DDBA 8580 Week 7 COO Decision Memo Example

One Page for the Chief Operating Officer: An Executive Memo on Lifting the Hiring Freeze in the Customer Service Unit, Followed by a Commentary Defending Each Framing Choice With Research on How Managers Sell Issues to Senior Leaders

Student Name

Walden University

DDBA 8580: The New HR: The Savvy Strategic Partner

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

One Page for the Chief Operating Officer: An Executive Memo on Lifting the Hiring Freeze in the Customer Service Unit, Followed by a Commentary Defending Each Framing Choice With Research on How Managers Sell Issues to Senior Leaders

The Memo

To: Chief Operating Officer. From: Director of HR, Operations. Subject: Lift the hiring freeze for 9 customer service positions by March 15.

Recommendation: Lift the freeze for the customer service unit only, approving 9 of the 14 open positions by March 15, so new hires finish training before the May renewal season. The freeze can stay in place everywhere else.

Option A, keep the freeze: no added cost. Average speed of answer, now 4 minutes 10 seconds against a 2-minute target, is projected to pass 7 minutes in May, when renewal calls double. Last May, with a similar gap, 380 commercial accounts cited service in nonrenewal surveys.

Option B, lift for 9 positions: about $470,000 in annualized salary and benefits, $310,000 for the rest of this fiscal year. Projected speed of answer in May: about 2 minutes 40 seconds. Risk: hires made in March cost money through the summer slowdown.

Option C, lift for all 14: about $730,000 annualized. Speed of answer meets target, but five positions would be idle from June to September.

The ask: approve Option B by March 1.

Commentary

The memo is an act of issue selling: an attempt by someone below the top to get senior leaders to attend to an issue and act on it. Dutton and Ashford (1993) proposed that middle managers sell issues by choosing how to frame and package them and when and through whom to raise them, and that these choices affect whether top managers pay attention. Each choice in the memo can be defended in those terms.

Framing in the Executive's Terms

The memo frames the issue as a service and revenue problem, not a staffing problem. It never mentions employee workload, turnover risk or morale, though all three are real. Dutton et al. (2001), studying issue selling in a hospital, found that sellers who tied their issues to the organization's goals and performance, presenting them in business terms, were more successful than those who did not. A chief operating officer measures service levels and renewals; a request framed around those measures enters a conversation the executive is already having. Framing the issue as a people problem would have asked the reader to adopt HR's concerns before considering the request.

Packaging as Options

The memo offers three options rather than a single request. Dutton et al. (2001) found that sellers who packaged their issues with proposed solutions, and who showed they had considered alternatives, gained more traction. Presenting Option B as the middle choice also signals restraint: HR is asking for less than the full fourteen, which makes the request credible.

Timing

The memo asks for a decision by March 1 because hires made later would not finish six weeks of training before May. Dutton et al. (1997) found that middle managers assess the context, including timing and top management's current priorities, before deciding whether and how to sell an issue. The freeze was imposed in January to protect margin; raising the issue in late February, with renewal season approaching, ties it to a deadline the chief operating officer recognizes.

What the Memo Leaves Out

The memo omits the research. A chief operating officer does not need to know about issue selling; the reader needs the decision. The commentary exists for the seminar, not for the reader.

What the Memo Does Not Say

The memo does not argue that the freeze was a mistake. The chief operating officer imposed it to protect margin, and a memo implying the decision was wrong would have asked the reader to defend it before considering the request. Dutton and Ashford (1993) noted that issue sellers weigh the image risk of raising an issue; framing the request as a narrow exception for a seasonal peak lets the executive approve it without reversing an earlier choice. The memo also avoids presenting Option C as the ideal. Offering it shows the full range of choices, but recommending less than the maximum signals that HR has weighed the cost as the executive would.

What Happens After Approval

If the chief operating officer approves, recruiting starts the same week, and HR reports speed of answer weekly through May so the decision can be judged by its results.

Limits

The projections of speed of answer come from the unit's staffing model and depend on May call volume, which could differ.

References

Dutton, J. E., & Ashford, S. J. (1993). Selling issues to top management. Academy of Management Review, 18(3), 397-428. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1993.9309035145

Dutton, J. E., Ashford, S. J., O'Neill, R. M., Hayes, E., & Wierba, E. E. (1997). Reading the wind: How middle managers assess the context for selling issues to top managers. Strategic Management Journal, 18(5), 407-423.

Dutton, J. E., Ashford, S. J., O'Neill, R. M., & Lawrence, K. A. (2001). Moves that matter: Issue selling and organizational change. Academy of Management Journal, 44(4), 716-736. https://doi.org/10.2307/3069412