Paradise State University (PSU) is a medium-sized private university offering both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Students typically choose Paradise State because of its emphasis on high levels of interaction and relatively small classes. University policy prohibits classes with more than 15 students (unless special permission is obtained from the provost), and the target class size is 25 students. All courses are taught by tenure-track faculty members with appropriate terminal degrees. Faculty members teach two courses each semester.
The Business School at PSU offers only an MBA degree in one of six areas of concentration: accounting, finance, general management, management information systems (MIS), marketing, and operations management (OM). The MBA program is a one-year (two-semester) lockstep program. Since the Business School does not offer undergraduate business courses, students entering the program are required to have completed all the undergraduate business prerequisites from an accredited university. The faculty is organized into six functional departments. The table below lists the number of faculty members in each department and the average number of students each year who choose a particular concentration. Students are not permitted to have double concentrations, and PSU does not offer minors at the graduate level.
|
Department
|
Faculty
|
Number of Students per Year
|
|
Accounting
|
8
|
100
|
|
Finance
|
6
|
40
|
|
General management
|
7
|
70
|
|
MIS
|
10
|
150
|
|
Marketing
|
6
|
50
|
|
Om
|
10
|
30
|
The number of courses required by each concentration in each department is listed in the table below. For example, a student concentrating in accounting is required to take four accounting classes, one finance class, one management class, one MIS course, one marketing class, and two OM classes.
|
Number of Courses Taken in Respective Departments
|
|
Concentration
|
Accounting
|
Finance
|
Management
|
MIS
|
Marketing
|
OM
|
|
Accounting
|
4
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
|
Finance
|
1
|
4
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
|
General management
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
|
MIS
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
1
|
2
|
|
Marketing
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
2
|
|
Om
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
5
|
Questions
- How many students must each department teach each semester? Given the target class size-25 students-are there enough faculty members?
- Conceptually, how could the cellular production approach be applied to the Business School?
- What would be the advantages and disadvantages of adopting a cellular approach at the Business School? As a student, would you prefer a functional organization or a cellular organization? As a faculty member, what would you prefer?
- On the basis of the information given, develop a rough plan detailing how the Business School faculty might be assigned to cells.