Help with case study

Welcome to case study 2. This is the second big case study assignment this semester. In this assignment, you will read the "Express Transit Maintenance Division" case. This case combines considerations of internal culture and operations with the need to respond to public perceptions of internal operational problems.  In this case, the manager of the Express Transit, Martin Jiles, learns a potentially large problem in his agency by reading the Saturday newspaper. Mr. Jiles faces a crisis because the safety of bus brakes in a municipal transit system is being questioned in a major investigative media story.  

This case study has a few purposes.

1- The primary purpose of this case is to apply the theoretical knowledge that you learned in this course into a case study. That will take your learning from comprehension level to application, analysis, and synthesis levels. As a result, this case study will help you improve your learning. Other goals are

2- To understand how culture influences organizational outcomes 

3- To analyze the relationship between organizational structure and culture

4- To synthesize a solution to a given problem using the knowledge you learned in this course

To accomplish these goals, you will read the case study provided as an attachment. After reading the case, you will answer the questions below regarding cultural and structural issues in Express Transit. 

Questions

Please answer the following questions after you read the "Express Transit Maintenance Division" case

1- What is the situation at the Transport Maintenance Division and what problems with the Express Transit were mentioned in the Centerville Globe article?

2- Frank Preston emphasized that “Safety is Express’s number one priority. Next is service, then the budget” (p. 3). Why isn’t safety the priority in the Maintenance division of Express Transit? What are the cultural roots of problems? To analyze the cultural roots, please address the questions below:

a. What are the cultural (ethics, values, motives) factors and contribute to the faulty safety culture in the Maintenance division?

b. How do structure and culture influence each other in the Express Transit Maintenance division? In other words, how do structural factors such as budgets and positions influence the culture in the Maintenance division?

c. Why do micro-cultures (e.g. culture in the management team vs. culture in the Maintenance division) occur at the Express Transit? Do some structural elements contribute to creation of micro cultures?

3- What specific actions or decisions should Jiles take to address the faulty safety culture in Express Transit specifically in the Maintenance division? Make complete arguments to support your recommendations.

Instructions for the case report

In this assignment, I want you to write approximately a 4-page (single spaced) essay type report (hint: there is no page limit, but usually 4 pages is enough). In this report, you should have the following sections:

1- Start with an introduction section (recommended length is approximately 1 page) in which you will summarize the case (do not forget to explain what happened, what organizational units were involved, and who were the key individuals in the case) and explain the problems mentioned in the Centerville Globe article.

2- In the second part (recommended length is approximately 1-2 pages), you will analyze the cultural environment in Express Transit and how it interacts with the structural aspects of the organization. 

· Question 2.a: Identify the building blocks of culture (values, ethics, motives) in the Maintenance division and discuss how they contribute to a faulty safety culture.

· Question 2.b: Explain how structural factors such as budgets, positions as well as accountability mechanism shape the culture in the Maintenance division.

· Question 2.c: Apparently there are cultural differences between the management of the Express Transit and the Maintenance division. Discuss what structural factors (e.g. loosely coupled organizations, reputation and trust, etc.) may have contributed to the micro culture in the maintenance division.

3- In the third part (recommended length is approximately 1 page), make recommendations to Martin Jiles to address the cultural problems in Express Transit specifically in the Maintenance division (answer to question 3). Please make complete arguments to support your recommendations. Use course materials (textbook, lectures, videos, other assigned readings) in your arguments as needed.

Please use the course material in your report and cite them in APA style.

Please remember, if you do not cite a source in your report, do not put it in your references. If you put a source in your references, make sure you cite it in your report.