Week 3 Assignment: Identify the Client and Problem, Conduct a Needs Assessment and Solution Identification

This course is designed to provide hands-on experience that utilizes the learning from previous courses. With your knowledge of the client you have identified and the learning you have acquired to this point, identify a management problem you will investigate and for which you will provide recommended solutions. If you are working with a supervisor or manager, you may want to consult with them to complete this step.

Instructions: VERY IMPORTANT! If you have not already read the information in the Content Section (the link is located on the left-hand side of the classroom), you should do so without delay. You will find additional information there that will help you be successful in this class.

This paper will have four main parts: 

1. Identifying the Client
2. Identifying the Problem
3. Conducting a Need Assessment
4. Solution Identification

Part 1: Identify the Client:  The first step is to identify a client for whom you will act as a consultant. The client can be your own work group or company, a family business you are involved with, a business you worked for previously, a volunteer organization you work for or have worked with, or a public company. The client you choose should be a small group or organization in which you can influence change in your role as a consultant. Please do not select “the military” or “the U.S. government” or “Giant XYZ Corporation.” However you may choose a small entity, such as a workgroup, within any of the larger organizations. For example, if you are in the military, focus on your group. If you select a Giant XYZ Corporation, select the department.

The length of part one is 2- 3 paragraphs.   

Part 2: Identify the Problem: In this portion of the paper your goal is to identify a problem or issue that is impacting performance in the organization. With your knowledge of the client, you have identified and the learning you have acquired to this point, identify a management problem you will investigate and for which you will provide recommended solutions. If you are working with a supervisor or manager, you may want to consult with them to complete this step.

Read the material at the sites listed in the Week 1 Content Section to help guide you in identifying a management problem in your work environment. This section is generally 1-2 pages.

Part 3: Complete a Needs Assessment by submitting a 1-2 page paper discussing the client’s needs with relation to the management problem you are studying.

Read the material at the sites listed in the Week 2 Content Section to help guide you in understanding needs in relation to your management problem.

Part 4: Conduct a Needs Assessment 

Conduct a Needs Assessment based on the identified problem. The questions below can help you conduct a needs assessment. This list is not all-inclusive and is a guide to support you when completing a Needs Assessment. They are provided to help you get started and inspire questions to explore.  

• What is the problem?
• How is the desired performance related to the current performance?
• How does the desired performance relate to the mission statement?
• Is the problem organization-wide or isolated to one or a few individuals?
• Have organizational initiatives created the problem?
• Does the problem relate to individual performance issues?
• Is training adequate to support the desired outcome?
• Is the issue related to job design?
• What criteria are used to measure performance?
• Is performance criteria appropriate, i.e. attainable and measurable?

Part 3 should be 1-3 pages depending on the management topic you identified.  

Part 4: Solution Identification

For solution identification read the material at the sites listed in the Week 3 Content Section to help guide you in identifying solutions to the management problem you have identified. 

Here are some tips to help you create your solutions:

• Solutions should focus on the problem, be accepted by the team and be achievable.
• Find opportunities to allow the individuals to meet to work out the differences, respectfully. Focus on strategies that can build trust in the relationship.
• Look at the tasks that the individuals are responsible for and explore whether they have had adequate training or resources to be successful in performing their tasks (so the solution is to provide additional training and/or mentoring to help your folks be successful).
• Evaluate the conditions under which these two work (are they sitting right next to the community coffee pot or the photocopy machine or with poor ventilation or no natural light? Is the environment affecting their behavior?) The solution may be to fix the problem by moving them or making some other change.
• Is it financially feasible? Can it be completed in a reasonable time? Can it be done within financial cost structures? What is the return on investment?

If you get stuck in a section, below are some questions to get you unstuck. 

• What are the goals of the company / division / workgroup? Do they align with the mission of the company?
• Is there data to substantiate this or is it a perception of the manager?
• Who is involved…the manager, the employees, stakeholders?
• How long has this problem existed?
• What and how are expectations and requirements communicated
• When expectations or key deadlines are missed, what happens?
• What factors contribute to the problem (politics, structure, decision-making factors)?j
• Are technical skills or training contributing to the problem?
• Are there ethical issues relating to the problem?
• If so, how have those issues been handled to date?
  
  These questions do not all need to be answered nor is this list all-inclusive; they are provided to help you get started and inspire your own questions to explore while completing this assignment.
  
  

When relationships experience roadblocks of any sort we can say there is a problem in the relationship. This is true for both personal and professional relationships. When identifying and analyzing potential problems one would start first with the symptoms of the problem. This is sometimes a difficult process as it can be easy to confuse symptoms with the problem. For instance, perhaps as a manager, you are dealing with a lack of acceptable productivity with two of the ten people who work in your area of responsibility. Maybe one of those people is cranky and difficult to work with.

In this case, the problem you need to solve as a manager is one of increasing productivity in your area to an acceptable level. Managers respond to this issue in many ways depending upon their skill, ability, knowledge and maturity. Some managers may transfer some of the work from the two problem employees to some or all the other employees. This solution will, in turn, produce additional symptoms that now are visible in the behavior and productivity level of the other eight employees in addition to the original two employees. You can see that this solution will only continue to affect productivity in a negative manner and never really solves the problem. Therefore, during the problem identification stage, one ought to be certain they are looking at the problem and rather than trying to reduce or eliminate symptoms.

Part 4 should be 2-3 pages discussing the Solution Identification.

Assignment Submission: Submit your final assignment in the assignment tab. Paper lengths depend on your management topic, but typically range from 8 – 10 pages.  Submit your paper in a word document, upload to your Week 3 “Identify the Problem” Assignment folder in the classroom. This is due by midnight on Sunday of Week 3.

Your paper should follow APA format 7^th Edition and Contain:

1. Title Page
2. Identifying the Client
3. Identifying the Problem
4. Conducting a Need Assessment
5. Solution Identification
6. References – a minimum of 4 unique sources none of which can be Wikipedia.

Government Contracting & Acquisition students should review pages 5-6 and pages20-23 of the Contract Management Body of Knowledge (CMBOK) Desktop Pocket Guide for additional guidance.