Case Study

(Chapter 8)

The Unsatisfied Department Chair

Dr. Ronald Pancho is chairperson of Business Management Department

in the College of Business Administration at a large university in Dasmariñas
City. He has been a member of the department for 15 years and a full professor
for 1 years. Last summer, he was asked to assume the position of the chair after
a screening committee conducted interviews and reviewed resumes of all the
prospective candidates for the position.
Dr. Panco was very excited about the new challenge and has begun
several innovative projects to enhance faculty research. The teaching function in
the department has always been first rate while research has been weak. Dr.
Panco has continued to be very productive, publishing three articles for a
national journal and two books.
The university’s policy is that salary increases are based on length of
service and merit Dr. Panco had developed a very sophisticated performances
appraisal system for his faculty to help him quantify salary recommendations. His
point system considers and weighs different items in the areas of teaching,
research, and service. Teaching and research were given weighs of 40% each,
with service at 20%. Dr. Pancho felt he had good documentation for all hs
recommendations.
Dr. Pancho submitted his recommendation to Dean Lacap and was
pleased when all these recommendations were accepted.
Dr. Pancho then submitted his own annual report detailing his
accomplishments as chair as well as his more personal accomplishments. From
his perspective, he felt he deserved at least a 15% increase since his department
had made major strides in a number of areas while the other department had
made major strides in a number of areas while the other departments had been
standing still in status quo. Moreover, none of the other chairs were
professionally active on the national level and none had published in the past
year. His teaching evaluations were also outstanding for the past five years.
Dean Lacap sent out letters to all department chairs in May and Dr.
Pancho was shocked to learn that his salary increase was just 7%. He received
information through the “grapevine” that all the chairs had received the 7%
increase. He also learned from one of the other chairs that the dean always gives
the chairs equal percentage increases each year. Contrary to the official
university policy, there were no distinctions based on merit.
Dr. Pancho was visibly upset about what he considered to be a major
inequity. He then called the dean’s secretary to schedule an appointment to
discuss the situation with Dean Lacap.

Help Dean Lacap and Dr. Pancho solve this problem by following the
steps below:

1. State the main problem of Dr. Pancho.

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2. State the difference areas of consideration following the guide
below. Strengths of Dr. Pancho
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Weaknesses of Dr. Pancho
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Opportunities
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Threats
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3. Give your proposed solutions/alternative courses of action or ACA
(minimum of three) to help Dean Lacap solve the problem raised
by Dr. Pancho. State also the advantages and disadvantages of
each ACA.
a.

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b.

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c.

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4. State your recommendation based on your ACA.
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5. Provide a conclusion or detailed action plan to implement your
recommendation using the guide below:
Specific Activity Person Time Frame Budgetary
Responsible Requirements