Overview. There are nine possible exercises listed below -- three derived from chapter 11 on employee roles in service delivery, two from chapter 12 on customer roles in service delivery, two from chapter 13 on service delivery through intermediaries, and two from chapter 14 on managing demand and capacity. If you are taking the course for 1 credit, please choose three exercises, one each from a different chapter. These are due on July 11. If you are taking the course for .5 credits, chose any one of the nine. The due date is the same.

Exercises from Chapter 11 - Employee Roles in Service Delivery

1. For an organization and a service point of your choice, identify the kinds of technical and interactive service skills needed by employees at this point. Review and describe the current recuitment, orientation, and training practices. Indicate how they might be improved by using ideas from this chapter. If you think they are perfect as they are, justify why you think so.

2. For an organization and service point of your choice, identify and interview one or two front line employees regarding the stresses they perceive as an intrinsic part of the job. Describe the kind of "emotional labor" they must do to cope with the stress. Develop one or two possible coping mechanisms from the organizational perspective and one or two possible coping skills from the employee perspective that might alleviate some of the stresses.

3. Visit the web site of a library you're familiar with. Describe your perceptions of the climate of the physical library and compare it to what you perceive the climate suggested by the web site.

   
   Exercises from Chapter 12 on Customer roles in Service Delivery

   • Examine Table 12-1 on p. 320. Consider three services offered by an organization of your choice and describe the level of customer participation involved in each of these services. For the service that requires the highest level of customer involvement, describe both technical and interpersonal contributions the customer can make to create a satisfying service delivery situation.

   • consider the concept of compatibility management described in the text on pp. 336-337. For an organization of your choice, describe customer segments in terms of their compatibility with one another. What can the organization do to separate incompatible segments and to encourage positive interactions among compatible segments?

   Exercises from Chapter 13 on Delivery Services through Intermediaries and Electronic Channels
   • Consider either a branch library, an information broker, an organizational partner, a faculty member or teacher or another possible intermediary for library service that you can identify. What are the advantages of using this intermediary? What do you see as one or more of the biggest difficulty in managing this intermediary? What can the organization do to create a more positive situation?

   • For an organization of your choice, identify one or two services not now offered via the Internet that could be and describe them. What do you as the potential challenges and rewards were this service/these services to be offered?

   Exercises from Chapter 14 on Managing Demand and Capacity
   • For an organization of your choice, describe in concrete terms the concept of "maximum capacity" and "optimal capacity." Does the organization generate use statistics related to optimal or maximum capacity? If yes, describe and critique them; if no or you don't know, design a measure that would do this and describe how it might be used.

   • Can you discern patterns of demand for services offered by an organization of your choice? In what ways might capacity be shifted to meet peak demand times? In what ways might demand be managed to make better use of time of greater capacity?

   Post the URL(s) for your exercises on the Webboard. Criteria for Grading. This assignment counts for 20% of your grade. I am looking for thorough and detailed analyses and application of the principles in the text. Creativity in solution or argument is always a plus.
   

   Revised 7/4/2000.