others on campus. These will all revolve

around the Student Center and return it to the center of these activites.


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Goal 2 - Attract and Retain a Talented Workforce (Bookstore Management Attrition)

Note that your first inclination is that there may be a causal link between the attrition rate and the

negative trend in net income at the bookstore, though you are not jumping to conclusions until you

have data to back this.

Since there are no exit surveys or interviews conducted when a bookstore manager has left, you

need to back into the metrics to try and establish a trend. This way, you will be able to possibly

determine why these individuals left and prevent its recurrence in the future.

You begin with the job description to create a scorecard and three measures to investigate the

causes of being hired to begin with:

C. Qualification (controllability): How qualified is this candidate for the position? Are they trained,

certified and experienced enough to complete the tasks?

D. Performance (alignment): Is this candidate capable of handling the workload, and able to deliver

on-time and on-budget?

E.

Culture (interdependency): Is this candidate a good cultural fit? Will they work well with theircolleagues and be able to align with team values and mission?

Measure 2.1 Example – Budget Sheets Qualification Is the candidate trained in the math, structure and analysis

techniques to produce a budget?Performance Is the candidate capable of producing a budget on time with the

given amount?Culture Is this candidate capable of producing a balanced budget that favors

the institution’s mission and goals over their own personal biases?

You review the resumes of the previous manager’s qualifications, their semester performance

reviews, and speak with any remaining students & staff who interacted with them (though some oftheir colleagues have graduated or left). You compile the following scorecard regarding the last five

managers, beginning with the oldest:

Measure 2.2

Manager Duration (semester) Qualification Performance Culture

1 2 A B -

2 2 B A -

3 1 A B A

4 1.5 A C B

5 (most recent) 0.5 B C A

The cultural fit and qualifications seem consistent, even with the missing data (though you make

note this is attempting to quantify a set of qualitative data, which is always a challenge when dealing

with scorecards). Since Performance/Alignment is the only area you score lower than a B, you

decide to pursue this as the cause, since performance can be cluttered by both internal and external

noise. This also strengthens your belief in the causal link between Goals 2 & 3 and signals the area

in which you will advise focus in the future to boost retention, which is elaborated upon more in Goal

3.


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Goal 3 - Increase transparency and communication regarding budgetary decision-making

processes. (Bookstore Under-performance)

Continuing from Goal 2, you decide to look at external factors affecting managerial performance first.

Cultural fit seemed to score well, which you take as indicative of internal factors not being the cause

of the drop in performance (at least for the time being until proven otherwise).

Accounting sends a report to you regarding the bookstore’s financial performance. The data over the

last four academic years shows that the bookstore has a trend of consistent revenue, skewing-

somewhat positive. But there seems to be a snag – revenue is trending consistent, and the Net

Income is keeping pace on average:

Measure 3.1

You begin digging to find the source of why the Provost office is reporting a negative trend. First, you

learn the operation funding for the bookstore comes primarily from the State, and Student Services

invests its own resources at a fixed amount each academic year of $5,000. The return trend on this

annual investment is showing a consistent trend as well. However, when you check the minutes and

records of the Provost’s office and Board meetings, you find that the rate of return of the bookstore

has consistently been raised each academic year by 5 or 10%:

$0.00

$500.00

$1,000.00

$1,500.00

$2,000.00

$2,500.00

$3,000.00

Total Revenue

Net Income


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Measure 3.2

Semester Set Rate of Return Actual Rate of Return

Fall AY1 15% 14%

Spring AY1 15% 17%

Fall AY2 25% 13%

Spring AY2 25% 15%

Fall AY3 30% 15%

Spring AY3 30% 13%

Fall AY4 35% 16%

Spring AY4 35% 13%

From the summarized measures of Revenue-vs-Net Income and Set/Actual Rates of Return that are

reported to the Provost and the Board each semester, you forge a narrative revolving around a lack

of communication:

The original growth initiative begun by a former set of Board members has been continued without

question, possibly in the belief it will spur higher profits from the same investment amount. While it

has not been affecting actual bookstore revenue and net income streams, it is being reported that

the bookstore is consistently under-performing based on an internal metric related to fixed funding,

thus possibly leading to more stress and poorer scores from the bookstore managers the higher the

Set Rate goes.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

Set Rate of Return

Actual Rate of Return


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Goal 4 - Create and implement a communications plan for major capital projects. (People

Counting System)

The people counter system was part of an initiative done in collaboration between the Student

Services, Sociology and Statistical departments. Its funding came through an outside corporate

investor after Sociology/Statistics responded to an RFP, and the final report is still two years outfrom being due, though several key deliverable dates have been missed and the remainder of the

funding is in danger of being pulled. As the front line for the data collection, these two departments

are now looking to the new Director to resurrect the operation.

Communication between the staff and management will be vital, which is why it is placed as the

overall goal. As well, an evaluation of performance of the maintenance crew in charge of the original

installation of the system is conducted. It is found that there is an interdependency issue where due

to two of the three staff’s tardiness, the project became derailed due to shuffled scheduling. This was

not a reflection of the Crew Manager or Staff #1, who are reviewed extremely well, but still resulted

in the project’s floundering due to inherent free-riding.

Measure 4.1

Staff Qualification Performance Culture Overall

Manager A A A A

Staff #1 B A A A

Staff #2 B B A B

Staff #3 B C B C

Staff #2 & 3 are evaluated as B-level and C-level performers respectively, though issues exist not

just in their time management, which is determined to be the symptom, not the problem. During an

informal luncheon, something interesting is discovered – Staff #2’s wife has been undergoing chemo

therapy in the previous six months, causing stress and inconsistencies in his schedule. Also, you

find out that a former A-level performer, who left the Student Center maintenance crew due to an

opportunity to join management of a private installation company, is still nearby and available for

contracted work.

The following decisions are proposed to the committee – first, Staff #3 (C-level, under-performing) is

to be let go, and Staff #2 (under-performing B-level), after a health evaluation, is given three months

paid leave (per campus policy). After returning, duties will be split between Staff #1 & 2 until a third,

B-level minimum, is hired shortly thereafter.

Second, due to his experience with the Center and good terms between the two parties, you

propose a ten-week contract with the former staff member’s company to complete installation andtrain the Student Center staff on the technology to get the project back on schedule. This will be

incentivized through a promise of flexibility in the weekly 20-hour schedule and generous

recommendation by a prestigious institution upon satisfactory completion of job.

You provide the following quantitative cost/benefit Labor analysis of your strategy to promote this

endeavor:


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Measure 4.2

Status Quo (Annual)

Staff Compensation

Manager $72,000

Staff 1 (A-level) $52,000

Staff 2 (B-level) $52,000Staff 3 (C-level) $52,000

Total Labor Costs $228,000

3 mo Compensation

Staff Compensation

Manager $18,000


Staff 2 (B-level) $13,000

Staff 3 (C-level) $13,000


Alternative

Staff CompensationManager $72,000





3 mo Compensation

Staff Compensation

Manager $18,000





Less

Staff 2 (B-level) (9-mos) -$39,000

Staff 3 (C-level) (annual) -$52,000

Labor Cost minus Staff $137,000

Alternative Compensation (3 mo)

Staff 3 (Leave) $9,000

Contract (10 wks) $10,000

($40/hr, 20hr/wk)

Alt Labor Cost $19,000

Total Alt Labor Costs (3 mo)

Manager $18,000

Staff 1 $13,000

Staff 3 (Leave) $9,000

Contract (10 wks) $10,000



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Ultimately, the contracted job and paid leave will save the Student Center and project fund $7,000,

for the next three months, more than making up for the lost production of Staff #2 & 3 during that

time, and quickly get the project back on schedule. The Manager and Staff #1 will be supported

through the contracted staff during this time and already-established working relationship with the

former employee, and productivity should improve. This is accomplished through communication

measures during evaluation by Non-Financial means and willingness to establish connections with

outside parties.


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Part 5: Describe how you would provide incentives to managers and employees based

on (at least) two of the measures you identified in Part 4.

For this setting, it is wise to look at incentivizing based on generational needs, for example, as

outlined in Incentives for all generations (Nelson, 1999). Altogether, though, a mix of monetary and

non-monetary should be achieved.

Managers will fall more into the “Mature” workers area (Baby Boomers, Gen X’ers), and this group

tends to value time over monetary awards. Flex-time, sabbaticals and retirement plans are excellent

mixes of time needs and monetary rewards. As well so as not to pigeonhole management within an

age bracket, there are younger, up-and-coming managers, too, which the retirement options and

flexible schedules will appeal to as well. These are standard perks in many corporate settings and

should be considered for adoption by the academic field.

Entry-level staffers and middle-management (Gen Y, Millennials) also value time, but it makes up

less in the mix. Nelson notes they value a balance of monetary, time and recognition of their work.

Based on the issues presented and the plans to be implemented in the coming year(s),

recommended employee incentives would be in profession development areas. It is shown through

the evaluations that many of the staff, while not under-qualified for their positions, have room for

growth in their B-level ratings. Tuition-waiving for job-related courses, work- and experience-for-

credits and other non-monetary options. will not only attract students on a budget working toward a

degree, but excellent workers from outside the institution looking for tangible recognition of the

experience they are bringing with them.


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Part 6: How might managers use subjective performance evaluation in this setting?

One excellent shining light in this evaluation of the Student Center is that culturally, it appears solid.

The teams work well together and internal departments communicate and operate with efficiency.

However, while there is internal respect and control, the various departments flounder when faced

with external factors, such as competition and risk.

The Summer Camp was lost due to drops in professionalism shown to external clients, and while

there is no grading on how this was conveyed – whether through hostile or lackadaisical action – it is

still indicative of an institution facing dangerous complacency. Managers will see that these points

are brought to the attention of the whole building staff during the late-summer orientations each year,

as well as presenting them with the new Strategic Plan and aligning them with its goals.

Evaluations one-on-one should be held in the course of a week before the year begins to assess

and determine each staff’s personal goals and values as a baseline for their coming per formances. If

they do not feel this individual is a fit with the SC’s mission and goals, or there is doubt over their

abilities to perform, corrective measures and careful, weekly performance checks of efficiency/cost

should be made before they are disciplined or let go.

Conversly, quality and above-average performance should be encouraged and rewarded. Managers

will have discretion to determine work load and schedules, and award time-off or bonuses where

applicable, and are also encouraged to bring reports of outstanding work for consideration of a raise

and/or promotion. These individuals can also expect a full recommendation upon pursuing other

areas or graduation.

The Student Center is not only home to many student-oriented services and departments, but it is

the face of HU’s humanties to the outside as the balance of life our school provides. This should be

reflected in all aspects, including quality facilities and services, to create a trust between the

students and their community.

alex mcintosh managerial accountint mod4proj4

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