Case Analysis â€In Basket Exercise

Introduction An in basket exercise is a test used to check if administrators and senior managers have the ability to plan, organize and manage different activities and delegate responsibilities to the most competent assistants. In the test, the candidate is expected to respond to letters, emails, memos, telephone messages, fax and other communiquà © at his desk within a stipulated period of time (Stillman 23).Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on Case Analysis –In Basket Exercise specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The test is usually administered to managers in the public and private sector (University of British Columbia 1). The candidate is given a limited time to respond to urgent matters and this requires that one develop a plan of action, set priorities on the different tasks, evaluate the task and make tradeoffs and give a rationale for selecting a given task (Public Service Commission of Canada 4). D escription of the case study In this case study, I.M Trubble is the Assistant Deputy Minister for Immigration in the republic of Canada. After returning from a trip, Trubble finds 16 urgent letters and memos that need to be addressed within a short duration. The letters require her attention on various matters. These matters are classified as: Drafting letters and speeches for the minister Departmental roles such as approving travel and leave application Personal matters such as attending the divorce proceedings All these matters need her urgent attention but not all these tasks can be performed at the same time. At the moment, she cannot delegate these roles as her two assistant are not within the premises. This means that Mrs. Trubble has to perform a critical analysis of all the tasks so as to prioritize the main tasks and delegate others at a later date. In the case study, Mrs. Trubble must perform all the activities on Sunday evening. In order to make these decisions and set priorities, an evaluation of the tradeoff between different activities must be done Determining and Classifying Items The first step is to determine the nature of all the 16 items in the waiting lists. This was done by listing all the items and classifying these items into three categories. A study of all the 16 items indicate that there are four persistent issues that need to be addressed by the assistant minister, these are Refugees operations being handled by the minister Visit by the head of state Other issues such as fraud Personal issues such as the divorce proceedings Table 1 below shows the classification of all the items into the different themesAdvertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Theme Item/letter number Details Actions required Refugees operations 4 Letter to Manama prepared by administrative assistant Read, verify and send the letter back to the assistan t for posting 1 Letter from Latin Americans Draft letter accepting the invitation to the conference to be held in July. 7 Explanation for lost commodities Prepare answers/explanation for the loss. This is a serious matter that has tainted the image of the ministry. 13 Letter addressing refugees plight Requires a letter drafted for the minster to sign 15 Letter about the immigrants from Nicaragua Requires action by office to guarantee safety of the refugees in Canada. Visit by head of state 3 Invitation to dinner Note on the dairy and draft memo to the assistants who will prepare for the event. 6 Prime minister speech Prepare notes for a short speech to be made by the prime minister. The meeting by the president is very important Other official matters 2 Note members on leave Note the members of the department who are on leave. This matter can be delegated to the operation assistant when he returns. 5 Study an make a report on treasury board estimates preparation Prep are a report with reactions and comments. 8 Preparing the travel report. Prepare travel report –can be delegated to the operations assistant when he resumes. 9 Fraud case notification Note the issues, no immediate action required–can be done by assistants when they resume. 10 Public service commissioning on 25thJune Require the assistant minister to attend. The role must be delegated as there is another important meeting on the same date. 11 Notification of those travelling abroad Note the names and dates –can be delegated to the administrative assistant who can deal with the issue later. Personal issues 12 Divorce proceeding Must attend hearing. The meeting is on the same date and time as a crucial crisis meeting with the minister. 14 Letter from Hamburg Notification- not urgent and important Priorities list In order to draw the action plan, it was necessary that a priorities list be created. This list documented the main activities and determine d if they were urgent or important. Important activities are those that results to one attaining personal goals and aspirations and must be handled by the senior manager (Henry 10). The important activities in this case were crucial crises meeting and instructions from the minister’s offices. Under urgent matters were those tasks requiring immediate attention and were considered imperative to the success of the assistant minister. A priority table, classifying items based on their importance and urgency was prepared (Denhardt 54). This table is shown in figure 1 below. Figure 1 From the diagram, the activities in the top right Conner are critical and should be performed first. This is because they are both important and urgent. They should be followed by important but less urgent matters; that is, activities in the top left portion of the graph (Watson 143). Duties considered to be urgent but less important should then follow. Lastly, those activities which are less importan t and urgent should be handled. From the figure 1, the most urgent and important activities are the president’s visit, preparation of ministers speech notes and to prepare a response to the questions on of stolen items. These items are crucial and should be addressed first. The next activities are those that are important but less urgent. They include: seminar with Latin Americans, leave application, travel reports, refugee issues in Central America and the fraud case. These issues should be addressed after critical issues. Next are the less important but urgent matters. They include: Trubble divorce proceedings, and the languages bureau meeting. Lastly, there are the less urgent and less important issues such as meeting with Von during lunch time. These activities can be ignored or cancelled Based on the priorities list, the order of attending issues is shown in table 2 attached at the appendix.Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on Case Analysis â€⠀œIn Basket Exercise specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Priorities and tradeoff In terms of priorities, the roles to the minister were given more priority. This is because Mrs. Trubble is the assistant minister and failure to deliver the assigned roles would affect the functionality and integrity of the whole ministry. For example, if Mrs. Trubble did not prepare a report to address the stolen materials required on Monday morning, then the whole ministry would be touted as corrupt by media. This would affect her career and performance. Also, the ministerial speech to welcome the president was not prepared, then, the president would receive a poor welcome and this would affect the ministry. In this regard, these activities were given the first priority. During the preparation of the priority list, several tradeoffs had to be done. For example, on Monday June 25, Mrs. Trubble had the following meetings: Attend a meeting with the minister to answer question about stolen items Attend a language bureau meeting Attend the court as instructed by the royal magistrate For this role, tradeoff had to be done. The most important and crucial activity was to attend the meeting with the minister. The consequence was that by doing so, Mrs. Trubble had to ignore the court order summoning her to appear in court. However, the consequences of not attending the court case are not a severe as failing to fulfill her ministerial responsibilities. Another tradeoff is the fact that Mrs. Trubble had to deal with is the sensitive issue of refugees concerns and other departmental duties. If she addressed refuges matters before the departmental roles, then the departmental activities may delay or are mismanaged. Addressing the refugee’s issues should be a primary concern as opposed to other departmental duties. Preservation of human life and averting hunger and death are paramount to attending departmental roles. To prevent the depart ment from mismanagement, Mrs. Trubble should delegate non sensitive departmental roles to his administrative and operation assistance. A cross-examination of the departmental activities also reveals that most roles don’t need immediate attention. Thus, the tradeoff between refugee’s activities and departmental roles is not likely to affect the department. In terms of the departmental and ministerial duties, the ministerial duties were given priority to departmental issues. This tradeoff required Mrs. Trubble to deal with duties delegated by the minister first and then deal with departmental roles.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Again, the tradeoff did not have a big negative impact as most of the departmental roles could be delegated to the assistant. It was also noted that most departmental issues were not very sensitive as compared to the duties allocated by the minister. Another tradeoff was made during the assigning of roles to her assistants. It is important that the assistants are given jobs matching their education and skills. Very sensitive and crucial issue should be handled by the assistant minister. The decision to delegate some activities therefore involves a tradeoff between perfect work done by the assistance minister and the work done by her assistants. Action plan The action plan will comprise of all the major activities to be undertaken by the assistant minister within the next 24 hours. The action plan has the main activities and the specific time for performing these activities. The action plan also shows the person delegated to perform the given task. Table 3 in the appendix section sho ws the action plan developed. Conclusions and recommendations In this analysis, the main tasks assigned to Mrs. Trubble were prioritized and an action plan drawn. This was based on the evaluation of the different roles and setting the priorities based on the tradeoff between different actions. All activities were grouped into themes and the consequences of each action identified. Based on these consequences, a tradeoff was made. Activities with the greatest priorities had the largest negative consequences and were addressed first. Activities with the least negative implications were performed last. This prioritization is important in scheduling complex office activities which often overlap. Works Cited Denhardt, Robert. Public Administration: An Action Orientation, Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning, 2008. Print. Henry, Nicholas. Public Administration Public Affairs, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson publishers, 2012. Print. Public Service Commission of Canada, 2010, Testing in the Publi c Service of Canada.  Web. Stillman, Richard. Public Administration: Concepts and Cases, Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning, 2009. Print. University of British Columbia, 2010, Testing: In Basket Testing. 2013. Web. Watson, Robert. Public Administration: Cases in Managerial Role-Playing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson publishers, 2010. Print. Appendices Table 2: The major activities classified in terms of priorities GROUP ACTIVITIES LISTED IN ORDER Critical activities 1) Prepare answers for the crucial meeting to be held on Monday June 25 (item 7). 2) Preparation of minister’s speech (item 6). 3) Reply the minister’s letter on Nicaragua refugees (item 15). 4) Take note of the fraud case details (item 9). 5) prepare a reply to the minster’s letter (city of Windsor letter)(item 13). Important but less urgent 6) Sign Mrs. Perez letter and place it in out tray (item 4) 7)Take note of those on leave(item 2). 8) Take note of people travelling abroad (item 11). 9) Prepare travel report (item 8). 10) Confirm attendance of Latin American meeting (item 1). 11) Attend president dinner on June 27 (item 3). Less important but urgent 12) Attend divorce proceedings (item 12). 13) Attend the languages bureau (item 10). Less important and urgent activities 14) Prepare appraisal for the manual (item 5). 15) Respond to Mr. Von Giestlos lunch invitation (item 14). Table 3: Priorities List Item Action /delegate Time 7 Mrs. Trubble should prepare notes to answer questions on stolen items during the meeting. Sunday 7.30-8.30 6,11, 9,3 Mrs. Trubble to prepare the ministers speech and note the dinner date. She should also note the fraud case in item 9. 8.30-9.00 15,13,4 Mrs. Trubble should draft letters as requested by the minister. She should also read, approve and sign Mrs. Perez letter in item 4. 9.00-10.00 2,11,8 Mrs. Trubble to write a memo delegating roles in item 2, 11 and 8 to the operation assistant. 10.00-10.20 1,5,10 Mrs. Trubbl e to draft a memo authorizing administration assistance to deal with issues in items 1, 5 and 10. 10.20-10.40 12, 14 Trubble to ask lawyers to represent her in the divorce case. She should also call Von to postpone the lunch date. 10.40-11.00 Attend crucial meeting with the minister Monday 9.30 am This case study on Case Analysis –In Basket Exercise was written and submitted by user Alfonso Fletcher to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

We Must Fight essays

We Must Fight essays The 2004 election had an incredible turn out in regards in voters and minority voters. Majority of the new voters were 18-30 and African American. My self-being an 18 year-old black male it was stressed for me to vote. A lot of entertainers tried to get their fans to vote such as Sean P. Diddy, Jamie Fox and Tom Cruise. To my knowledge the majority of the minority votes went to John Kerry and Edwards. This election has made republications the rulers of the U.S., because of the power they hold in the House of Repersinvaites and the Senate. Im worried that with all the efforts everyone did to reach the minority youth and it was not to make a difference that the youth will defer from voting. In this year election was greatly affected by the youth of America. Many young people voted for the first time this year. All of my friends voted and some for the first time this year a few of them are nineteen. Many nineteen to twenty-two year-olds voted, for the first time. As soon as I walked on Benedict Colleges campus they were in our face about registering to vote. I was also encouraged to vote by my mother, uncle and some teachers. A couple of songs by shoe hip-hop artists were made this year about the election and voting. These artists are among the elite hip-h artists in the business. P. Diddy, a rapper/producer lead a movement to vote called Vote or Die, he was the number one in leading the youth to the voting polls. Some actors helped also such as Jamie Fox and Tom Cruise. All of the people I know voted for Kerry and Edwards. The majority of the people who come to this school voted for the Democratic Party. Since Bush has won and the republicans have the majority in the House and the Senate was does the Democratic Partys voice get heard at? No, where for at least two more years. It seems that the party for the people has became the minotoiry party. ...