JOMO KENYATTA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND

TECHNOLOGY

KENYA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

EXECUTIVE MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

HCEB 3108: OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

Using the attached guide, describe a decision making area

you or your team in your organization, has been involved
in, the alternatives available at the time, the constraints,
challenges and the decision finally made and the results.
If you were to find yourself in the same decision making
position, would you have made the decision
differently.

(10 marks)

Instructions:

1. Your case should not be 4-6 pages, 1.5 spaced, time Romans.

2. Date due: The last week to the start of end of semester exams.

3. Submit both hard and soft copies as a backup. Hard copy to be

submitted to the EMBA office an soft copy to
sangpaulkip@yahoo.com

4. This should be a real business decision making experience.

5. You may disguise real names of decision maker and organization

to protect confidentiality.

6. The attached format should be strictly adhered to.

 Experience sharing

What is experience sharing?

In today’s dynamic business environment, many variables come into play

when making management decisions. The decisions made may be affected
by; nature of business, management style, socio-economic situations,
political environment. Decision-making is therefore an easy task. We as
managers have made many bad and poor decisions, and we have all learned
from our experiences, it is therefore important to share these experiences
with other managers. These are done through business cases.

What is a case?

It is a description of an actual situation, commonly involving a decision, a

challenge, an opportunity, a problem or an issues faced by a manager in an
organization. A case allows you to reflect on the decision made and put
yourself in the shoes of the decision maker. The names of people,
organization or information may be disguised to protect confidentiality.
Cases are a product of a carefully thought- out process, using the
information available at the decision maker at the time it is developed. It is
important to note that not all information available can be included but the
research should be selective in the kind of material information to include.

Proposed case outline by subtitles.

1. The opening paragraph

This is an eyepiece or a lens that directs the reader of the case through the
subsequent information, it indicates what the final case will focus, opening
paragraph should contain between six and eight sentences. The opening
paragraph will set the context within which the decision is made and the
decision dilemma. The following check list is useful.

1. Is the decision maker identified by name and position?

2. Is the time of the case clear?

3. Is the location of the organization identified?

4. Is the issue, decision, problem or opportunity clearly identified?

5. Is the issue, decision, problem or opportunity sufficiently interesting for

use in class?

6. What is the action trigger?

7. Are the case title and names chosen for the person in the case
appropriate?

Potential opening paragraphs

On March 2nd 2011. Mr Kamau, project manager of Tika construction ltd,

received a call from the Permanent secretary ministry of roads “it has been
noted with a lot of concern that the Tika road construction project is behind
schedule contrary to the contractual agreement’’Mr Kamau had to do
something.

On November 5, 2010, Kiprotich, operations manager at Kunfu ltd, a

producer of Teta products, located in Kericho, reviewed the three months
production report for the Teta, a recently produced new product. Kiprotich
was disappointed that the forecasts were not met and wanted to determine
what, if anything, he could do to improve production.

2. General Company background.

Subtitles that may be used here are; background, company or

organization history, industry and / company overview, major
products and services, the organization competition, financial
overview, geographical coverage, business units, e.t.c

3. Specific area of interest

The focus here is the major function of the organization where the
decision maker works; the decision may be in operations
management, project management, supply chain management,
information’s systems management e.t.c other subtitles in this
sections could include the history of the function, recent changes,
relations with other department, main responsibilities, challenges of
the function and staffing, personal background of the decision
maker and other key people in the organization.

4. Specific issue, decision, problem or opportunity

This is where the case concentrates on the specific issue or decision

at hand, by this time; the context would have been established and
the area within which the decision is made has been explained.
Such topics as the project, the project schedule, the new product
launch, the production process, the re-organization plan, the banks
offer, the financial plan, the system start-up, the equipment
installation, the customer complaint, the merger proposal. E.t.c.

5. Alternatives

Decisions normally involve a choice among two or more

alternatives. The case may provide none, some or all the available
alternatives to the decision maker at the time of marking decision.

6. Conclusion

Every case requires an ending. The ending should contain

information about the deadline, the urgency of the decision making;
it should leave the reader with a question mark on what he/she
would have done or need to do to solve the dilemma in the position
of the decision maker.

7. What decision was actually made and why

This should be done in a brief paragraph; this will help the reader to
analyze if the right decision was made under the prevailing
circumstances. What were the lesions learned.