Role assignment question
Before making any discretionary decision, I would first weigh it to determine its implications on both the organization, on the staff, on my superiors as well as on the public. It is imperative to ensure that the decision made does not adversely affect all the stakeholders. However, it might reach a time when one would be required to make a decision despite it adversely affecting some of the parties. This is the time that requires trade-offs between the different stakeholders. It would be advisable to make discretionary decisions that do not adversely affect the public despite the decision affecting the superiors or the organization. This is where it would require one to be firm in making decisions. Making a decision that favors the organization at the expense of the public may lead to a bad organizational reputation. In return, the company may lose its customers.
Conflicting pressures affecting the company
The airline is one of the transportation industries that require thorough inspection with respect to public safety. In Heartland international Airport, the issue of the frequency of inspections to be conducted and the mode of inspection results in two major conflicting issues (Bryner, 1986, p. 123). These are the issue of public safety and the economic effects faced by the airline companies. Reducing the number of inspections would compromise public safety. In case the company decides to go on with its inspection procedures, most of the activities involved are labor-intensive, which means that they will take a lot of time and require a lot of money. In return, airlines will be faced with added expenses in the name of aircraft maintenance.
Of the two pressures, public safety needs to be accorded the highest priority. There are numerous advantages associated with this choice which include an increase in the company’s profit (Bryner, 1986, p. 134). Failure to ensure the safety of the plane would lead to the company incurring other costs such as insurance compensation in case of an accident. This will not have saved the company from expenses. Giving public safety the first priority would lead to the company’s reputation among the customers improving. Consequently, its brand will be strong hence overcoming competition.
Despite this option having some advantages, there are also disadvantages accompanying it. These include increased operation costs (Lipsky, 1980, p. 53). Time consumed in conducting inspection could be used in ferrying passengers. Thus it will also lead to time wastage.
Course of action to be taken by Maxwell
Based on the sensitivity of public safety in air transport, Maxwell needs to ensure that he has fully utilized resources available to him in ensuring that all planes are inspected before being allowed to take flights. From an ethical perspective, it is right to ensure the security of the passengers who use their services. This is because it is one of their responsibilities. From an economic perspective, it would be considered as the right decision to opt for a choice that will help in reducing operating costs. However, this would be at the expense of people using transport services (Lipsky, 1980, pp. 61-73). Based on the mandate handed to Maxwell from his superiors, the right decision would be to use the available resources in identifying some of the planes that are more susceptible to breakdowns and maintaining them first.
Approaching the reality of working with limited resources
At times, it becomes hard to increase the number of employees working within an organization despite an increase in workload. This is the period that requires managers to come up with strategies for utilizing the available resource. In responding to the reality of limited staff and resources in the organization, Maxwell needs not to fight the cut if there is a substantial reason for the act. He requires coming up with a strategy that will help him effectively utilize the available resources and employees. This is the period when he needs to weigh the various inspection practices to determine the most important. From here he can then decide to use the limited resources in addressing these practices while avoiding some of the trivial practices.
Reallocating staff and inspectors
The limited number of staff in the organization can not be able to meet all the maintenance practices required. As a result, some of the practices will have to be omitted or postponed to a later date. For most important practices, it will require one to come up with a plan for reallocating the available staff and inspectors. For instance, since the available workers would not be enough to inspect all the planes, he ought to focus on the most vulnerable planes such as those that are ten years and above. He also needs to focus on the large planes as they carry a big number of passengers (Burke, 1986, p. 343). Consolidating inspections may lead to some of the vital inspection stages being omitted. Thus it would not be advisable for him to consolidate inspections despite the limited resources.
Approaching the dilemma of twin-engine planes
The issue of inspecting twin-engine aircraft leads to organizations incurring a lot of expense. The process is also time-consuming. To mitigate these problems, Maxwell needs to increase the flight period for new planes to 1000hrs before they are inspected. This will reduce the number of inspections thus save time. Maintenance and auditing can run concurrently to reduce the number of engine disassembling. To guarantee safety, he needs to ensure that commercial crews are supervised to stick to the stipulated procedures for old planes. He needs to ensure that they do not tamper with flight logs for old planes which may result in problems. Increasing the number of flight hours would help in reducing the number of staff required for inspection (Burke, 1986, p. 359). In addition, they can inspect one category of planes at a time to make better use of the available staff.
Reference
Bryner, G. C. (1986). Bureaucratic discretion: law and policy in Federal Regulatory Agency. New York: Pergamum Press.
Burke, J. P. (1986). Bureaucratic Responsibility. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
Lipsky, M. (1980). Stress-level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individuals in public services. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.