Chapter 4

Solving problems in
Office Management

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE
MANAGEMENT
OBM345/Chp4 1 Administrative Office Management
 Definitions of Problems

Two common definitions of problems:

✓ a problem is a question to be answered
✓ a problem is considered as the difference between
what is (the present condition) and what should be
(the goal) – the difference between that what is known
and that which is unknown but desired.
✓ if undesirable circumstances exist over which
managers have no control, then no problem exists.

OBM345/Chp4 2 Administrative Office Management

 Figure 3-2

Does Not WHAT SHOULD BE

WHAT IS Equal or (The Desired State
(The Present State Agree with Or Condition: the
Or Condition)
Objective)

OBM345/Chp4 3 Administrative Office Management

Office Problem Usually Fall into Two Categories
 Involves the destruction, removal or containment of
something present but not desired such as absenteeism,
noise, inaccurate accounting, or poor morale.

 Involves acquiring something not present but

desired such as creating good working relationship,
achieving a high performance rating as an office
supervisor, or receiving promotion

OBM345/Chp4 4 Administrative Office Management

 Administrative Office Manager as Problem Solvers

Administrative Office Manager are responsible for solving

many basic functional problems, such as the
following:
1. Setting the right objective
2. Organizing the employees, equipment, and space to meet these
objectives
3. Directing and supervising the workforce in a productive manner
4. Putting into place controls over systems and procedures to ensure
that high levels of productivity are maintained.

Problem solving requires a person’s ability to tie together

organization goals with the abilities to plan, organize, and
use the many resources needed to meet those goals.
OBM345/Chp4 5 Administrative Office Management
  AOM face operating problems that put into action the
policies made by top management

1. Routine Problem that are well structured and that occur

regularly with the operation of the business – E.g. reordering
office supplies and the recruiting of office employees

2. Non Routine Problem that are unique and that require

creative solution. E.g. setting new branch, converting from
manual to a computerized filing system and dealing with an
unexpected drop in office productivity.

OBM345/Chp4 6 Administrative Office Management

 Problem Solving and Productivity

Productivity
• the ratio between the resources (inputs) used by a
business firm (hours of labor, capital, machinery and
equipment, raw materials such as information, and
energy) and what the firm realizes from using those
resources.

Concept of Office Productivity

• the value of output produced outweighs the costs of
the inputs and the costs of the throughputs.

OBM345/Chp4 7 Administrative Office Management

 Figure 3-3

THE
UNPRODUCTIVE
OFFICE

THE
PRODUCTIVE
OFFICE

OBM345/Chp4 8 Administrative Office Management

 Problem Solving Process
 Most problems show that the present conditions fail to
meet the conditions desired. Problem solver must
determine the extent of the differences.

 Need to understand the nature of the problem before

that understanding can be turned into action.

 Therefore, a systematic approach to solving problems

is required.

OBM345/Chp4 9 Administrative Office Management

Problem-Solving Environment
 Includes the conditions surrounding the problem and
the specific factors directly involved in its solution
 Principle features are multicultural background and
human attitudes
1. Multicultural background
 Our multicultural background plays important role in
problem solving
 Person born and reared in rural areas – develop values
very different from people stay in city.
 Ethnic group with widely differing backgrounds bring
widely different attitude and values to the workplace.

OBM345/Chp4 10 Administrative Office Management

 Problem-Solving Environment
2. Human Attitudes
 Our diverse cultural backgrounds are responsible for developing
attitudes that each of us brings to our job.
a. Our attitude towards ourselves
b. Our attitude toward other workers
c. Our attitude toward the work

 Attitude are difficult to change

 The most common and serious human attitude in problem solving

is a resistance to change
 E.g. that a great idea for some firms, but not for us, we’ve never
done it that way etc.

OBM345/Chp4 11 Administrative Office Management

 Basic Elements of the Problem

The Principle elements causing problems in the

Office are:
 Human resources – including the decision maker
responsible for solving the problem.
 Space – in which the office work is done.
 Machine and Equipment
 Time – required for completing the work
 System and Procedures – need to perform the work
 Other resources – including capital, the physiological
environment and the information available for
performing the work.

OBM345/Chp4 12 Administrative Office Management

 Basic Elements of the Problem

A problem to be solve can be viewed as a state or

condition that requires improvement or obtain valid
information on a subject about which information is
lacking.
The Present State (Current Office Problem)
 Low morale of key office workers
 Unequal distribution of work within the office
 Difficulties in accessing records requested from the electronic files
 Workers bored by so-called dull paper-filing tasks
 Too much work for size of the staff
 Inability of supervisor to delegate tasks
 Lack of coordination by the office manager regarding the various
functions under his or her jurisdiction.

OBM345/Chp4 13 Administrative Office Management

 Basic Elements of the Problem
 The desire state or condition of an office
operation is describe in the statements of objective,
goals or expected outcomes toward which all office work
is directed.
◦ E.g. general objective
 Increasing productivity
 Reducing office expenses
 Decrease absenteeism
 To be useful, such general objective must be converted
into more specific objective
◦ E.g. specific objective
 Increasing productivity of customers’ billing by 10 % without a
corresponding increase in employees
 Reducing office overtime expenses by 25%
 Decreasing absenteeism in the computer center by 5%

OBM345/Chp4 14 Administrative Office Management

 Basic Elements of the Problem
 Controllable factors
◦ E.g. workers, work delegated,
◦ procedures to design for performing the work.
◦ What types of machine to buy etc.
Uncontrollable factors
◦ E.g. working hour’s set by top management
◦ Policies required to follow when purchase any machines
etc.

OBM345/Chp4 15 Administrative Office Management

 Problem Solving Abilities
 The Problem solver needs both knowledge of the
problem and a broad background concerning its possible
causes.

 An effective problem solver needs three types of

human abilities:

1. Creative Ability
2. Logical Ability
3. Intuitive Ability

OBM345/Chp4 16 Administrative Office Management

 Problem Solving Abilities
Creative Ability
 Creativity is our ability to apply imagination or a unique
solution to a problem.
 The creative office worker is one who can develop useful
ideas for solving problems

 Technique to develop creative

1. Brainstorming
2. Idea Quota
3. Forced Relationship
4. Nominal Group Technique (NGT)

OBM345/Chp4 17 Administrative Office Management

 Problem Solving Abilities
Creative Ability - Brainstorming

1. Brainstorming – is a group technique for creating a

large quantity of ideas by freewheeling contributions
made without criticism.

 Four Rules to be followed in Brainstorming

a. Defer judgments; that is initially the group does not
stop to decide whether the ideas are worthwhile or
not.
b. Freewheel without concern for the ideas of others
c. Do not wait for an idea to come but rather develop
another idea
d. Aim for a quality of ideas as a goal.
OBM345/Chp4 18 Administrative Office Management
 Problem Solving Abilities
Creative Ability – Idea Quota & Forced Relationship

2. Idea Quota – Is another technique for stimulating the

creation of ideas in which a fixed number of new ideas
is required in a stated period of time.
◦ E.g. Five ways to reduce proofreading errors, in one minute.

3. Forced Relationship – Requires problem solvers to

consider in a new way something that is already
known.

OBM345/Chp4 19 Administrative Office Management

 Problem Solving Abilities
Creative Ability - Nominal Group Technique (NGT)

4. Nominal Group Technique (NGT) - Useful for solving

problems related to office productivity improvement.

• Participant work alone, silently, in small no interaction group of five

to nine person.
• Writing with possible solution, through the idea guided by facilitator,
members read their idea aloud without criticism or discussion, idea
are recorded, discussed and clarified as needed then participant
individually and silently rate all alternative solutions in priority order

OBM345/Chp4 20 Administrative Office Management

 Problem Solving Abilities
Logical Ability

 Creativity and logic work together in the difficult task of

problem solving.

 The effective use of logic requires us to collect relevant,

current facts; to use them in orderly, unbiased way; and
to reason in a systematic, analytical manner with an open
mind to solve the problem.

OBM345/Chp4 21 Administrative Office Management

 Problem Solving Abilities
Intuitive Ability

 Is stressed by experienced managers or is made up of intuition,

the emotional feelings and judgment that managers develop
based on long years of experience using methods that have
worked well for them.

 By using fewer people to make decision than the logical,

systematic problem solvers, intuitive thinkers can solve quickly
to consider more simplified solutions than other types of
problem solver – they run the risk of ignoring and failing to
consider all aspect of a problem.

OBM345/Chp4 22 Administrative Office Management

 Steps in Problem Solving

Two ways:

 Informal – intuitive way without specifically

considering the steps outlined.

 Formal – logical, sequential order in stating (define

and analyze) the problem and then to solve it.

OBM345/Chp4 23 Administrative Office Management

 Steps in Problem Solving

OBM345/Chp4 24 Administrative Office Management

 STEP 1: RECOGNIZING THE PROBLEM
• Symptoms are not problems.
• Symptoms are signs indicating that a problem may exist.

STEP 2: DECIDING THE PROBLEM

• Deciding what the main issues of the problems are and
clarifying the differences between the major goals and the
actual operating results.
• Use of relevant information is important

OBM345/Chp4 25 Administrative Office Management

 STEP 3: COLLECTING RELEVANT INFORMATION

• WHAT is the real problem, elements and symptoms?

• WHERE did problem occur? WHY THERE?
• WHEN it occurred? WHY at THIS TIME?
• HOW it occurred? WHY THIS WAY?
• TO WHOM it occurred? WHY HIM or HER?
• WHO makes final decision to solve the problem?

OBM345/Chp4 26 Administrative Office Management

 STEP 4: ANALYZING RELEVANT INFORMATION
• to examine each element and its relationship to the other
elements and to the whole problem,
• to discover interrelationships and patterns in the work
operations,
• to compare the problem with other situations; and
• to sort, sequence, or order the problem.

STEP 5: DEVELOPING ALTERNATE SOLUTIONS

• developing a set of hypotheses
• decision tree (fig. 3-6) – used to chart the alternate courses
of action for solving the problem and probable consequences.
OBM345/Chp4 27 Administrative Office Management
 STEP 6: CHOOSING THE BEST SOLUTION
(MAKING THE DECISION)
• Reasons for choosing:

• takes less time

• will be more effective
• will be preferred by employees and mgt.
• will result in greater productivity
• intuition says it’s the best
• will help to reduce operating costs

OBM345/Chp4 28 Administrative Office Management

 STEP 7: IMPLEMENTING THE SOLUTION
• Putting the selected solution to work.

STEP 8: EVALUATING THE RESULTS

• Two factors are evaluated:
• quantity (how much is produced?)
• quality (how satisfactory or convenient?)
• Involves:
• self-criticism of group’s solution
• reviewing present work processes for future improvements
• rating how well solution removes or decreases seriousness
of problem.
OBM345/Chp4 29 Administrative Office Management
 Major Problems in the Office and Barriers
to Their Solution

OBM345/Chp4 30 Administrative Office Management

 Barriers in Solving Office Problems
1. Human Problems

Relate to attitudes & biases, ethical

concepts & value systems, motivation &
interest in the job, fear of losing job or
respect, and lack of personal skills.
Advances in IT creates many forms of
special human problems.
Other traits: limited memory, can process
limited info. simultaneously, limited
computational abilities, influences by
organizational environment and, usually
work under stress.
OBM345/Chp4 31 Administrative Office Management
 Therefore, there is a need to:
• design satisfying jobs
• protect the privacy of employee information
• ensure that jobs will continue
• provide retraining
• resolve power struggles among leaders in OA
Difficulty in dealing with problems:
Our subjective, intangible, and emotional nature.
Basic qualifications for solving human problems:
Trust, fair-mindedness, patience, good judgment, and
common sense.

OBM345/Chp4 32 Administrative Office Management

 2. Systems Problems
• systems set to accomplish assigned work
• problems are more objective and measurable
than human problems
• For example: expensive machines, machine
breakdowns and, poor working conditions.

3. Economic Problems
For example: high energy costs, money,
time, low productivity, theft of company
property and, low office budget.

OBM345/Chp4 33 Administrative Office Management

 End of Chapter 4
THANK YOU

34

OBM345/Chp4 Administrative Office Management