Mary Clark served as the head of the Student Service Center at Metropolitan College. Her department was preparing for the commencement of a new school year, where eight people are in charge of the registration process for nearly 1,000 new students. However, Clark stated that the registration process in the previous year had proved unsatisfactory, so she wanted to make some improvements for the coming school year. In each school year, students arrive in the first week of September, which is called Orientation Week. During this week, they have to register for their courses, pay tuition fees and take part in many orientation activities. Mary described the detailed steps to different people in charge and a temporary office was set up to deal with the large number of registrations in such a short period. To be specific, all students needed to review and confirm their registration data such as their address, program tuition and course selection as the first step in the office. Nearly 10 percent of students did not fill out their registration forms correctly and thus had to start the process once again. Students coming from outside the province needed to complete the out-of-province health coverage plan as the second step. Then, students could register for several services in the third step. Finally, they had to complete the payment of the fees and tuition in the last step. Once they finished the payment step, they had to go to the first floor, where the Student Service Office is located and code and issue their student card. Specifically, they entered into the office and waited to be called. Then, they had to hand in the receipt to the staff to prepare the student card. Mary found that the temporary staff in charge of Steps 1, 2, 3 and 7 was paid $15 for each hour, while the workers at the registration office and the members in charge of Steps 5 and 6 were paid $25 and $20 per hour, respectively. However, as the registration will see expansion in the next year, Mary is seeking to make improvements to the registration process.

1. What other course of action would you recommend to help solve the problem?

2. Would you say that the problems stem from upper level management and their poor decision making in terms of upgrading the process using technology?