Concord Publications (CP) was established in 1979 by the president of Concordian College to improve the quality and effectiveness of the college's communications. CP provides professional editing and design services to all academic and administrative units requesting help in the publication of catalogs, brochures, posters, and other forms of printed material. CP is under the vice president for public affairs, employs 20 professional staff, and has an annual operating budget of $1 million.
To encourage the use of CP's services, the costs of operating CP have not been allocated to units requesting services. Instead, these operating costs are included in central administration overhead. However, to maintain as much uniformity as possible in the content and design of the college's publications, all items submitted to CP for publication are reviewed and approved by CP. Thus, CP can reject or require the complete revision of a unit's publication. The number of copies for each publication is determined jointly by CP and the unit requesting service.
During the last two years, Concordian College has experienced considerable financial pressure. During the spring of 2007, the president established a number of task forces to review various aspects of the college's operations. The task force on publications recommended the use of a charge-back system in which user units pay for services requested from CP. In the fall of 2007, the president issued a memorandum requiring the use of a chargeback system for CP services. The memorandum stated that the purpose of the new system was "to put control and responsibility for publication expenditures where the benefits were received and to make academic and administrative units more aware of the publication costs they were incurring." The memorandum suggested that the costs of operating CP be charged back to user units on the basis of actual hours used in servicing their publication needs.
The units that purchased publication services through CP were generally pleased with the president's memorandum, even though they had some reservations about how the charge-back rate would be calculated. They had not been happy about having to obtain CP's approval in purchasing publication services. Their major complaint had been that CP imposed excessively high standards that resulted in overly expensive publications.
The director of CP was very upset about the president's memorandum. She believed that the charge-back system was a political maneuver by the president to get the task force pressures off his back. She believed that the task force had paid too much attention to publication costs and that the new system would reduce the effectiveness of CP to the college as a whole. She also was upset that the president took unilateral action in establishing the new system. She believed that it was a big jump from the memorandum to the installation of the new system, and was concerned about whether the new system would achieve the desired results.
Required:
a. What arc the likely motivational and operational effects of the new system on
(1) Academic and administrative units requesting and using the services of CP?
(2) Concord Publications?
(3) Concordian College?
b. Evaluate the president's methods for instituting an organization change with respect to Concord Publications.