Assignment 1: Analyzing Organizational Archival Data
Scenario:
JetMidWest (JMW) is a successful and rapidly growing regional airline company with operations in Chicago, Dallas, Denver, and major destinations in between. The company has been in operation for ten years and expanded from initial operations in and out of Chicago, which remains its headquarters today.
The heart of JMW is its Airline Operations Center (AOC) that comprises four departments, including Maintenance, Crew Services, Dispatch, and Cargo. The AOC plays a critical role to ensure that the airline's vision of being "the first-choice provider to travelers in all of our primary markets" is achieved.
The airline entered the industry as a low-cost provider and has survived competition from major airlines, other low-cost carriers entering the market, and increased fuel prices. As JMW has grown and expanded, a culture shift occurred. Processes that were sufficient in one market became inadequate as the airline expanded into other areas. The increased number of flights, new aircraft types, and operations at a range of airport sizes and types greatly increased the complexity of operations. The scope of current leaders' responsibilities expanded quickly, and new leaders were hired from outside the airline. As one department head put it: "We've been running a marathon of changes for several years now at the speed of a sprint."
In this tumultuous environment, the executive team of JMW identified a critical need to investigate the strengths, weaknesses, and needed changes in the AOC in order to better serve customers in new markets and prepare for continued future expansion. JMW's internal Organizational Development (OD) team conducted an initial round of interviews and focus groups of employees and managers. Three key themes were identified:
Employee development may be needed for both technical and interpersonal skills.
Some departments may have more of a technical and interpersonal skill deficit than others.
Female employees may be more dissatisfied with their jobs in AOC than male employees.
The OD team and the leadership team of the AOC want to further validate these qualitative themes with quantitative data analysis. They have shared some recent corporate data with you from AOC that includes employee demographic information, recent performance rating data, and general job satisfaction ratings.
Directions:
For this assignment, you will do the following:
Describe the AOC workforce overall and by department in terms of diversity, job satisfaction, and technical and interpersonal skills ratings.
Determine whether employee development is needed for technical skills.
Determine whether employee development is needed for interpersonal skills.
Determine whether there is a difference among the departments in terms of technical skills.
Determine whether there is a difference among the departments in terms of interpersonal skills.
Determine whether there is a correlation between gender and job satisfaction.
Report your findings and your conclusion regarding whether the initial themes are supported by the data.
Make a recommendation as to which of the results presents the most pressing trouble for JMW and, therefore, should be addressed first. Make sure to support your recommendation with your data analysis as well as scholarly literature.
Your final product will be a 4- to 6-page Microsoft Word document written in APA format and should utilize at least four professional literature sources. Professional literature may include the Argosy University online library resources, relevant textbooks, peer-reviewed journal articles, and websites created by professional organizations, agencies, or institutions (.edu, .org, and .gov). In addition, you will submit a Microsoft Excel file you used to conduct all appropriate statistical analyses to help you make your determinations. Your paper should be written in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrate ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; and display accurate spelling, grammar.