Fosco is a major US-based data handling firm that has several sites throughout the UK and mainland Europe. It employs 4,000 people and its core business involves transactional services related to the processing of data received from its key customers. The data is delivered to Fosco in either electronic or hard-copy form and consists of market survey questionnaires and customer opinion data. Fosco adds value to this data by transferring it to data files, coding data analyses and generating a variety of report formats. These reports may be delivered electronically to customers or printed as bound reports. The data that Fosco handles is highly sensitive and confidential. Its customers include government departments, the National Health Service and commercial organizations.

Work is carried out to very precise specifications and tight deadlines. Fosco implements a flexible employment resource model. It has a large pool of agency staff (15 per cent of employees) that consists of data entry clerks, data processors and data printers. It also has a large number of employees from two subcontractor firms (BTech and TeCno). They consist of technical staff who provide computer troubleshooting services and a variety of technical support services. BTech managers work on Fosco premises and manage BTech staff. TeCno manages work on a remote basis and is rarely on Fosco premises. Fosco implements this employment model to ensure flexibility, quick turnaround and lower costs. Fosco has encountered a number of challenges in implementing its resourcing model.

Fist, contractor staff have created problems due to their inability to prioritize the work that needs to be completed. They are frequently reluctant to drop a low-priority troubleshooting task to deal with a problem that is holding up the completion of a high-priority batch of data analyses. Fosco managers are experiencing difficulties in engaging with BTech employees, and on occasions they have had to engage with BTech manages if they required a problem to be addressed quickly. Frequently, BTech managers are no available with the result that Fosco has had to pay overtime in order to get tasks completed. This has given rise to major conflicts, a lack of clear lines of communication and poor accountability.

Second, a number of problems have arisen in relationships between agency and subcontractor staff, although relationships have generally been good. These problems have centred on how best to prioritize work and a lack of observance of health and safety and breaches of provide solutions.

confidentiality. Some agency and contractors staff are not aware of health and safety procedures and do not comply with regulatory requirement. Agency employees on occasions do not fully appreciate the sensitivity data. Contractor staff have on two occasions taken highly confidential electronic records belonging to a government department from the Fosco premises to work on them at home.

Fosco has come to the conclusion that there is a lack of leadership and management skills. In particular, managers are not sufficiently proactive, and they get bogged down in unnecessary detail. Recent engagement survey data suggests that employee's morale is low. There is an absence of strategy awareness and forward planning. Problems are frequently left unsolved and conflict issues are not addressed. Recent customer surveys have highlighted significant dissatisfaction with service levels.

Customer relationship management was highlighted as a particular deficiency. Employees complain that they receive little feedback from managers and the work they perform is vey boring. As a result, Fosco has called in an external consultant to analyse the management skill situation and provide some change solutions.

Case questions

1.What is the key issue or problem and what are the sub-issues in this case? Justify your answer with evidence from the case and provide a short justification for each sub-issue mentioned in your answer.

2.What are the relevant change concepts, theories, and frameworks that can be applied to this case? Provide at least two and justify relevance of each theory.

3.Outline a change plan demonstrating how your preferred strategy or strategies could be put forward to address the issues and problems in this case.Provide a brief outline of each strategy and a timeline for the execution of your proposed implementation, evaluation, and maintenance plan.