MHRM 6801 Week 10 Single Intervention Proposal Example

One Change and Everything It Leaves Alone: An Overage Call That Lets Bellamy Re-Plan Oversized Moves on the Spot, With Part of the Estimator's Commission Adjusting When the Load Runs Long

Student Name

Walden University

MHRM 6801: Organizational Effectiveness and Leadership

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

One Change and Everything It Leaves Alone: An Overage Call That Lets Bellamy Re-Plan Oversized Moves on the Spot, With Part of the Estimator's Commission Adjusting When the Load Runs Long

The Change

According to the diagnosis, claims track how far the loaded volume overshoots the estimate, the commission keeps that overshoot alive and nothing in the process intercepts it. This proposal answers with one change, the overage call, in two linked parts.

First, when a crew chief judges on arrival that a load will run more than 15 percent past the estimate, the chief phones the depot manager before loading begins. The manager has three options: send a second crew or truck, split the move into two days with the customer's agreement or authorize the crew to proceed with an extra hour built into the schedule. The decision is recorded on the dispatch sheet within the hour.

Second, when an overage call is made, part of the estimator's commission on that move adjusts. The estimator keeps the commission on the original estimate but forgoes one third of it, and the customer's revised price reflects the actual volume under Bellamy's existing contract terms. Estimators whose estimates fall within 10 percent receive a small accuracy bonus each quarter.

Why This Change

The change targets the two links in the diagnosis with the highest confidence and the one with the clearest mechanism. The overage call inserts the missing step, a point where load information returns to someone who can act on it. The commission adjustment changes what estimators are paid for. Kerr (1975) argued that the reliable way to change behavior is to change what is rewarded, rather than to exhort people toward a different goal.

What It Leaves Alone

Keeping the change to one intervention has a purpose beyond simplicity. If claims fall after the overage call, Bellamy will know why. If several changes start at once, no one will be able to tell which mattered.

Table 1

What the Overage Call Does Not Change

Composite organization.

Who Owns the Change

The operations director owns the overage call and reviews the dispatch log of calls each Monday. The sales manager owns the commission adjustment and reports the accuracy bonus each quarter. The claims desk adds one field to every claim, whether an overage call was made on that move, so the trial can be judged from records the company already keeps. Harrison (2005) notes that interventions often fail not because the diagnosis was wrong but because no one was responsible for carrying them through; naming owners and building measurement into existing records is meant to prevent that. The owners receive a one-page summary at the end of each month of the trial.

Expected Resistance

Estimators will object to the commission adjustment, and their objection deserves a direct answer. Kotter and Schlesinger (1979) identified participation and negotiation among the approaches to resistance; the estimators should help set the threshold and the size of the accuracy bonus before launch. Depot managers may resist being called before 8 a.m. The calls will be rare: at current rates, about one in five moves, or three to five a day per depot in summer.

Trial and Measures

Run the overage call at Aurora and Colorado Springs for one summer, with Denver and Fort Collins as comparisons. Track the claims rate on large-gap moves, the share of estimates within 10 percent and the number of overage calls. If claims on large-gap moves at the trial depots do not fall by at least a third against the comparison depots, the change should be reconsidered.

Limits

Splitting a move requires the customer's agreement, which some will refuse. The commission adjustment may push estimators toward overestimating, which would cost bookings; the accuracy bonus is designed to discourage that, and the share of estimates over the load should be watched.

References

Harrison, M. I. (2005). Diagnosing organizations: Methods, models, and processes (3rd ed.). Sage.

Kerr, S. (1975). On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B. Academy of Management Journal, 18(4), 769-783. https://doi.org/10.2307/255378

Kotter, J. P., & Schlesinger, L. A. (1979). Choosing strategies for change. Harvard Business Review, 57(2), 106-114.