Dr. Murrell's Problem: Doing the Right Thing or Doing the Smart Thing

Abstract

This case was written as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate the effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Names and locations have been disguised.

Dr. Phil Murrell, Chairman of the Business Administration Department at Capital State University, was asked by Alice Schmidt, Director of Extended Programs, to offer a management information systems (MIS) course at the Marshall Center, a branch of the university located 45 miles from the main campus. This request presented a challenge for Dr. Murrell for several reasons. He had already committed his full-time faculty in MIS to campus instruction, and there was a severe shortage of part-time MIS instructors. It was also hard to interest regular faculty in the Marshall assignment, even on an overload pay basis, due to the modest amount of compensation and the inconvenience of driving the round trip to the Marshall Center. Although Dr. Murrell was disinclined to schedule the course, he learned that the Vice President for Academic Affairs, and the Dean of the College of Business to whom Dr. Murrell reported, had a strong interest in offering the courses at the Marshall Center. Becoming aware of the politics of the situation, Dr. Murrell sought to find a way to offer the MIS course. Finding no alternative that was very desirable, he pursued the idea of approaching one of the doctoral teaching assistants, Larry Dalton, about teaching the course on an overload basis. After some discussion, Larry agreed to this arrangement and Dr. Murrell believed he had solved the problem. However, he learned that this was not the case as administrative hassles soon developed with several campus offices, including the Human Resource Department, the office of the Vice President of Business and Finance, and the Graduate School. At the end of the case, Dr. Murrell reflected on how he got himself into this situation and how he should work out of it. He further questioned if whether his cooperation was, in fact, a mistake since it resulted in significant job difficulties for him.

The case is intended for use in either undergraduate or graduate courses in organization and management, higher education administration, and organizational theory. The case situation relates to the following topics: organizational structure, bureaucracy, policies and procedures, delegation, authority and responsibility, administrative decision making, and power and politics in organizations.