Case Assignment

Case Study Assignment 1

Build the management-research question hierarchy, through the investigative Questions stage. Then compare your list with the measurement questions asked

To develop a hierarchy of the management questions, the first issue to be considered is the management dilemma. In this case, there is the quest for the directorate to attract more membership to provide the requisite support to the renovated new facility and to account for the existing membership that is aging. Basically, AT &T bought NCR Corporation and offered them a lump sum amount of 4 million dollars to undertake the complete renovation.

The second question in the hierarchy is how the NCR country club can increase its membership given that the existing one is getting old, and could thus jeopardize the funding of its activities and getting new ideas from members, especially the youthful ones. In this case, the immediate aim of management is to increase the number of golf members to 680 and increase social membership to get membership high as possible. The country club was compelled to raise membership by undertaking an aggressive marketing campaign to sensitize people about its activities and to undertake strategic planning (Lambert, 2003). In strategic planning, the club employed the service of Mohan group to offer strategic and research consulting to enhance full –golf service facilities and golf clubs under its domain.

Another management question is why the club is not attracting new members, obstructing its strategy for increased membership and ultimately a failure to increase the revenues. It was discovered that the golf clubs were not attractive especially to the young ones who felt that the levels of services were still lower than what they anticipated from a superior private country club and did not reflect the quest for high profits exhibited by the directors. To address this management question, the organization was forced to consider providing additional facilities such as fitness facilities, swimming pools that could attract members with children and the youth (Coldwell & Herbst, 2004).

Based on the analysis of the management questions, it is worth noting that the problem bedeviling the club is its dwindling membership as a result of the existing members getting old and the organization’s inability to attract young members, thus calling for strategic change management in addressing the problem at hand (Lambert, 2003).

Given the research question, how appropriate were the measurement questions?

The intention of the research questions is to discover the requisite solutions available that can assist the management in addressing the problems facing the club. Coming up with research questions can be challenging especially when determining areas to focus on in the quest of comprehending the root causes of the problems and the possible remedies (Saha & Sridhar, 2011). In this case, it is evident that increasing membership is the focus, but is subject to some factors that should be taken into account and lead to research questions. The research questions that could be used to unravel the solution to the problem include, what are the specific factors that lead to a lack of growth in the membership numbers. What specific factors should be considered to increase the total number of members? How the growth of membership of the club compare to others in the industry (Bryman &Bell, 2007). Apart from the membership growth questions, other issues that can be considered are whether the respondents are willing to increase their membership fee to enhance performance and to incorporate member specific events in the club.

In the analysis of the research question regarding increasing club membership, the most inappropriate question is the willingness of the members or respondents to pay more for the services offered by the club and whether there is a need to include non-event activities in the club (Saha & Sridhar, 2011). For the most part, members want to feel that clubs are doing the most for them from the beginning. The level of support given is justification for spending more money on a lavish golf club membership or experience by customers. When expectations are not meet based on assumptions, a situation arises as described in this study. For examples in the text:

Members think of NCRCC as first a golf club, but the golf was not meeting

expectations. Second, members see NCRCC as a dining club, but the members

were dissatisfied with the casual dining product and service,” shared Vain

Doing research will help identify and resolve problems, and this case study is a prime candidate to do so. Reading and answering the first two questions of this article was thoroughly enjoyed.

References

Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2007). Business research methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Coldwell, D., & Herbst, F. J. (2004). Business research. New York: Juta Academic.

Lambert, T. (2003). Key management questions: Smart questions for every business situation.

London: Prentice Hall.

Saha, D., & Sridhar, V. (2011). Emerging Areas of Research in Business Data Communications.

International Journal of Business Communications, 7, 4: 52-59.