Critical Studies In Organization And Bureaucracy - A Case Study

Describe about the Critical Studies In Organization And Bureaucracy?

This particular report is intended to represent information gathered to make business decision in an appropriate manner. Here, it is noted that Mr. Graeme Craig, the business development director at TFL (travel for London) seeks advice regarding whether to continue the bus service on route no 23 or not. In order to support Mr. Graeme Craig to take decision regarding this particular aspect, information related to bus service at route no 23 were collected and then those information were assessed in below mentioned section with the help of several statistical tools. The entire evaluation includes four parts such as Part A, Part B, Part C and Part D.

It is noted that Mr. Graeme Craig assumes the bus service on this route 23 is not utilized by many people for the reason that the route is dwelled by the business person as well as the households have at least one car at their disposal. Under such circumstance continuing the bus service on this route indicates that the government experienced huge amount of cost. So, it is important to recognize whether continuation of this bus services is profitable or not.

Part A: Data Gathering:

This section of the study aims to provide information about what kind of data were gathered to resolve the issue and how data were gathered.

It is noted that the issue that exists here, entirely revolved around the perception of Mr. Graeme Craig regarding this particular bus route. There is no such evidenced to conclude how many people are travelled all the way through this route and how many of them used the bus service on route no 23 while travelling. Further, it is also estimated that most of the people who travelled through this route having at least one private car. So, there might be circumstances, where people prefer to travel using private cars rather public bus services.

Under such circumstances, it is necessary to review the number of people used this bus service time to time as well as it is also required to assess the perception of the individual people who travel through this route. So, basically the primary data needs to be collected here. Now, to collect primary data, two specific instruments were used here. First of all, there is followed a observational study, with the help of which, number of people use the bus service will be pointed on each hour all the way through Monday to Sunday. The data gathering will start from early morning at 7 AM to 10 PM each day. On the other hand a closed ended questionnaire will used to gather information from the people who travel through this route.

Under such circumstances, it is clear that here the research methodology includes mainly two type of data collection techniques, the observational study and the questionnaire method. When the sample for observational study is the entire population who travel all the way through this route; for questionnaire study, 100 people were selected who travel through this route 23. Here, the conventional sampling method is applied for selecting those 100 people as it is the best approach to draw sample which appropriately represent the entire population.

Part A: Data Gathering

The below table will use for observational study:

Table 1
Time	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
0700 - 0800								0
0800 - 0900								0
0900 - 1000								0
1000 - 1100								0
1100 - 1200								0
1200 - 1300								0
1300 - 1400								0
1400 - 1500								0
1500 - 1600								0
1600 - 1700								0
1700 - 1800								0
1800 - 1900								0
1900 - 2000								0
2000 - 2100								0
2100 - 2200								0
Total	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Here, number of passengers travelled through bus service on route no 23 were pointed out during every hour.

The below questionnaire is used to gather information about the perception of people about the bus service on route no 23:

Name:

Occupation:

Mode of transport used while travelling:

Are you feeling comfortable while using bus service on route no 23?

Yes

No

Do you think the bus service on route no 23 is important for travellers who used this particular route?

Strongly agree;

Agree;

Indifferent;

Disagree;

Strongly disagree;

Do you think having personal car significantly influence the number of passengers of route no 23?

Strongly agree;

Agree;

Indifferent;

Disagree;

Strongly disagree;

Overall you satisfied with the service provided by route 23 bus services?

Strongly agree;

Agree;

Indifferent;

Disagree;

Strongly disagree;

Part B:

The below mentioned table provide the total number of passengers during each time slot as well each total passengers travelled each day through using route no 24.

Time	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total passengers in each time slot
0700 - 0800	8	10	9	8	10	6	0	51
0800 - 0900	11	10	8	8	7	8	1	53
0900 - 1000	12	12	7	9	8	5	2	55
1000 - 1100	7	8	8	9	1	2	8	43
1100 - 1200	6	5	4	7	1	4	8	35
1200 - 1300	6	3	2	4	3	4	10	32
1300 - 1400	5	2	2	2	3	5	8	27
1400 - 1500	2	6	4	3	3	4	10	32
1500 - 1600	6	2	6	3	4	5	8	34
1600 - 1700	8	3	7	4	4	4	5	35
1700 - 1800	6	4	8	7	8	5	4	42
1800 - 1900	6	5	8	6	6	9	4	44
1900 - 2000	2	2	6	6	7	8	1	32
2000 - 2100	2	2	2	1	10	10	0	27
2100 - 2200	1	2	0	0	10	9	0	22
Total daily passenger	88	76	81	77	85	88	69	564

Referred to the table mentioned below, it can be said that the average number of passengers during each time slot is 38.

Time	Total number of passenger during each time slot
0700 - 0800	51
0800 - 0900	53
0900 - 1000	55
1000 - 1100	43
1100 - 1200	35
1200 - 1300	32
1300 - 1400	27
1400 - 1500	32
1500 - 1600	34
1600 - 1700	35
1700 - 1800	42
1800 - 1900	44
1900 - 2000	32
2000 - 2100	27
2100 - 2200	22
Average	38

Referred to the table mentioned below, it can be said that the average number of daily passenger is 81.

Day	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
Total daily passenger	88	76	81	77	85	88	69
Average daily passenger	81

The above calculation shows that during each hour on an average 38 people travelled through this route. On the other hand, it is also noted that during a week on an average 81 people travelled through this route. Further, the study also shows that the passengers mostly use this bus service during morning hours that is from 7 AM to 10 AM. So, it can be said that frequency of the buses should be increased during this time and needs to extend the frequency during odd time (Lowe, 1969).

[a] Variance using the total passenger for each time slot:

Time	Total	(X-Mean)^2
0700 - 0800	51	179.56
0800 - 0900	53	237.16
0900 - 1000	55	302.76
1000 - 1100	43	29.16
1100 - 1200	35	6.76
1200 - 1300	32	31.36
1300 - 1400	27	112.36
1400 - 1500	32	31.36
1500 - 1600	34	12.96
1600 - 1700	35	6.76
1700 - 1800	42	19.36
1800 - 1900	44	40.96
1900 - 2000	32	31.36
2000 - 2100	27	112.36
2100 - 2200	22	243.36
Variance		93.17333333
Standard Deviation		9.652633492

[b] Variance using the total daily passengers:

Time	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
Total	88	76	81	77	85	88	69
(X-Mean)^2	55.18367	20.89795918	0.183673	12.7551	19.61224	55.18367	133.898
Variance	42.53061224
Standard deviation	6.52155

The variance and standard deviation measures the deviation from the mean result. Here, from the variance and standard deviation result, it is noted that the variance and standard deviation for total passengers based on each time slot is greater than variance and standard deviation of daily total passengers. So, number of passengers during each time slot changes more frequently than changes in daily passengers.

It is noted that a percentile provides information regarding how well the data are spread over the specified interval. Using particular values of percentile, generally it can be predict how much data remain above this level and how much data remain below this range.

Quartiles are specific percentiles. There are mainly three percentiles are used in business decision making, such as first percentile, second percentile or median and third percentile. Taken for example, the median or the second percentile indicates that 50 percent of the data remain above this point and 50 percent of the data remain below this point. Correlation coefficient shows the association between variables. These help researchers to decide what the variables that influence the predicted variables are.

Part C:

[a] Bar Chart:

[b] Histogram:

From the above graphical presentation of data, it can be said that this particular bus service evidenced more than 70 passengers during each day in a week. In particular, during Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, the bus service evidenced more than 80 passengers. However, the histogram shows that among those days, during the morning time, the frequency of use this bus service is greater than other time slots. 

The above trend line shows a linear trend throughout the week. It shows that the use of bus service slightly reduced during the weekends. So, there is an indication that working professionals are utilized this bus services during morning times (Kimmel et al., 2008).

	Number of car in each household	No of daily bus journey
Number of car in each household	1
No of daily bus journey	-0.93434	1

(Kimmel, Weygandt and Kieso, 2007)

From the above table it is noted that there is a strong negative correlation between number of car in each household and no of daily bus journey. So, it can be said that no prediction can be done about the daily bus journey based on number of cars in each household.

Using excel spreadsheet add in, the correlation coefficient is calculated here. Below are the detailed calculation procedures:

Based on information given by Mr Anderson below are the details about the critical path:

(Lockyer, 1969; Fitzgerald, 2002)

From this critical path, it can be said that activities B, C, D, E and J are said to be critical and hence, any delay on completion of those activities will result delay of project completion period.

Below are the details calculations of two alternatives:

East London clinic
Year	0	1	2	3	4	5
Initial cash inflow	$    2,55,000.00
Cash outflow		$       90,000.00	$       85,000.00	$       90,000.00	$      91,000.00	$  1,10,000.00
Cumulative cash outflow	$  -2,55,000.00	$  -1,65,000.00	$     -80,000.00	$       10,000.00	$  1,01,000.00	$  2,11,000.00
Cost of capital	20%
Discounting factor	1.00	0.833333333	0.694444444	0.578703704	0.482253086	0.401877572
Present value		$       75,000.00	$       59,027.78	$       52,083.33	$      43,885.03	$      44,206.53
Total present value	$    2,74,202.67
Payback period	2.888888889	Years
Net present value	$       19,202.67

Central London clinic
Year	0	1	2	3	4	5
Initial cash inflow	$    5,30,000.00
Cash outflow		$       40,000.00	$       80,000.00	$   1,40,000.00	$  2,50,000.00	$  3,20,000.00
Cumulative cash outflow	$  -5,30,000.00	$  -4,90,000.00	$ -4,10,000.00	$ -2,70,000.00	$    -20,000.00	$  3,00,000.00
Cost of capital	20%
Discounting factor	1.00	0.833333333	0.694444444	0.578703704	0.482253086	0.401877572
Present value		$       33,333.33	$       55,555.56	$       81,018.52	$  1,20,563.27	$  1,28,600.82
Total present value	$    4,19,071.50
Payback period	4.0625	Years
Net present value	$  -1,10,928.50

(Fischer and Sirianni, 1994; Weygandt, Kieso and Kimmel, 2002)

From the above two calculations, it can be said that the payback period as well as NPV of central London clinic is in adverse situation than west London clinic. So, there is no need of transferring the clinic.

Thus, to conclude it can be said that gathering information as well as evaluation using statistical tool will provide enough support in business decision making. So, under such circumstances, it is recommended to Mr. Graeme Craig to gather data using above tools and evaluating them though the same approach used for route 24 to draw desire conclusion.

References:

Fischer, F. and Sirianni, C. (1994). Critical Studies In Organization And Bureaucracy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Fitzgerald, S. (2002). Decision making. Oxford, U.K.: Capstone Pub.

Kimmel, P., Weygandt, J. and Kieso, D. (2007). Financial accounting. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.

Kimmel, P., Weygandt, J., Kieso, D. and Kimmel, P. (2008). Accounting. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Lockyer, K. (1969). An introduction to critical path analysis. London: Pitman.

Lockyer, K. and Lockyer, K. (1984). Critical path analysis and other project network techniques. London: Pitman.

Lowe, C. (1969). Critical path analysis by bar chart. London: Business Books.

Weygandt, J., Kieso, D. and Kimmel, P. (2002). Managerial accounting. New York: Wiley.