Practise IB Business Management SL 2.1.3 by explaining how culture and new working patterns can affect employee resistance.
PU is considering new lecturer working patterns: compulsory IT training, working at home three days a week, shorter vacations with higher basic pay, and performance-related pay. PU is also considering a joint venture with Country B, whose government would provide facilities and local staff. PU would design courses and materials, train staff, monitor academic standards and undertake market research, receiving an annual government payment and a fee for each student who completes a degree. The decision must consider PU's not-for-profit mission, reputation, academic quality, student demand, staff morale, the costs of training and monitoring, Country B's facilities and market, financial returns and risks of managing an overseas campus.
The trustees of P U have made proposals to introduce new working patterns for lecturers:
- Compulsory training in IT use for teaching, including online teaching and creating libraries of online resources.
- Contracts that require all lecturers to work at home three days a week. There would be a schedule of who is on site on each day.
- Vacations reduced in length to enable sufficient face-to-face contact with all students. Lecturers would receive a compensatory increase in basic pay.
- Introduction of performance-related pay (PRP).
P U is considering a joint venture with Country B's government. Country B is performing well economically and is planning to expand its university sector. The trustees of P∪ believe that the university has a sufficiently strong reputation that the government of Country B will be interested in P U opening a campus there.
Country B's government would provide the facilities and recruit local lecturers and other staff to work at the university. P U would be responsible for all the other costs that it incurs setting up the campus.
PU would:
- design degree courses, syllabuses and course materials
- train all staff
- monitor the progress of each course to ensure that academic standards are good enough to award degrees.
In addition, PU would undertake all market research needed for planning and monitoring new courses, including primary research into the market for university courses.
PU would receive an annual payment from the government of Country B and a fee for each student that successfully completes a degree course.
Explain one impact on P∪ and one impact on P∪ 's lecturers of the new working patterns.
Impact on P U :
- Home working: How to monitor? Maybe more available facilities? Costs of extra equipment for home?
- Reduced vacations: Facilities better used. Possible increase in costs, though may help with sustainability.
Impact on P U 's lecturers:
- Work at home for 3 days a week. How feasible? What facilities? Less travelling, more time available.
- Reductions in vacations: Unlikely to be welcomed by lecturers; less motivation? Leading to higher staff turnover?
The new working patterns are about home working and reduced vacations. Training may be considered as it is explicitly linked to the new working patterns, e.g. about the fact that lecturers need specific training to adapt to the new working patterns.
N.B. PRP is a type of financial reward, not a working pattern (candidates' knowledge of PRP has already been assessed through question Q4a).
N.B. candidates may also explain the impacts as "long-term impact" versus "short-term impact", or "positive impact" versus "negative impact", or "financial impact" versus "HR impact" - all these approaches are valid, as long as they are about the new working patterns.
Mark as a [2] + [2].
Award [1] for an appropriate impact on PU's lecturers and an additional [1] for application. Award [1] for an appropriate impact on PU and an additional [1] for application. Maximum award overall: [4].