Work Allocation Task

This task requires you to analyse the responses to change within an organisation. The information you need can be found by researching in the office and searching the internet or libraries.

You will work within your forum team to research and answer the task questions, and then collate and present your feedback.

Story

Sandy and Vanessa work in the pre-forming plant office at Antz. They are both administration officers, and their jobs are quite similar.

The office is organised in quite a structured way. The manager, Clayton, doesn't really have much to do with Sandy and Vanessa. Reporting to Clayton are Arlo (the administration manager) and Ruby (the operations manager).

Sandy and Vanessa report to Brigid, who is the personal assistant to Arlo. Brigid has quite a lot of work to do, and Sandy and Vanessa were both hired to help her complete that work.

Sandy is a hard worker, and she is studying part-time in order to improve her job prospects. She loves taking on new challenges and Brigid is keen to help her to advance. Vanessa is working because she has to. She doesn't really enjoy the job much, and will only work the hours that she is paid for. Vanessa makes sure she gets all the benefits that are her due, but lately she has been failing to perform at the work she has been given. Brigid is not doing a lot about this, and Sandy is starting to get concerned. It came to a head recently, when Sandy was told off by Brigid for not meeting a deadline. Sandy was very upset, as the reason she missed her deadline was that she had to stop her specific task in order to fix something urgent for Vanessa.

Organise your forum team

You need to organise your forum team. You can nominate yourself for positions or suggest other team members. Your forum team needs to:

• choose a facilitator to direct discussions within the team
• decide how the members of your team will work together to research the task questions and deliver feedback (you need to agree on who will research each question)
• choose a reporter to collate and write up the team's findings.

Plan your research

When discussing this situation, you need to address these questions:

1. What is the main problem in this workplace?
2. Describe the workplace relationships.
3. Who is responsible for work allocation?
4. What could be done to ensure staff skills are used effectively?
5. What could be done differently by:
   • Sandy
   • Vanessa
   • Brigid
   • Arlo?

Present your team's completed feedback to your tutor. This is a collaborative task - share with each other and do the best you can.